An iFixit staffer told a Steam Deck user that the company had no plans to stock replacement OEM batteries.
Aside from enabling you to play Baldur’s Gate 3 in the bathroom, one of the big benefits of the Steam Deck is how repairable it is. While the Steam Deck OLED received a glowing 9/10 fixability report from repair specialist iFixit back in 2023, the original LCD model’s 7/10 score was still respectable.
But the latter’s repairability rating could just have taken a fairly significant hit, as it appears that Valve may be sunsetting certain replacement parts. A Reddit post highlighted by Video Cardz includes a screenshot of an email reply a Steam Deck owner received from an iFixit staffer after they enquired about replacing a degrading battery.
In it, a Customer Operations employee said iFixit currently has “no immediate plans” to stock a replacement battery for the LCD Steam Deck, and then apologized for the bad news. The newer OLED model, which has a larger battery than the 2022 LCD Deck, is not mentioned in the response.
“At this time it is looking less likely that we will continue receiving OEM Steam Deck batteries, and we are actively evaluating aftermarket options,” they wrote. “Unfortunately we don’t have a confirmed timeline for when either OEM or aftermarket stock would be available.”
In a follow-up post, a different Reddit user, who seemingly also works for iFixit, clarified that Valve is sunsetting the parts in question, rather than it being an iFixit decision to no longer stock them. While third-party batteries are widely available from retailers such as Amazon, it’s pretty surprising to see Valve seemingly deciding to no longer provide official ones for a device that it only released four years ago. Back in 2022, iFixit CEO told The Verge that battery replacements would be “essential to making the Steam Deck stand the test of time.”
If you’ve been keeping an eye on gaming hardware news over the last year, this news may not come as a total surprise. Valve discontinued the LCD Steam Deck entirely at the end of 2025, and after a period of stock outage, Steam Deck OLED prices skyrocketed in May, with Valve blaming increasing memory and storage costs. The Steam Machine finally arrived the following month, with prices starting at $1,049 for the 512GB variant without a controller.
