Crank generator or other solution for death 12V

i think you can plug in the portable jump starter to keep it charged can't you?

 

HHi Primus, I carry a 35 amp AGM type battery that I got off Ebay for 40 bucks. Used it in the plane for a while now it's my 12v backup plan, self-rescuing

 

12V solar panel tickle charger.

Bob Wilson

 

Would it be too much to ask you to remember to plug the jump starter into an AC outlet overnight, once every 3 months to keep it charged?

That certainly beats the amount of energy you can produce via a human-powered mechanism. If you are lucky and in excellent condition you might be able to produce 200W of power for a relatively short period of time, and it would not be fun to do that on the side of the road during the summer in 100 degrees F weather or in the winter at sub-freezing temps.

By definition, a horse can produce one horsepower, which is equivalent to 746W of electrical power. So consider how much power you can personally produce compared to a horse, and how long can you do it.

Horsepower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"When considering human-powered equipment, a healthy human can produce about 1.2 hp briefly (see orders of magnitude) and sustain about 0.1 hp indefinitely; trained athletes can manage up to about 2.5 hp briefly[16] and 0.3 hp for a period of several hours."

 

No, I think your logic just jumped the tracks. The amount of use a charger gets doesn't keep it in good shape. It needs periodic plug-in to 110 volt AC, to recharge. As mentioned, just adding to the chorus.

I use one of these, just make a point to plug it into 110 volt, every 6 months or so:

Jump Starters - 1700 Peak Amp Volt JNC660 | Call us at 1-800-328-2921 |Clore Automotive

(One caution with the above: it's very easy to chew up the cables with the clamp handles, when wrapping the cables back onto the charger.)

 

Sometimes the old solution is the best.
Consider getting a set of "motorcycle" jumper cables; they are relatively small and light.

The current required to "boost" a hybrid battery isn't that much.
Use the jumper cables to connect to any other known good 12 V battery and wait a few minutes.
That should give you enough charge to get it going.......once.

My hybrid experience so far with one Prius and one Ford hybrid leads me to believe that an occasional charge with a smart battery maintainer might be a good idea too, especially if the car is driven infrequently.

A decent 2 AMP smart charger can be had for ~$25 and I think every car owner should have one.
Even if you have a conventional car and the battery isn't TOO dead a little charger often will get it up enough to start in 15 minutes or so.

 

I have a jump starter/air compressor I carry in the Prius on all long trips.. Get one of these to maintain the battery in the jump starter and the battery will last a very long time e.g. 6 - 8 years. Hook it up to the jump starter, plug it in and you can forget about it...

Most lead acid batteries die a short life due to neglect... sealed AGMs (used in the jump starters) even more so...

BatteryMINDer Model 1500

 

It depends on what kind of neglect........or abuse.

If you abuse an AGM by deep cycling and fast recharging it, they don't last good.

If, OTOH, you charge them up and just leave it sit, they are MUCH better that a conventional wet cell battery because they don't sulfate and self discharge nearly as bad. Since this is the most common kind of "neglect", an AGM actually handles neglect better.

 

Sealed AGMs can sulphate just like lead acid batteries.. The float voltages are far more critical than in a wet cell in part due to the chemistry of gas recombination in an AGM. If the float volage is too low, sulphation does occur. If the battery is floated too high, positive terminal corrosion occurs and runs the risk of lifting the 2psi pressure relief valves due to gases generated in the battery not being recombined at the rate of production. This is a loss of moisture in the paste electrolyte and obviously destroys the battery in short order.

My second part time career employment (as a retired electrical engineer) was with a company that installed and maintained emergency power systems for major universities and hospitals through the southeastern United States. We used sealed AGM batteries ranging from 7lbs each (many cells in a high voltage design UPS) to multiple parallel arrays of 6400 lb GNB Absolyte AGM systems.

To properly maintain an AGM it is best to use a temperature compensated charging system with the specific curves for AGM batteries. Pulse charging systems like the VDC battery maintainer above do a great job maintaining and extending the life of AGMs.

Manufacturers will not honor warranty claims on the larger systems unless the charging system is exactly set to their temperature/voltage compensation curves.

 

I put a new AGM battery in an old Cessna 150, then flew it TEN YEARS in Maine, winter and summer on that battery. I used no special precautions, did not upgrade my charging system, only had to jump it the few times I forgot and left the master switch on. The extra cost of the AGM was far eclipsed by length of service and reliability, zero maintainence. I jut bought another 35ah agm for around $50. and carry it with me in the Prius as a backup, as I am working 500 miles from home this fall. I can jump my car, a plane, or a coworkers truck with it.
But if I had to do it again, for just the Prius, I would just carry a DeWalt battery and alligator lead jumpers, and pull a lead off the car's dead 12v. battery to take it out of circuit when jumping.
But I think Dandeman's solution is best, because you can be a hero with compressed air...



I'm waiting for somebody to write in telling how they were dead in the woods with their Prius, and used their watch battery to jump the computers.......

 

You will be waiting for a while: it is hard to get 12V and peak ~30A current out of a watch battery.

 

(agreed)

 

How long ago was that experience that you had with "industrial" AGM batteries ??
A couple of things you said just doesn't seem to jive with current automotive AGM spec's.
For one, the electrolyte is not "paste".
For another, I'm pretty sure that the pressure relief "valve" is set higher than 2 PSI.
And lastly, yes they can sulphate but won't do it nearly as easily or nearly as bad unless they are REALLY abused........and since the resulting conductive compound won't fall to the bottom and accumulate, it is less likely to cause a problem by shorting out a cell.

In my previous job I worked with battery cells that stood about 4 feet high and weighed about 1000 pounds each; not a battery mind you but a single cell. I don't talk about them much because the dynamics really don't apply to batteries in common usage.

 

For the first part, yes absolutely.
The specific type of spare battery really makes no difference......as long as it has enough capacity and is not too difficult or dangerous to carry around.

Not sure I understand the second question though.
If you have the time, leaving the spare connected for a while will bring the onboard battery back up some but most people would just jump it and let the car charge it back up. I would prefer to hook it up to a small charger/tender soon after to be sure it's up to 100% though.

 

I think you're being a little paranoid. I would go with a small solar panel or motorcycle jumper cables as previously suggested and call it a day. The Prius' 12v battery isn't really any more susceptible to dying than any other car's battery.

 

I have to agree with vskid3 - I've been following this thread wondering what problem these solutions are in search of. Every other vehicle I've owned, I've had to jump at one time or another and never thought that was so terrible, but this car I haven't had to (six years, looks for wood to knock).

I almost had to once. I came back to it after a long stretch with the cabin lights (stupidly) left on, didn't notice the dim lights when I got in, but did notice that turning the key to start only dimmed all the dash lights out. "Crud," I thought, and turned the key back to off, turned off all the electrical loads I easily could, waited 30 seconds, then started the car and drove home. A drained lead-acid battery usually has a bit of voltage bounce once you've stopped loading it down, and it takes so little juice to boot the Prius and pull in the main relay that the little bounce was all it needed.

I did replace that battery a couple years later, but only because it seemed prudent (it was seven or eight years old), not because of any trouble starting, even after that one time draining it, which had been all my fault.

-Chap