12 volt lithium replacement battery by Ohmmu

Interested to find out your long-term follow-up. At $349.00, the cost is almost three times the regular 12v lead-acid replacement battery for the Prime (or Gen4). If it only lasts twice as long as regular lead-acid, as advertised, then it may not be very cost-effective. But with 5 years full-replacement warranty, you may be OK. Or it may last much longer than 2x regular lead-acid.

 

Interesting. Please keep us posted. Those are some pretty impressive claims on the website.

How often and how far are you driving? Zillions of people lately are having 12V failures due to not enough run time to keep the battery charged. The 12V in my 2017 Prime seems to be acting virtually new. But I drive almost every day and usually do about 200-300 miles a week.

 

Yeah, I think the OEM 12v battery by Toyota is around that price, but you can now find aftermarket 12v at around $120. After battery core exchange, the price would be around $100. From my experience, if you are driving at least once a week for a minimum of 1 hour, the 12v battery will stay above 12.0v. Anything less, especially for the older than a few years battery, you have a chance of draining the battery below 12v and have a chance of not starting. The question is, how does the lithium battery pack handle that type of low SoC. I would think it would be better than lead-acid or AGM but I don't know.

 

But there are parasitic drains on the battery while it’s sitting. Add to that short trips which may not fully charge the battery back up and the result is less than nominal voltage on the battery.

 

Would the heat under the hood be a potential problem for a lithium ion battery located there?

 

Prius Prime does not really top up the 12v battery while plugged in. It only trickle-charge to maintain bearly at around 12v. And this only happens while the traction battery is actively being charged. Keeping the charging cable plugged in longer than necessary to charge the traction battery actually drains the 12v battery.

 

That, I don't know for sure. I doubt it, though.

Yup. There's what ran down the 12V. Because of what @road2cycle pointed out.

Yup. That and the fact that the charging system doesn't charge very aggressively. So, short, infrequent drives, will demand a maintenance charge. The Lithium battery might handle it better, but it's also going to gradually run down. That's the nature of cars.

 

Thanks!

 

Rock Auto has an ACDelco LN1AGM battery (lead-acid absorbed glass mat) for about $152 delivered. 50 amp-hour. 560 cold cranking amps. NAPA and O'Reilly have a DEKA Group 140R flooded cell lead-acid battery (conventional battery) for about $150. 445 CCA. It appears that DEKA is the only U.S. maker of this 140R size battery.

More Information for ACDELCO LN1AGM
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NBP75140R?partTypeName=Battery+-+Automotive&impressionRank=1&keywordInput=battery

 

Lithium batteries require a different charging regimen than lead acid. How is that addressed with this battery?

 

My 2015 has the original battery. I have been getting readings at the battery of 11.9-12.3. The charge seems to be staying at about 14.5 when the car is in ready. This September the battery would be 7 years old, all in the Florida heat. The best battery I could find as to CCA/price/warranty was at Batteries Plus. 219 minus 10% for online order then pickup at store. Plus sales tax and they want my old battery. I decided to go with the OHMMU Lithium after reading many reviews. 349. (Current sale price). Free shipping. No tax. I keep my old battery. When it arrives, I will do the install and after a month or so will review it here. 10 pounds less weight. If I sell or trade my car (not likely with 43K on it) I will put the old one back in with a good charge on it. Meanwhile, I can use it for emergency lights and fans with my inverter for power outages if I keep it on my battery maintainer until needed. So, I guess since the net cost difference in my case was about 139, I hope it will be a good investment. I really do like this car, and am not crazy about the style change in the next generation, so we may have it a while. And...the consistent 50+MPG has been a blessing during the pandemic since it means (for us) going to the gas station much less.

 

I've always done batteries plus myself. They usually have a 4 or 5 year warranty.

 

How did the Ohmmu battery work out?