Hmm; I’m leaving my Prius V for a few months and wonder how this will affect the battery; ideas?

If you can get someone to start it and warm it up that would be the best. Otherwise I would leave a trickle charger on the 12v battery. Disconnecting is not the best idea.

 

There are smart battery maintaining devices out there for around $50 that will do a good job of keeping the 12V battery healthy. Based on experiences of others on this forum the high voltage battery should retain a healthy level of voltage without outside intervention for a few months.

 

rjparker, though I agree with your first two comments are viable, why do you say "Disconnecting is not the best idea."? Curious.

 

I thought the 12 volt battery is charged from the high voltage battery, so if the high voltage battery is charged the 12 volt should be OK?

 

It only charges the 12V when the car's in Ready mode.

 

OK, but also the 12 volt battery is not used for starting, so if it's down the car should start, no?

 

The 12V battery is used for "booting up". If it's dead nothing will start, even though it doesn't actually crank the engine.

 

I tried the $25-35 Deltran Battery Tender Jr. a few years ago. It killed the AGM battery in my riding lawn mower. It recently killed the battery on my brother's BMW X3.

I've had good luck, however, with the cheap Harbor Freight model, that I got for $4.99 with a widely distributed coupon.

Automatic Battery Charger - 12V

The nice thing is that it NEVER goes above 12.5 volts. It means that it doesn't overcharge. Overcharging boils away the water in a battery.

Cheap, but it works.

 

If you disconnect the battery you lose all tuning and setup parameters plus it's not that easy on a Prius v.

 

Can you leave the car "On" and locked?. AC and heat off, radio off, DRL's off.

The engine would come on to keep the battery charged. Tank of gas should last 6 months?

 

I don't know about 6 months, I thought the ICE starts when temp is under 110ish? If that's the case a tank won't last that long at all. Leaving the car on outside would be a little weird and indoor garage might be a little dangerous?