Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

I ignore the sun load sensor since I do not haul around the sun anyway

 

Has nothing to do with the battery, but maybe he means this:

AC Solar Sensor by Fred_H posted May 8, 2021 at 6:58 PM

 

Hello Prolong family. My first post ever on the chat, so hope i'm doing it right. I purchased the deluxe kit, installed the harness, and gave it an initial full charge and balancing. Start at 225v. finished 239 over 16 hours. Drove it around, and to my suprise, the battery seemed to have more pep and required less of the engine power to get up to speeds. Suprised, because most videos and comments show little improvement, from just charging it to 100%. When i finally had time off, i restarted the process, and heres the results:

1st Charge/blancing

 

1st comment got cut off, wont let me delete. Anyway:

Hello Prolong family. My first post ever on priuschat, so hope i'm doing it right. I purchased the deluxe kit, installed the harness, and gave it an initial full charge and balancing. Start at 225v. finished 239v over 16 hours. Drove it around, and to my suprise, the battery seemed to have more pep and required less of the engine power to get up to speed. Suprised, because most videos and comments show little improvement, from just charging it to 100%. When i finally had time off, i restarted and did the whole process. Heres the results:

1st Charge/blancing
223v - 237, 20 hr
1st Discharge 5.5hr bounced up to 186
2st Charge/blancing
186v - 236, 24 hr (went longer because voltage seemed low)
2st Discharge 5.75hr bounced up to 178
Final charge took 24 hours again and only got to 235v?

NOTE:
Couldnt do 84v dcharge due to time constraints, but also read here it may not be necessary unless battery is really bad off. Mine had no codes, no bad cells, but definitely noticed weak ones when viewing DrPrius. Noticed some small acid around a couple block terminals when putting battery cover on...? Didnt notice before, but may be a clue.

Conclusion: probably 6 hours 100 total miles on the road since reconditioning, and notice no difference from before I did the first charge. Doesnt seem to hold charge much better. if at all. Doesnt have as good acceleration as the inition charge/balance to 239v and test drive. No codes. Any thoughts? How criritcal is minor visible acid? why would it happen after the reconditioning?

 

How old is your Prolong kit? I remember the original designed dischargers were a bit aggressive in discharging, finished in about the time frame you listed.

Strange you didn't notice any improvements after 2 discharges. Are you sure there's not a bunch of corrosion on your battery bus bars?

If this were my car, I would do the cycle again.

1. Charge 30 hours
2. Do discharge all the way down to 84v
3. Final charge and balance should be 30+ hours

 

I wish I wouldn’t spend my money on the “deluxe kit” now and out of $700 of the prolong deluxe kit plus couple modules when out few months after starting the recording $$$$ another $100 dollars, just to end up doing the real fix for another $1600 for a brand new hybrid battery kit from newpriusbatteries, that is the only real fix everything else it’s a bandaid fix, so
700
100
1600
———
$2400

That is how much I spend for not doing right the first time.

 

What you bought was for battery reconditioning. If you start replacing modules....then it's another thing all together, as you would need some real knowledge in determining the bad modules to replace and also in putting in good modules vs bad modules again.

 

+1.

We used the Prolong equipment successfully to rebuild batteries.

Knowledge is power and the Prolong equipment works very well for pack management and bulk reconditioning .

 

I didn’t replace any modules initially so though the deluxe kit was going to avoid from happening for another 2 or 3 years, my initial problem was morning recalibration.

 

I don't advise people buying that kit either, it's $700 and it doesn't always fix your problem. But it's a very useful kit if you're a DIY guy that wants to tackle a failed module with a fleet of cars. Takes a week to do but then you're back on the road again at minimal costs.

The so called "reconditioning" can only do so much if the modules are bad, it'll bring it to a "less" bad status. But reconditioning a good module will bring great results. I've only found this out after doing about the 10th battery reconditioning. So basically practice is what's needed

 

I agree it’s the best investment for doing in home reconditioning but doing a reconditioning on a 14 years old battery it’s never the same as doing it on a 10 years old that’s failed premature, am satisfied my battery last 14 years of service.

 

Depending on your knowledge and desire, the full pack reconditioning can make all the difference in the world .

If you have access to modules that are of the same age, the pack can keep on rolling .

But access to those can be challenging.

Having members here that do have them though can help make it a reality .

 

I agree again but the life of the modules are not infinite and in my case a 14 years old battery it wasn’t a good fit for reconditioning, if someone give me the money i paid for the prolong deluxe kit I give all my old modules with the kit 28 modules 3 of them are bad all others are in working condition but I don’t know the capacity, I don’t have nothing to check capability on my hand.

 

Thanks JC9. All good advice. I probably need to inspect it more thoroughly for corrosion. Is there a good link in the chat forums how to? not getting good results. do I need to wear special high voltage gloves when checking the bus bars?

Also, Can I start the discharge any moment when i have time, or do I have to do another full charge before? Wouldnt think so, but dont want to mess this up.

 

Morning recalibration? If i can get the battery to go 250k miles ill be happy, lol. My current mileage is 121k for 2011 prius 4, that I picked up in may at 97k miles in great shape. Im getting 52 "actual" mpg with very tactical driving 40/60 city/highway. Not bad at all, but it doesn't have the pep I remember. Its possible replacing the slightly past due spark plugs could give me that. However, when I did an initial charge/balance and test drive, i felt that pep come back so am confused why the rest of the reconditioning took that away. Is there a way to let the computer recalibrate its "battery capacity" after reconditioning and reconnecting the 12v battery? I read to start the car and let it sit for 10 min, so the system could figure out the new battery charge/capacity. Definitely didn't happen tho.

 

I have a few friends with prius's, and plan to have prius's in the future so I was willing to take the risk. I have another question. My battery temps are consistantly above 105 with ac on at half and being 85f outside. I believe its still within spec, but could corrosion be the cause of temps increase if the the HV fan is clean?

 

There are lots of videos on youtube on replacing modules on the Prius battery, it would be the same method as those videos. You remove the bus bars and clean off all the corrosion and replace them back.

As for the discharge, you should do it after a full charge. The idea is to have all your cells at the same level before you do the discharge. Also discharging a battery to really low levels may not always help the module, I've had experiences where it actually didn't help and possibly made a weak module fail completely.

 

WELLL... some good news. After the first day: Ive been using the battery more for maintaining lower speeds (just to test it), and Prolong certainly increased capacity. I can probably maintain speeds 2-3x more, before the charge phase kicks in. Although Im still not noticing the increase in power i did with the first charge, Improvements were made! More than likely just need the sparks done, then EGR check. I redid the battery health test, and got to 85% vs 45-65% the last time. Still debating whether I should risk the final 84v discharge, but will worry about that after determining corrosion problems. Thanks a ton Everyone for the input. Can be stressful with $thousands$ on the line. May have more Q's later. Live long and prosper

 

I wouldn't worry too much I usually find that it takes the battery ECU 2 - 3 weeks to finally wake up to the fact that the battery has more capacity. I also found the first recondition woke up the battery the most.

Don't keep pounding the thing, more is less in this case. Leave it for a year then come back to it if you feel it needs it and consider leaving it another 6 months if you don't feel it needs it.

 

I'm selling my Hybrid Automotive Prolong Charger and Discharger.
works with:
- 2004-2015 Toyota Prius (non plug-in)
- 2012-2017 Toyota Prius V
- 2011-2017 Lexus CT200h.

Car Harness works with:
- 2010-2015 Toyota Prius
- 2012-2017 Toyota Prius V.

Purchased in October 2020 but never used, everything is new.

The harness is still sealed in its packaging, proof that it has never been used.

I noticed, when I received the package, a small crack on the voltmeter probably due to the delivery, but I re-glued it and everything works fine. ( see photos).

I am reselling it because I already have the "Prolong Deluxe Package". (See photo attached).

Local pick up to Bloomfield NJ.

Shipping also available.

Asking 385$ only.

PM me

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.