Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

1-2 volts fits within the limits @jeff652 has on his guidance documents.

And over 168 cells that fluctuation you are seeing on the display is minimal per cell.

 

At 5:45 pm it was fluctuating between 237v and 238v. Would that still be part of the balancing process or is the entire set of cells balancing at the worst cell's level?

I'll call HA on Monday and talk it over with them but I just erred on the side of caution and switched to the discharger.

 

Keep us posted on what they say, but the law of diminishing returns I feel applies.

Good luck on the first discharge cycle.

 

Could be diminishing returns. I don't think it's a big thing right now since it's the initial charge. It looks like I'll be talking to HA well before I get to that last discharge.

 

Sunday 6/23 6:00am 227v

 

Sun 6/23 7:00 pm After 4 hours at 237v, switched to the discharger

 

Mon 6/24 12:30 am (I fell asleep and missed checking it at the intended 11:00 pm) Discharged to 84v and rebounded all the way to 173v.

Hooked up to the charger and went back to bed

Mon 6/24 06:00 am 226v

 

Here we go! I just went for a spin to start with as high of a charge as I could then plugged it in to the charger.

 

I didn't get through on the phone to HA today; I'll try again tomorrow. Rereading the charger product guide, though, it's not out of the realm of possibility that my particular battery is dropping because it IS still balancing. From the guide:

"...The initial balancing can take 4-12 hours after the filling phase is complete. Subsequent balancing sessions will likely be much shorter, perhaps 4-6 hours after filling is complete. During balancing, each individual hybrid battery cell is rising to a true 100% state of charge. As an individual cell reaches its peak voltage it warms slightly, then the voltage drops as it converts the excess charge energy to heat, then the cell cools and again charges to 100%. The process is repeated over and over..."

As much heat as mine has been exposed to over the years, I my well have multiple cells substantially "out of whack" with the others. I'll keep trying to verify with HA what's happening but since the battery drops are about an hour or two apart and within 3 volts I might let this charge go a little longer and see if it drops 4 or 5 instead of stabilizing and going back up.

If it winds up that it damages the weak battery, my "set aside in case of emergency car repair" fund is ready to with a little over $3k in it. At least there would be no worries on the long trip with a new battery.

 

A small voltage oscillation is indeed from cell balancing. 1-2 volts sounds perfectly normal. With that tight of an oscillation range, I don't think it's a heat build up issue - I think that is the normal cell balancing process.

 

Thank you for replying here.

Right now I'm on charge #3 of this session. With that information I'll let it go quite a bit longer on the charger before the deepest discharge. Since I've done long "soaks" in the past (up to 40 hours) and not experienced fluctuations like this maybe the battery is just now getting repaired enough to properly balance.

 

06:00 am 226v
10:15 am 230v
01:30 pm 233v
04:30 pm 236v
05:30 pm 237v
07:00 pm 237v
08:30 pm 238v

 

Roughly how long for the initial charge from 226v?

 

Tue 6/25 6:00 am 241v

Bunce -I started the charge at 12:30 am yesterday when the battery had rebounded to 173v after an 84v discharge. So far, this particular charge is at 30 hours and the 241v reading is the highest this entire conditioning session. Hopefully it doesn't start fluctuating again because I don't like going over 40 hours.

Bear in mind that each charge period and each battery pack is different. The outside air temperature will have an effect on the length of a charge and the ultimate number reached. Also, my battery has been exposed to an awful lot of heat over the years. That's another reason my numbers vary so much from someone like WilDavis. Over the last two years I've had charges last anywhere from 14 to 40 hours and numbers top out at 239v to 242v. HA has a warning not to exceed 48 hours on a single charge so I don't go over 40 just out of an abundance of caution.

 

Tue 6/25 10:30 am 241v steady for four hours now. I just hooked it up to the discharger for the final discharge. Looks like it will be back on the charger again late this evening sometime and the whole process will be done Thursday. Yay!

 

Date Time Voltage Amperage
6.24.19 12.30 226 0.349
6.24.19 16.20 238 0.349
6.24.19 18.30 238 0.349
6.24.19 20.30 239 0.349
6.24.19 22.30 240 0.349/0.348
6.24.19 Unplugged at 23.00

06.25.19 Plugged in at 06.30
06.25.19 09.30 241 0.349
06.25.19 11.00 240 0.349
06.25.19 Start discharge
06.25.19 11.00 237 1.51

So being new to this I was a bit nervous and unplugged the charger overnight and plugged it back in at 06.30 this morning.

At 0930 my voltage was at 241v then at 11.00 it was at 240v, it has warmed up a tad with the sun hitting the car through a hole in the trees. Could that have caused the voltage to decrease?

Anyway, as I said I'm a tad nervous as we have a big trip coming up next week, I don't want to pound on the battery so switched to the 1st discharge phase.

Thoughts?

 

It is a bit nerve-wracking at first. Looking at your numbers and times, I think the drop in voltage was part of the balancing phase. The product guide calls for switching to the discharger after you see a steady number on the charger for 4-6 hours. That's to make sure you have the weakest cells charged up enough so a weak one won't fail on the discharge cycle. A low cell could drain and reverse polarity if it's not properly fully charged.

My guess is that if you're now doing the 134v discharge you probably won't have a problem but there are no guarantees. You can either switch back to the charger now if you're really nervous or continue with the 134v discharge. Make absolutely sure, though, that on your next charge cycle you let it charge long enough.

When I referred to the temperature affecting charging, it was really more of a reference to the seasons and the area of the country. A few degrees over a day or two isn't going to make much of a difference. The difference between doing it in the winter when it's in the 60s and the summers when it's in the high 80's-low 90s here will.

 

It's discharging now. So I'll let it run its course, and now I'm not so nervous, I'll put it on charge and leave it over night.

 

I notice the discharge voltages on the HA website don't match up with what I have on my discharger, I have 134, 84 and 17.
The website has 134, 101 and 84. I presume this is updated info. since my discharger was produced.

Is there some sort of procedure to get the 101V or just monitor it closely?
Or just do 2 discharges, at 134 and 84v and leave it at that?

 

I have the same, older discharger you do. When I did another member's car a month or so ago I just monitored it to get to 101v. I kept an eye on it early and guessed about the time it would get down to 101v. I didn't miss it by much; I found it at 98v and switched it over then.

This time, since it's my own car, I'm going ahead with 134v, 84v and 17v. I'm still seeing improvement at those levels so I'll take my chances on going low.

EDIT: Discharge to 17v completed. At 5:00 pm I hooked the car up to the charger for the final charge and balance.