What LV Battery (12V) to get for good price in Canada?

I've been quite happy with my replacement Yellow Top.........

 

12.82 volts (at the jumpstart point)

(the weather on my phone says it's 9C, fwiw)

 

You are good to go, then.

 

Interesting: back up to 13.1 volt, right after a "spirited out and about" drive.

 

Did exactly the same thing Mendel over a year ago, cheaper then as you noted, and used the same tester and charger to maintain ever since. Great battery and great value.

Roland

 

So when you buy a new 12v battery do you need to charge it? I'm in Canada and think I'll need a new 12v soon, but don't have a means to charge.

 

maybe. buy it from a place that can check it and put a charge on if need be. if that's too expensive, you can get a good charger for 60 bucks.

 

A smart charger is the gift that keeps on giving too. Sooner or later you leave a door ajar, or headlights on.

And yeah, without fail with a new battery, I hook it up, let it run 'till it's green lights.

 

The only place I can find the optima battery around Oakville, Ontario, is the link you provided for Saskbattery....which really isn't that close! (What, 3000 km?).

I did check the dealer last year, but will have to check again and see how the price compares.

 

They ship for free tho, and being Ontario you only get dinged GST, not PST. My experience with them and the Optima has worked out well. OTOH, I purchased a replacement jump pack battery through them for my Clore JNC660, and that hasn't gone so well; I would not use them for anything but tried-and-true automotive batteries, in future.

 

if it's 60 bucks cheaper than the dealer, you get a free charger!

 

Right now for me, the OEM Yuasa through dealer:

$273, plus 12% GST and PST

Optima Yellow Top through SaskBattery, with free shipping:

$229, plus 5% GST

 

I called a dealer in Toronto, for an OEM battery for my VIN they quoted 212$. There was also another battery they had, not recommended for my VIN, that was 320$. SO are there 2 OEM batteries? Is one better than the other? What should I ask them about the 212$ battery?

 

i'm not sure about '08, but some gen II's have sks and non sks, the latter being a smaller battery.

 

When I received my Optima, it did not require a charge based upon the simple voltage test when I opened the box. It was ordered during the weather period called the polar vortex at that time of year and when I spoke over the phone asking about stock freshness etc. the Saskbattery rep said it might be a good idea to charge since it was consistently below -40 and shipping was in unheated vans of course.

It was fine, despite the extra cold weather, and I did run it through a charge with my c-tek before putting it into the car. It really did not need much of a charge at that time, just that during that period in my life I was not driving the car that much as I had to undergo 3 major operations with a lot of down time.

The Prius needs to be driven enough to look after the battery. If your car does not sit around for weeks at a time, then no worries taking an Optima from Saskbattery out of the box and installing.

The Opitima battery seems to have a very high cold crank capacity, much higher than the Yuasa in my experience, so it will have more than enough 'kick' to close that contactor and get the juices flowing from the big hybrid battery pack and you are on your way.


Roland

 

Thanks for the reply. My car is driven quite a bit since I got it used a year ago....and I think the 12v is the original...08, with 130 000 km....so the oem seems to be good enough for my use. It also currently doesn't show any signs of being weak, but I gather that is not uncommon for a prius 12v before it goes bad.

 

'08 is getting there, but if it's never been drained, you're probably fine. my daughters '08 died at the airport last winter, so i recommended she change it. but it's been fine since then.

 

Now the oakville price is up to 340$....going with the optima....now its 239.

 

Hi. Old thread. What's a good trickle charger? I'd like to use it for the orris and a crv.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

"orris" equals Prius, runaway spellcheck??

Not sure what constitutes as trickle charger, but I'm using a couple of CTEK and they're working fine, an older 3300 and more recent 4.3.