Prius Battery Replacement (GenII) Like you've never seen - NEW Cylindrical Cells

@Raytheeagle or @ericbecky may know further. Of course so would @jeff652 from Hybrid Automotive.

 

The only other issue might be capacity differences. Any idea how your pack of cells compares to a good OEM pack?
It might be possible the intelligent discharger & charger are "tuned" to the expected Prius pack capacity.

 

Who really cares if thevprolong works on these battery’s they should last years.
If and when I buy mine I’m selling my prolong lol.

 

Way back in the annals of grid charger history, there were issues with some cylindrical cells that could not handle grid charging.
They tended to vent and become damaged.
This was on cylindrical cells that were poorly made.
The cells were aftermarket cells from Asia and made for Honda hybrids.

 

I would think that, as long as they can handle the overcharging (Thanks for bringing that up, @ericbecky.) and the capacity is the same, which @2k1Toaster has verified, the Prolong should work.

However, it should be several years before the battery would need a grid charge.

 

I would not bother grid charging a pack until far into its life.

 

My thoughts, precisely. Doing so would shorten the battery's life with no gain in vehicle performance.

 

It's not exactly overcharging the battery. Once the charger reaches full capacity it trickle charges it. This does something to break up the NiMH memory effect. With a working battery fan the battery won't overheat.


Pixel XL ?

 

It is overcharging compared to what Toyota specifies to maximize battery life. Hybrid Automotive warns against overuse of the charger too.
I know this is extreme, but you see it can cause issus.

If the timer is left on too long the battery will be overcharged, or rebalanced, on a daily basis. This is hard on the battery and can significantly shorten battery life.

From Prolong® Battery Systems FAQ – Hybrid Automotive

I would also not argue with @2k1Toaster since he is a rechargeable battery expert.

 

Hybrid automotive warns against prolonged daily charging of the hybrid battery. Are we talking about daily charging the pack with an 80W charge rate or a charge every 6 months- 1 year as part of reconditioning the pack?



Pixel XL ?

 

I said it was extreme. Either way, I would follow the advice of @2k1Toaster who works daily with rechargeable batteries. I am confident on his opinion based on his research & testing of rechargeable batteries.

It is ultimately your decision what you choose to do.

 

Also, I'm getting my information on unnecessary grid charging shortening the battery's life from a friend who makes his living selling and repairing hybrids, especially the Prius. The batteries have a certain number of charge/discharge cycles before they degrade. It's not just keeping the cells balanced. And, if you charge them above 80% or so or discharge below 40% or so, that shortens their life. That's why solar power control systems limit the charge and discharge levels of their batteries like the Prius does, and why you need to budget for replacement batteries in a solar power system or a hybrid car.

 

And based on his advice, I assume, you stopped using your Prolong charger on your wife's Prius after installing a much newer battery pack.

 

Yes, I did. He said to at least wait till the 1st anniversary of installation, which would be in May. But so far, it's still running fantastic. She's getting almost 50 mpg without even trying, and most of her trips are only 5-10 miles. I make it a point to drive it every few weeks and it still acts like a brand new battery. In fact, those are usually longer, and I tend to increase the average showing on her display. I'm not messing with it unless I need to. If it ain't broke ...

 

Having a brand new hv battery in our fleet (the wife’s RX450h), I have a good comparison for battery performance .

I only perform hv battery preventative maintenance when it is necessary, and right now I can see our 2010 getting closer to reconditioning time.

Might bump up the Memorial Day reconditioning to Easter as I’ll have the time .

But the finite number and amount of pounding on the pack I’ll keep to the absolute minimum to get more of them in.

 

Beautiful piece of engineering. Do you have any long term data e.g. cell capacity degradation over time, operating temperature and thermal heat rise vs original design? etc.

 

I know I do not have that data, but I have access to Techstream and another 2010 with ~100 k less miles than our 2010 with 175 k miles.

I’ll take some screen shots tomorrow along with a 2014 v and we can see what differences arise.