How do I charge the 12 volt battery?

I have a similar situation with my 09 Touring and if a charge will help me gain a week or two to find the proper battery that's good. If I use a standard 'Battery Tender' to trickle it overnight will that be a better charge than driving the car will give it?

PS; The info on replacement batteries is a can of worms along with the dealer's $460 cost. Anyone have a link to a good replacement? The Optima with 3.5 stars has lots of bad stories from Prius owners claiming poor fit and short life from not being the exact correct type. thanks for any info.

 

If your Battery Tender is a maintenance type charger, chances are that it is a low current type that charges at 13.5 - 13.8 V; if this is the case it could take quite some time to fully charge your battery, i. e. more than one overnight session. It certainly would be better than not doing anything. I couldn't give you an answer to this last question, though, as it depends on too many variables.

There are a few suggestions that include an Exide drop in replacement (Exide Edge FP-AGM51JIS) as well as the dealer supplied OEM Truestart battery. It is reasonably easy to DIY, so to buy direct from an online dealer would get you the best price (if going the OEM from dealer route). I would recommend you get the larger battery for cars equipped with SKS, even if your car does not have SKS. You will need purchase a new battery tray ~$30 as a one-off if you go this (non-SKS) route. Replacing the 12 V battery yourself will save the lion's share of that quoted $460 cost, as the part only cost would be half that if not less.

 

This is what I have in my '06,

Exide fp-agm51jis, Amazon has it for about $170 with free shipping.

It has worked out very nicely, nearly three yrs old.

 

If you were planning a long road trip (say SF to LA), then just do the drive. If not, save the gas and use a battery charger. If this charger is a recent charger, it should have an AGM setting, so it won't overcharge the battery and will go into trickle mode automatically. If its an older charger, do not exceed 3.5Amps for 10 hours; there should be a white label on your original battery with this type of info.

If your touring has the SKS smart key system, stick with a large AmpHour battery

Toyota True Start is 45AmpHr, 7 year warranty (0-24 months 100% Toyota pays, 25-48 months 50% proration, 49-84 month 25% proration)
Optima Yellow Top for Prius is 38AmpHr, 3 year straight warranty (no proration).
Oriley Auto Parts has the Optima and a Super Start AGM battery that supposedly fits the Prius.
Batterymart has the Optima and Marathon AGM battery (46AmpHr, 1yr warranty)
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A lot of the issues with Optima's made for Prius seem to come from the battery not being completely charged before installation. If you did recharge the battery before installation, and problems arise later, then Optima's quality is likely at fault (assuming you didn't leave the lights on in the car, and you drive enough and regularly).

You need to call various Toyota Parts departments for pricing. AAA discount gets you 10% off retail. Some of these dealers might have a 20% off retail parts coupon; Hooman Toyota seems to have a recurring monthly 20% off coupon for the first week of every month, then 15% for the 2nd week, 10% of the 3rd week, 5% off final week in the month. Some dealerships also have an online presence that they don't advertise, but will honor their online parts price or their competitor. Some of these websites are not obvious as to what local dealer it is, but you can figure it out. Nearly all dealerships will honor another dealerships coupon.

I paid $163.31 + tax + $18 core charge, on 7-5-2014, at Carson Toyota. I had to press the parts person to try and match another Toyota dealer online price; they didn't match (would have saved an additional $20), but they dropped their retail price by $35.

Try calling Art's Automotive (Berkeley) and Lusciou's Garage (SF) to see how much they charge and what type of 12V battery they install. I'm sure it will be way less than $460.

For $230, I'll install a new Toyota battery for you and give you the original receipt.

 

I got the OEM Toyota TrueStart (Yuasa) (84-mo.) for SKS from Nalley Toyota in ATL for $150 + $15 core charge. Took me 30 min and no hassle to install and I was taking my time. Local dealer would not match that price however, so I had to drive across town to get it.

 

If you don't want to do the job yourself, avail yourself of Luscious Garage in SF if you can. They are honest and do good work on the Prius.

The dealer quote you got is way out of line, from what I understand. You might try a couple of other nearby dealers and get quotes on the price to just buy the battery and also on the part as well as installation. I would bet you could find it for around $300.

You can buy the OEM Toyota True Start battery on EBay for around $200, I just checked. Installing it is pretty easy, really. If you are not all that mechanical, maybe take an hour. If you are decent with tools 20-30 minutes.

I'd replace it for free (not including battery and yes, I am undercutting Ex-Student's price), but you would have to pay for my plane ride from Seattle and back. LOL!

 

A small automatic charger like that does not really NEED a separate setting for AGM; most don't have and they work just fine.
The ones that do are higher priced and you will be wasting your money.

 

I have said it before, as has ER expressed the above opinion before, I have not found any new charger on the shelf that does not mention AGM/GEL on their specs. Chargers that do have settings for AGM are not necessarily more expensive. People need to buy the charger that they think will do the job at hand for the price they think reasonable.

 

And please finish the story.
Most of those do NOT have a "switch" or other special setting for AGM or GEL, now do they ?

And the specs regarding AGM and GEL says that the charger will work with those types of batteries........right ??
Do any of them caution to NOT use it with AGM ??

What I don't understand is that you think it is somehow necessary to keep bringing it up........when it isn't.
I think you are throwing in an unnecessary complication that most users just really don't need.

 

I haven't seen any that switch automatically, but I'm told by you that it would be easy to do. But I have to wonder, if it is so easy, then why are there not any on the market?

Yes, I have seen chargers that say not to use with AGM/Gel batteries. I think it is safest to not assume that because a particular charger does not caution against using on AGM/Gel that it work fine. I think the more sensible option is to use a charger that specifically says it can be used on AGM/Gel.

You are more than welcome to hold this viewpoint. I hold the opposite viewpoint. I think people should have both points of view so they can research and make up their own minds. I'm not in the habit of telling people what they should think or do. In the presence of complete information, people will usually draw the correct conclusion.

If people want to take the easy path, all they need to do is purchase a reasonably priced automatic smart charger that is capable of charging an AGM battery. I don't see why you need to create uncertainty by saying any old charger will do. Not everyone has the benefit of your knowledge and experience in electronics, so it is of benefit to be able to purchase a product with that knowledge built in to the operational software, so they can just set and forget, but have the confidence the process will be done right. Your assertion that manufacturers of chargers that have AGM/Gel charging cycles are somehow ripping off the consumer is wrong, chargers with AGM/Gel cycle option needn't be any more costly to the prudent buyer, so why not buy one?

I don't see why you need to continually make a mountain out a molehill. Is it really that big of a deal?

 

Too funny. Everyone can buy whatever charger he/she wants to.

In a multi car household (one hybrid, two conventional cars), it made sense for me to upgrade my old "dumb charger," to the new generation of "smart chargers." I value the convenience of setting it and walking away.

I ultimately went with the Schumacher SSC-1500CA ($42.65 at Amazon as of 12-30-2014). 6/12V setting. 3 battery settings: standard (wet/maintenance free), GEL, and AGM. 3/15 amp setting; 15amp setting was the deal winner for me b/c of the two conventional car batteries. An automatic desulfate fuction. Maintain mode, when fully charged, applies a small charge when needed. Only wish the manufacture included a battery pig tail charge connection, that I cold leave attached in the Prius, but I can live w/o that convenience. Manual link.

Other popular chargers I've notice w/ PriusChat users seems to be the Ctek Multi US 3300 ($56 Amazon). Ctek Multi US 4.3 ($71.30 Amazon); the flagship charger.

 

Amen to that first statement.

As for the second sentence, I said no such thing.

What I said is and was: Any NEW (not old) charger made by a name brand company that is automatic and has a capacity of 4 amps or less will be just fine.
ALL the words in that sentence are important. Small charger; name brand; automatic.
A $6 trickle charger from Harbor Freight does not qualify......even though they claim it is automatic.

 

Mary, the OEM battery I bought from a Toyota dealer in 2009 didn't last two whole months. Crap battery & crap customer service from Liberty Toyota means their replacement batteries aren't an option for me.

I bought an Optima yellow top for the 2010 from elearnaid that arrived fully charged & very quickly. Like Steve said, swapping out the battery can take up to an hour if you have the right tools but no experience but is easy enough as the battery isn't very heavy.

If your car is unresponsive as you approach, try starting it three times before getting help.

 

Sort of nice to see this swing back to Mary's question

JimN had a very negative experience with the Toyota OEM. I had to replace mine a couple of years ago and went with the Toyota, because I KNEW it would fit, exactly perfect.

Was the battery, which I bought a my local Toyota dealer for $191 overpriced? Sure. It was. But considering the battery sits inside the car, I did not want to "Mickey Mouse" with it.

It has been fine. I am also sure, as JimN said that there are some Toyota True Starts that fail. Happens with all battery brands. But, where this really falls down is that his dealer did not stand behind the part. I have some doubt that my local dealer would either, but having said that, there ARE good Toyota dealers out there.

Seems to me I heard Stevens Creek in the San Jose area had a good rep. Could be wrong, don't take my word, your mileage may vary, etc.

But, I also think that since I replaced mine, there HAVE been some good aftermarket batteries appearing that available at the many auto parts stores.

 

Since my Prius failed to start, twice in last couple weeks, I went through a similar journey. Thanks for the knowledge in this informative thread, now I reached to a satisfied result (keeping my fingers crossed).

I'll write a post to share my journey.

 

How to check, charge, and where to source the 12v battery | PriusChat

(Now, moderators can help deleting my previous message above.)