First Enginer PHEV Installation in Portland Or Area

Hi mrbigh,
Yes I agree with much if what you say. I disagree that Enginer is DIY type of equipment.

I think that is one of the big problems. The Equipment is not DIY but the way it is being handled is generally DIY. SO that is a major cause of many problems.

I have talked with many installers. Several of these I would not consider if I were a customer. Many others are very competent.

I think the customer needs to do some research and check references just as you would do if you were having a remodel done on your home.

I would look at the installers tools, and at the level of spare parts that they inventory, and most important talk with some of their past customers. Just normal research.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
It was warmer today. About 60degF. So I was getting 99.9mpg for most of my trip. The 4kwhr system did go dry just before I wanted it to so I ended up at 88mpg. I always loose just a little on the last hill so 88mpg is not bad, but I could have gotten close to 95mpg if I had just 1/2kwhr more.

Thanks,
Dan

 

My normal drive is a mix with a top speed of 55mph.

I have 1.5 mile of flat at the begining. The ICE does its warm up and then is off for this distance. Then down a steep hill. I am at 8 bars at the bottom of the hill. Then 55mph for 5 miles or so. Then in town driving. At the end I reverse this process going home. A normal drive is 30-35 miles total always ending where I began. Always including at least one warmup. Always starting with 7-8 bars and normally ending with 3-5 bars. About 1/2 the trips fully use the Enginer 4kwhr cappacity.

Thanks,
Dan

 

To be honest, I do not think anyone knows. I have seen comments other places on Priuschat about this and you get many comments that do not make sense and a lot of others that conflect with each other.

The LiFePO4 batteries in my system are rated at 40ah. There are 2 in parallel in the 4kwhr system that I have. I charge it up full getting 3.6v during charge and settling to 3.34v at rest over night. Then it drops down to 2.7v under load and rebonds to 3.05v at rest.

When I did a controled test to these voltages I saw 36ah to 41ah pulled out of the cells. So that would be 3.9kwhr during that test.

I have been told that 3.35v at rest is 98%SOC. I also know that Cells can drop to 2.0v under load and be fully recharged.

I would like to see some good engineering studdies on LiFePO4 cells, but it seems like most of what can be found is information published for marketing purposes that may be fudged to get a better result.

Thanks,
Dan

 

By the way, Had a good day yesterday. 78.7mpg over 43 miles.

I have been testing a couple of the new balancers. I had a BSM16C with a trickle charger added. Then I tried the BMS16C+ then the BMS16D and now back to the BMS16C+. Each has its own personality but all of them can be made to work well.

The BMS16D tends to balance at the bottom and be randomly off at the top, but the bottom is where it counts. The BMS16Cs balance at the top and the plus version does not seem to need the added trickle charger to keep the power into the balancer from pulling 1-4 low. However the plus is a little slower to balance.

After doing some manual balancing on the plus, yesterday it showed good balance at the top and at the bottom. This is good news because it means that the cell capacities and resistances are still about equal on all cells.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
I did two drives yesterday with a charge in between. Each drive was 26.4 miles long. The first got 96.7mpg and the second got 99.0mpg. The second did better because the car started a little warmer.

I have now run the BMS16C+ balancer long enough to have the battery pack balanced at the top again. Yesterday I did not drain the packs fully but the 2 previous drives did drain the pack and I was pleased to find that the system stayed balanced pretty well to the bottom. That is the total of 16 cells triggered the 45.5v shutdown before any cell dropped to 2.7v. This means that all my cells still have about the same capacity.

In the winter you always lose some capacity and I had seen that. I was worried about the cells degrading with time or usage. The suppliers all say 2000-3000 cycles but I do not see any real life data on that because LiFePO4 cells generally have less that 2 years in common usage in heavy duty applications like EV or PHEV.

So if my cells are degrading, at least they are all doing it at the same rate. I am hoping that this is just seasonal and that they will gain capacity back when it warms up some in the spring.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello Everyone,
I got a EBH a few days ago. I installed it in about 2 hours. I hoped to do it from the bottom. I could get at it, but it will not go in unless you losen a wire harness bracket. So you do need to follow the instructions on Prius chat. It is a process of removing many parts around the wipers to get at one bolt to loosen that bracket.

It seems to work very well. After being on for about 30 minutes I can get the 10mph EV at start up. Also is cuts the first engine run to about 1/2 mile. Then I get heat enough to warm the cabin in about 1/4 of the time it took before.

Today I was able to get 99.9mpg for the first 15 miles and over 90mpg for the full trip of 20miles. This is the best I've done for a while.

It does require some relearning of how to optimize the driving. The Gen3 Pruis does act differently at different temperatures.

In general the car and Enginer System are still working well.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hello abasile,
My car is stored in a garage so it does not get too cold at night but still cold enough to see a differance. My wife is always complaining about the heater taking to long to warm up so that is what prompted me to buy the EBH rather than really cold weather.

So the important thing for you to understand is that the EBH will change your car temperature relative to the ambeint temperature. I see about 40degF change in 30 minutes. So at 30-40degF on you driveway you can expect it to go up to 70-80degF in 30 minutes. Then you will get more but slower temperature increase over longer times.

Note that I have sugnificant grill blocking and I have also done a little insulation under the hood.

You need to first get a ScanGauge so that you can measure what is happening.
Then do grill blocking to get your car to come up to and hold temperature.
Then buy and install an EBH.

At your temperatures I am sure you will see improvements from the EBH.

Thanks,
Dan

 

I got a 2kwhr system from someone else and I am balancing it for them. So to exercise it, I put it into my Gen3 Prius and tied the battery packs together in parallel. This gives a 6kwhr system. I did not use the extra converter but did use both balancers and CellLogs with alarms to keep both systems safe.

So I got 97.7mpg for 44.2miles. I thought that was pretty good. I did not get a red light or any low cell alarms. In checking the data I did get the total voltage below 46v two times for about 10 seconds each. That means I had pretty much used all the capacity.

Then I charged with 2 chargers to 56.5v and then one charger after that. Both packs charged and balanced very well. They balanced better tied together than either of them would by itself. I think this is because I am getting a lower current per cell on the final trickle that tops up the charge.

Thanks,
Dan

 

I have gotten another 1150 miles at 80+mpg since my last post. During that time I had the converter stick on one time. This caused me to remove the system from under the deck and run it from on top od the back deck. Everything worked fine, but my wife finally got me to take it out and get her black deck clear.

The system is still running in my other car.

Thanks,
Dan

 

So, It is now July and this system is still running well today I did 93mpg for 36 miles.

I had run with 2 systems in parallel in my Gen2 for a while then I upgraded my converter to a 5k and reinstalled this system below the deck in my Gen3. I have found that the 4kwhr of MottCells strain to supply the power for the new converter, so I have patched in another 2kwhr of cells and the system works really well with 6kwhr of batteries.

I have done about 700miles total at 100mpg since reinstalling the system.

Enginer system are not plug and play, but this car demonstrates that they can do very well if you understand them and know how to take care of them.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hi Ed,
If you want a Plug and play system then you need to go to a good established installer like PacificEV or 3ProngPower. (I am not affiliated with either of these)

You need to expect to have the Enginer system in for a warranty repair about 3 times during the first year.

When the system has a small issue it will degrade over time if it is not corrected quickly. Then eventually it will fail completely. It will not damage the Prius but it will turn a problem that is trivial into a problem that requires replacement of a portion of the battery pack.

Thanks,
Dan

 

I am still doing well on the Enginer system in my 2010 Prius. I have run all month at 99.9mpg on the Prius display. I go up to 45 miles on a trip. I estimate that I have driving another 600 miles during the month of July.

If I were buying a system for my Gen 2 today I would consider other options. But the Enginer system is still the only game in town for the Gen 3. If you are willing to give the PHEV system a little attention Enginer can be made to be a viable PHEV system.

Thanks,
Dan