Jump You: Jumping a Non-Prius with a Portable Starter

Don't have an answer for you but it is odd that a car with a 200+ volt battery can't be used for an occasional jump & has no standard A/C outlet, how do ordinary 12v cars manage it, next version Prius

 

I don't know if they are available, but you can plug a "portable emergency starter" that runs on 12V for charging. You plug it into the cigarette lighter or accy. socket. It would have a series diode so it only accepts current from the car, it wouldn't supply power to the car.

If you do want to carry such a device (even one that you have to plug into your house 115V to charge), be sure to securely fasten it down. You don't want that thing flying around the cabin if you get into an accident!

As for your dilemma, just say it's a hybrid car without 12V. If they ask how it runs the radio or lights, just say electronics.

 

a priori,

Back in Jan 2008, I decided I needed to have a way to power up the ICE CPU
without leaving the car in the event of the 12 V battery getting depleted.

The arrangement I came up with would also work for your purposes. This
unit can be charged from a power plug:

Amazon.com: Black & Decker BB7B Simple Start 12-Volt Battery Booster: Automotive

This unit will "boost" a battery (slow charge to a partially depleted battery)
through the receiving car's power plug as opposed to the classic "jump start"
(quick start for a fully depleted battery), battery to battery via jumper cables.

The B&D booster can be charged with either 120 V AC or 12 VDC.
For your purposes, converting the power plug under the pax-side dash would
be optional. (As original, this plug is hot only when the car is in "ready." For
my purposes it needs to be hot when the 12V battery is low and ergo you
can't get to ready when the HV battery would provide 12 V power through
the onboardDC to DC converter. To do it here's an easy way:

Power Outlet Mod

FWIW, here's the thread detailing what I did:

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-technical-discussion/42651-dead-12v-battery-glove-box-remedy.html

For the executive summary, read only the first and #60 posts. If you read
only the first and post #60, I come off looking pretty smart. If you wade
through all the posts you'll all too quickly see that I was in way over my head.
I got major help from the good folks here at PrusChat. To them, still and always,
merci buckets.

EDIT: As per David Beale's comments, the B&D unit fits in the lower glove box.
Sweet! But then, it darn near fills it up too.

 

Toyota very deliberately kept the 12V and 201V systems as separate as possible for safety reasons. Recall all the FUD in the first year or two about how deadly dangerous hybrids were for rescue personnel. I would not expect Toyota to soon provide any kind of power tap sourced from the high voltage system, if ever.

 

How often do people ask you for jump starts? In 11 years of driving I've been asked to provide a jump start 1 time.

 

I have carried a combination jump starter/air compressor in my car since day one.

I have jumped several cars and even used the compressor to air up a tire in a parking lot for a lady who was standing there with a pained look, it got her to a service station where they put the spare on.

I plug it in to recharge once a month.

It fits nicely in the compartment above the spare.

 

Hi a priori,

As I mentioned in that other jumpstart thread, it's not as if you have to charge up the portable battery jumper every day. Once a month is plenty. In fact, I think in most instances you can probably get away with recharging it every 2 or 3 months.

I left my portable battery jumper in the car for the entirety of the past New York City winter. And when I took it out on the first day of spring, there was still enough juice left in it to jumpstart a car.

 

Well, you got me there. I don't know.
My not-even-close-to-being-an-expert thoughts:

Firstly, a comment about "one of the other B&D 'chargers' " may not in fact
apply to this 'booster.' B&D makes both traditional chargers and this "smart"
booster. "Smart" in the sense that it has control circuitry that determines even
whether it will activate once plugged in and turned on. If it doesn't "see" a
discharged battery in the circuit, it does nothing.

Then, when I charge my boster it doesn't see more than 30 min. charging
at a time due the length of my commute. I charge roughly monthly, and it
takes two or three commutes to top it up.

This system is not fully fool-proof -- read Rokeby-proof. Since my under-
dash power plug is now hot even when the car is turned off, if I leave it
charging and go to work, it will discharge the 12V battery -- a bitter irony!
To be absolutely sure I don't thusly self-induce 12V battery failure, I place
the booster on the pax seat and charge it with the center console plug.

The OEM under-dash plug is not hot when the car is shut down. So you could
leave it in the glove box when charging. You couldn't discharge the 12 V
battery. But I don't know how the booster would react to being left on with
the 12 V charging circuitry activated. It's smart, I suspect it would just shut
down, no problemo. But I don't know for sure.

Maybe one of the e-smart members has the booster and will chime in.

 

I hear you. I have those desires too. But I'm so lacking in the competence and will departments, that I don't think I could ever do more than just charging up my jumpstarter once a month.

 

The main reason we can't use the Prius to jump other conventional cars is our 12V battery is too puny (not enough juice). It's not the Volt, it's the Amps which matters during jump-starting. Technically, we can't even touch the 201V system because it's seperated/sealed to outside (safety reason for sure). And it's always OFF unless the HSD is in "Ready" mode only.

The cars which we can help jump-starting with our 12V battery is mainly another Prius......or other Hybrids with similar electrical system.

 

I have a 700 amp Canadian Tire jump-start box in my Prius. I've used it 5 times since I've owned my Prius, and even if it had gone up in smoke after each use, it would still have been a lot cheaper than frying the Prius

I take the unit out of the Prius once a month to charge it. I plug in the extension cord, and within half a minute the charge LED goes from red to green, indicating full charge. At least mine appears to hold a charge quite well

 

Yes, my unit provides a 12 vdc outlet, which can also be used to charge the pack from the car 12 vdc outlet. The book warns not to charge very much with the 12 vdc cig adapter, as it can damage the pack

There is a flap on the back of the battery pack that you open, and you will see a standard NEMA 5-15 male poking out, well not the ground pin but the neutral and live blades.

So to charge you plug an extension cord into the wall. The extension cord has to have a single female end, not the usual kind with 3 female on the end. You plug it in and the charge LED next to the plug will glow red for charging, green for fully charged

I suppose in a pinch I'd charge it with the cig adapter. Otherwise, every time I've used it I've just lugged it along to the office and plugged it in there. If you use it to boost a tired cold car, which needs a *lot* of cranking, it will take a couple of hours to charge up

 

After reading about inability to jump-start other cars w/Prius, I too got a portable jumpstarter. The one I got (from Harbor Freight) also has an air compressor. This works great for me, since I check my tire pressure once a month. I've had mine for 8 months now, and have only re-charged it a couple of times. Once I helped my son pick-up a used car with a dead battery, that was also out of gas. We used my jumpstarter twice: once when we picked it up; and a second time after putting gas in it 2 miles later. And I'd used it at least 3 times to add air to my tires on that same charging of the unit. So I don't see a need for continuously charging it.

BTW, it's manual says you can re-charge it using the supplied cigarette lighter plug.

mine is a model 08884, and was only $55 (on sale). I even found a convenient way to stow it. I run a strap thru the child seat tie-down point on the driver's side of the cargo area. It's one of the quick release/adjustable types, similar to what they use for fanny packs. It keeps the unit nearly upright. And the cover just clears it. I can post a few pictures if any one is interested.

Kevin