In an otherwise repairable device, the cooling fan is hard to reach.

Although the Steam Frame is too expensive and late to the party to bring the masses into VR, it does a lot of things right. That includes its repairability. But iFixit's teardown flagged one component that isn't easy enough to reach: the cooling fan.

The problem? That fan is buried deep inside the headset. To get to it, you have to snake past the optical assemblies, making your way through a dense jungle of thermal hardware, cables and other components. While the fan and heat pipe are separate (a good thing), getting there in the first place is more of a problem.

That's a lot of disassembly for a part that may need cleaning over time. After all, fans accumulate dust, and they eventually wear out. Burying one this deep makes the Steam Frame a harder repair than it otherwise might have been.

Fortunately, repairs elsewhere are a much more encouraging story. The Steam Frame's head strap detaches via quick-release latches, making it easier to work on the rear battery pack without messing with the displays. In a win for hygiene, the sweat-absorbing parts are replaceable, including the nose bridge and face and headrest cushions.

The lenses attach magnetically to the headset's IPD rail, making display and eye tracking repairs relatively straightforward. (Removing them does still require some disassembly, including screws and cables.) Overall, it's a fairly approachable repair by VR standards. No digging out the motherboard required.

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