HELP - 12v battery on backorder

Yeah, I have seen someone devised a starter out of 8 D cell batteries to start Prius. 18650 batteries would be smaller, lighter, and may last longer. But honestly, the 18000 Milliamp Hours 1000A lithium pack unit I purchased was less than $40 when on sale. It comes with a reverse polarity detection circuit, an LCD screen on the cable with a built-in voltmeter, and a nice carrying case to store it and throw it under the car seat. I don't think I would bother with any DIY project to make my own PP starter any time soon.

 

If your truck has a battery that is that so discharged that it won't crank the engine,, it is on its death bed.
And with the way you use the truck a new battery will soon be discharged and aging rapidly also when allowed to sit around discharged. That's when batteries really age.

If you just can't run an extension cord to the truck once every 2-3 weeks for a day of topping up, maybe a small solar battery charger would at least keep the truck batteries from dying prematurely from inactivity.

My 'maintainer' of choice is a BatteryMinder 2A model with the 'Anti-sulfation' function. Pricey, but quality. They make aviation approved models!
I seem to be getting long life on all the lead acid batteries around the ranch by using it on each battery,, at least once a month, for a day or two.

 

It's discharged because it's seldom used. I tested the battery. It's weaker than new, but still tests good. A maintainer would get stolen. I just need to drive it at least once a week.

 

I put the CTEK on the battery and set it to recondition mode and left it overnight. By the morning it reported it was in the "float charge" mode. Right when I disconnected the CTEK the battery measured 13.04V. I ran the headlights on brights for about 45 seconds. While the lights were on the voltage dropped to 12.01V. After I turned off the headlights the voltage recovered to 12.83V over about twenty minutes.

I'll be curious to see how the voltage holds while parked, and what happens to it after being subjected to the car's charging. Will the car drain it back down, or will it keep it topped off now that it's been topped off externally?

 

Even one that sits on the dashboard and plugs into a cigarette lighter?

 

NO. Because it is NOT true.
It may not "fully" recharge it but many cars these days don't.
It also depends on how much it was DIScharged too.

 

Do you have access to an AC outlet? In a driveway, or on the street? The latter's a deal-breaker I think, but barring that:

There are "on board" chargers, mount in the engine bay (or wherever), and an AC cord can be run out, say through the front grill, similar to a block heater cord. Extension cords can still be stolen, but might help to keep it short, and run some electrical tape around it here-and-there, make it look patched.

 

You're right that CCA is largely a moot point with hybrids. But driving (and when the car is in READY mode) will definitely charge the battery. All you need to do is get the car in READY mode and check the voltage at the 12 volt battery. For example, you may see 12.5 volts when it's at rest and, say, 14.1 volts when the car is in READY mode. That's evidence that the 12 volt is being charged. Now if one doesn't drive much or just does a lot of short trips it may not charge enough to keep the battery "full", but it definitely does charge the battery when the car is in READY.

 

See my comment #55.
HELP - 12v battery on backorder | Page 3 | PriusChat
If the battery is new and healthy, then ~1hour of driving is good enough to FULLY CHARG the 12v battery.

 

The Prius doesn't need high Cold Cranking Amps, and batteries with high CCA rating tend to have lower Amp Hours as a consequence, and the AH rating is maybe more important for a Prius. That said, whatever the CCA rating, if a battery's tested and showing a CCA lower than the rating, that's likely a sign the battery's in decline.

You could test that easy enough... Anyway, it isn't.

 

Link to one? I need to verify if the cigarette lighter port is still live when the vehicle is off, else it won't work. Can the solar panel work through the window?

 

From what I read, in general, there's a direct relationship between CCA and Ah. The more of one, generally the more of other. I think the Toyota battery that comes in the Prime is optimized for Ah, and it's weak on CCA, but on the Yuasa website, the battery they had for the Prime had about the same Ah capacity as the Die Hard one I bought. I think only 5 Ah better. Isn't the Toyota battery over $300? Not worth it as I paid about $190 US for my aftermarket battery.

 

I'm outa my depth, but I've heard here the relationship is inverse, ie: as CCA goes up, AH tends to suffer. Higher CCA requires more/thinner plates, and they're not as good for AH. Again, no coffee, and just hearsay.

I just recently did a little "battery window shopping": the stock Yuasa battery for my 2010 (different than 4 the gen, but fwiw) was $340 CDN, cash-and-carry from my nearby dealership on the West Coast of Canada. However: I could order the same battery through SaskBattery in (you guessed it) Saskatchewan, halfway across the continent, and they would ship it to me for free, for $229 CDN.

To add insult to injury, SaskBattery, being out of province, would charge roughly half as much sales tax (approx 6% vs 12%).

 

I just paid $180 for a battery from the parts department at our local Toyota dealer (got the last one and I got the sense that they didn't know when more would arrive). It's listed as 470 CCA and 74 RC. I believe it's RC (reserve capacity) and Ah that are related, but I'm not positive.

 

You are both talking about Gen3 and before AGM battery. For Gen4 including PP, the battery is regular flooded lead-acid. And it is MSRP $180.79 as @ziggy29 pointed out. I can get it, at $99 from my dealer if they have it in stock.

OEM battery that comes with PP is only rated 20HR 45Ah 295CCA. I don't know what RC spec you mentioned.

 

DieHard battery, 480 CCA, 50 Ah View attachment 220208


I think the dealer warranty may be better though. My battery has a 2 year warranty. I bought my replacement battery from the only place I could find, so I didn't have much of a choice. It's a regular flooded (not AGM) battery.

Relationship Between Battery Cold Cranking Amps and Capacity | Math Encounters Blog

 

Yeah, the screenshot I posted showing the Toyota dealer parts of Toyota TrueStart brand battery for PP (Part Number: 00544H4052470) says it is 470CCA as @ziggy29 commented which is far larger than the 295CCA of the OEM Yuasa battery that came with the car.

 

Forum wouldn't allow me to post the second photo

 

im in ottawa, ontario, canada. my 12 volt battery has also died. Does anyone know of a place i can grab one with all these shortages?

 

I managed to get to a load tester today on my old 12V that I replaced over the weekend. At one point even with full charge it was not pulling much over 12.1 volts. Then I used a Noco Genius to "repair" the battery after removing it, then made sure it was fully charged again and rested for 48 hours. I had been seeing about 12.6 volts on my multimeter for almost that whole resting time.

I'm not sure if I did it right, because I can't believe that battery, which I thought was on the way out, still looks this "good":