Anyone Using A Battery Tender On A Prius?

I have a 2004 and although it is used almost daily, I had trouble the first winter. The combination of -40, Max Heat, constant electric defrost, headlights, etc, all managed to put the 12 vdc battery into a discharged state

I managed to pick up some VDC Battery Minders at an auction. I wired directly to the battery in the rear. Four years now, no issues

I've attached a pdf of how it looks hooked up. I have a corrogated plastic wire sleeve covering the harness, which I removed to take the photo

Hope this helps

 

Yes, you can connect the battery tender under the hood. That's how I do it. I just use the clips that came with the battery tender, as I don't use it very often, though it is mounted on the garage wall beside the Prius.

 

Find the relay/fuse box near the inverter. Open the lid by pressing hard on the latch at the leading edge of the box, then lift the lid up. It will detach from the hinges at the back of the box so you can remove the lid.

You will see a red plastic hinged cover in the upper left corner of the relay/fuse box. Open the cover. Now you will see the positive jump-start terminal.

Attach the positive cable from your charger there. Attach the negative cable to unpainted metal on the body. Then you can turn on the charger.

 

The older model Battery Minder put out 1 amp max. The new one puts out 1.33 amp max

 12 Volt-1 Amp  Charger and Maintainer

Since the older model and the new one sense battery voltage/condition, they may be hooked up 24/7. If you have a trickle charger, do *not* use it. You will damage the battery

The Battery Minder - I suspect other conditioner chargers as well - can *not* be used to recharge a dead battery. The instructions clearly state a conventional battery charger must be used to bring the battery up to 12 vdc.

If the battery voltage is lower than 11, the Battery Minder is designed to not turn on at all

 

If your tender is the Harley Davidson SuperSmart Battery Tender, then it appears to be a VDC without the desulfation function. They're safe to be left plugged in 24x7 and will keep the battery at the proper charge

The VDC Battery Minder has the benefit of desulfating the battery as well. This will improve performance and life

 

I've purchased a Sears Diehard Charger/Maintainer that includes a cigarette lighter interface plug (12v accessory plug) in addition to the battery post clamps. Is this a smart way to quickly connect/disconnect this float charger?

This won't cause any sort of damage to the accessory systems, would it?

 

The 12V power outlets are not connected when the car is IG-OFF, so using those outlets to connect your charger won't be helpful.

 

I use mine this way since I couldn't find a good way to mount the receiver plug somewhere at the front of the car (without making holes). I did the mod first that allows the accec. plug to be always on (one wire, 2 clips. don't buy it)
coastaletech.com power_outlet_mod.htm

 

Thanks for all of the info guys. I have a couple Deltran battery tender juniors and was told that it was killing the battery's on my three bikes. The bike batteries are X2 gel batteries and the guy at Batteries Plus said that the Deltran chargers so not charge gel batteries properly.

I bought a Optimate 3+ and was told this is a smart charger. I installed the terminals under the hood and plugged in the charger. Hopefully there won't be any issues.

 

I have a Deltran "Optimate" 3 and a 3+ and use them when we leave our 2 Prii for weeks at a time. Works fine and no issues.

 

Do you know what size is this power outlet wire and green wire in the fuse panel? I plan to make jumper wire by myself by using quick splice connector

 

The DLC/OBDII connector has unswitched power, found this info in 1997 Tbird EVTM when I designed the Info Panel a few years back. There is a company in CA that sells receptacles and pins if you do not want to splice into the wires.

 

Thx, exactly the info I was looking for