I bought my first Prius in 2009, a loaded 2004 with only 43k on it. I came here and learned a lot about it. It now has 183k on it and it's in need of the main battery being reconditioned or replaced. Except for going though 3 12v batteries this Prius has been great! I'm either going to recondition the battery or replace it myself. I'm leaning towards getting the Dorman through my local parts store since it's the easiest and quickest solution. How well does just changing bad cells without reconditioning work? We decided to replace our Sienna with another Prius. The choice came down to a local one here in Charlotte, 2011 loaded with only 14k on it for $16k, or one in Virginia near DC, 2013 plug in base model for $14k with 82k on it. We opted for the plug in because the $2k saved makes a difference for us and my wife makes a lot of short trips right at 11 miles or less. The plug in will save us money if I can make it easy for my wife to use the plug in. The car is always outside so I need a weather proof station and it needs to be 240v. Many times a week she'll make several trips a day that can be "scheduled" far enough apart for her to charge the battery for 60-90 minutes. I've been doing a lot of reading and I see that there are several solutions including building your own. I'm looking for the least expensive, but reliable, solution. I know that many of you are experienced and on top of this so I'd appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction. BTW, I'm a licensed electrician so the installation will be free. I'll most likely direct wire it since it'll be outside. One with a 25' cord would work better than a 20' cord if the price difference isn't that much. If it is then I can make a 20' cord work. The second item is that the Prius only came with one remote. I need 2 and a third one would be even better. In my reading on that I've read that you can buy a used one and reprogram it but I've also read that you need to buy a virgin remote. The information given has been confusing so I called the dealer to find out the cost. $199 for the remote, $99 to program and $99 for the key blank. That's ridiculous! Is there a DIY solution that's not that complicated? If I can find one then I'd make 2 more remotes for this Prius and a third one for my 2004 Prius. Thanks for the help!
That's interesting I too was noticing the ~$15K price on the PiPs with a more miles. Same PiP with 25k miles goes for more like $20-21k. Why do you say 240v wouldn't regular 120v be OK?
Multiple trips each day. 240v charges faster so wife will use more electric mode instead of hybrid mode. Since her trips are short, hybrid mode gets lower MPG so there's more incentive to use all electric as much as possible. I can see the car being plugged in 2-3 times a day several times a week.
How many trips in a day and how short/long? I do that on the week end and only an hour or so between trips is enough. I usualy get back with several EV miles left and a full charge is not needed afterwards. I do run the longest short trip first.
It varies with her. She stops by work most days to pick up her work and that's 6 miles each way. Then she has other trips that are either a little shorter or a little longer. The trips are short enough that she would use all electric and sometimes a little ICE but most of them are such that she'll use most of the charge. I think we'll make use of the faster charge.
The BEV experts can chime in, but you know you bought a 82k mile PiP with a 100k miles warranty on the batt. So keep in mind being kind and gentle to the battery.
Take a look at the JuiceBox 40A EVSE. Its more than you need.. but since you're wiring it yourself, maybe wire up a 50A outlet instead? Maybe for your next EV? In any case, the JuiceBox's price is probably the best, especially for a 40A charger. Its $538 listed on Amazon (). However, I will add that out of 4 people that I personally know that bought one, one guy had a problem that took 2 returns before it got resolved. If you dont think you'll ever need a 40A capable charger, then you can find a few other EVSEs around that price range: JuiceBox 30A model with 24' cable ($488 at Amazon) Bosch EL-51253 30A with 18' cord ($560 at Amazon) Blink 30A Home EVSE with $100 public charging credit ($500+ship at Amazon - although I'd skip Blink, personally, their public charging stations seem to always be in bad shape when I see them) Clipper Creek 32A with 25' cable ($600 shipped at Amazon) Clipper Creek 20A with 25' cable ($509 shipped at Amazon) Schnieder Electric 30A ($600 at Amazon) You CAN also get your stock EVSE/charger modified for about $250 to handle 240V also. But I'd rather keep my stock EVSE "bone stock" (since it appears to also be covered under the 10 year/150k warranty?).. and its only a couple more hundred to get into a standalone solution. It sounds lazy, but its nice not having to get your cable out of the trunk each and every time you want to charge. Personally, I have an OpenEVSE that was built by one of the members here. Its been working great for the past 2.5 years I've owned it. The other thing I kind of find appealing with the OpenEVSE way is that all the parts are readily available, its relatively simple in design (I guess EVSEs just arent complicated in general) and there's "help" (online) if you ever need to troubleshoot it.
I'll stick to the 30A or less since the wire is cheaper and I won't need anything larger until I move into my next house. I don't want to modify my 110v cord. I prefer it to stay in the trunk just in case the opportunity to use it arrises at someone's house. I'm also not interested in taking it in and out of the trunk each time I charge the battery. I want this to be as simple as possible for my wife otherwise she'll "forget" to plug it in when she gets home. I'll take a closer look at the OpenEVSE.
That may be an issue of being a rather new (compared for example to aerovironment) company. And I've known several of the other brands who've had bigger issues than 1 out of 4 customers, sadly. That said ... YES!! a 40amp model will get you 10kW !! And there ARE a few plugin's already that can pull that load up no problem. My run off the EVSE is only a couple feet, and when it comes time - I'll kiss that 40amp fuse and line good bye.... always best to prepare for tomorrow if possible.
Sitting at the dealer now getting a new remote for it for $250 plus tax. After looking around that's close enough to what the cost would be for me to find a cheaper alternative. That doesn't include the key.
Any reason this one wouldn't work? I can make 22' work and I don't need future capacity. If this one can supply everything the Prius can take then is there any other reason not to get it?
Count me in, I have JuiceBox for the last 13 months - working fine no issues (but I am using it for PIP with 10 amps maximum, out of 60 the box is rated).
My ideas: Cost of Installing Home Charger | PriusChat You may be able to order the cable with pigtail, and source your own box for outdoor hardwire installation. May be a little cheaper that way. Send a message to the seller on Amazon, or you can just call/email them.
I went ahead and ordered the one I posted a link to a few posts ago. I bought it direct instead of through Amazon since it was slightly cheaper shipping costs. Thank you for your input. It helped me make my decision.
The one you bought seems to be about $5-10 cheaper than the one I got, plus your cord is 4' longer. But mine did come with the option of a 6-20P or 14-50P at no charge. Good luck with it.
Regarding the other Gen2 car HV batt, you are perhaps fairly close to ReInvolt which later became Dorman. If I recall that's Taylor in Sanford (I think you can see location on Dorman site or Re-Involt.com redirects). Before the Dorman buyout he was working on a Lithium replacement. Not sure where that project ended up. Might be worth a call just to see what's up over there.
