Prius Battery Replacement (GenII) Like you've never seen - NEW Cylindrical Cells

That might be true if the cooling characteristics weren't being altered. The cooling system is designed for the prismatic configuration and manages the fan based on the temperature response of the sensors based on KNOWN cooling characteristics.

The cylindrical cell configuration dramatically affects airflow and cooling with nothing advantageous about it based on aerodynamics and heat transfer. Only a fool would ignore that.

The pack really needs to be instrumented to assess its actual temperature response. As I mentioned, there are 112 additional potential hot spots in the pack. FLIR imaging isn't going to tell you much for surfaces it can't effectively image, and the delay between parking and imaging is going to alter the results.

Lastly, you mentioned Phoenix - a great place to test batteries. The Nissan Leaf battery died there. Honda batteries dropped like flies there. Personally, I absolutely would consider a pre and post summer evaluation of a new Prius pack vs. a new cylindrical pack as a valid comparison. Test each of the subpacks before to establish a baseline, run them for a summer and then re-test subpacks and compare the two results.

Driving around for an afternoon in the Rockies and then taking pictures falls well short of anything close to scientific. Nor is it valid evidence upon which claims of superiority can be based. It's just hackery.

 

You've SAID a lot of things. Many of those things are completely unsubstantiated and marketing in nature. Some of them are just absurd with no foundation in reality.

You've made claims of superiority with nothing to back them up.

"trust me" = 2k1Toaster "science"

I assume the bonfire is still raging?

 

Truly, if you really believe this, you need to stop talking now.

Yes, that.

The crux of your contention is the NASA link that – to this reader, who has probably just as much expertise in fluid dynamics – is not making a compelling argument. It seems to me that a stack of cylinders will behave more like a flat surface than a single cylinder. At this point I challenge you to move from the theoretical and into the real world and come back to the group with your real world tests showing in detail how this theory performs. Or introduce more real world information to help me understand your fixation on this one aspect of the design.

It would be helpful if you were to introduce more information that moves from the theoretical to the practical. In the meantime your point is noted and further repetition is not required.

 

SUMMARY:
Contrary to the OPs headline, we HAVE seen this design before! He copied it!!!
Best of luck to those who are willing to spend $2000 on this experiment.
Only time will tell.

 

SUMMARY:
OP took an existing designed and slightly modified it. Fussing with some of the plastic bits etc. (See pics etc in the first post)
Sourced some other batteries.
He's trying it out. Although has done some testing as he has access to testing equipment.

If you want to try it as well he is willing to sell you a similar setup.
No warranty.
If interested, contact the OP.
Then maybe report back periodically here to let us know how it is going.

If not interest, then move along.

Time will tell how it works out.

 

Even Prius we did not know how reliable the batts would be. Those of us early adopters had to take it on faith. I was told by the dealer in 2006, that all you had to do was replace one bad module, which turns out in hindsight to be harder than just replacing the whole pack for $3000. Might not have bought if we knew that then.

The point is real world torture test and user feedback is the only thing that really matters. I am hearing intense concern from a few that someone might be mislead try this battery and not realize there is not extensive life data yet.

 

2k, would it be possible to keep us abreast of sales, and user experiences?

 

Inaccurately, assertions continue to be made that new modules could be had from Toyota dealers for $2,000. According to Wonky's post in the thread below, the lowest price found, of $2,070, is sort of a bait and switch. $2,070 is an online price and does not include shipping. The same places charge more at the counter. Wonky paid $2,588 for this "$2,000" deal.

Post #48
New Traction Battery Cost: Start Shopping Here | Page 3 | PriusChat

Then there's the issue some have of even getting a dealer to hand modules over to them.

And of course there's the out of pocket cost for the core charge. I've read about long turnarounds and potential issues with Toyota even accepting them.

Sure, 2k1's product is built upon a prior design. Of course it is. Just about everything we use nowadays is an IMPROVEMENT of a previously existing product.

I understand the desire for more test results. 2k1 posted that more would be forthcoming as the project progresses. As for real world results, some of us, like myself, will provide this, as testers, at a SUB $2,000 price . At this stage, why on earth would we keep referring to it as an untested $2,000 battery? If all goes well, it will become a tried and true, solid $2,000 alternative to a new Toyota pack. Why don't we just see how it pans out instead of killing it before it gets off the ground?

On another note. Tonight, NBC news did a story on the 2019 electric Aston Martin. I'm not certain of this but they seemed to show production of their battery cells, which were cylindrical. Not that they're going into a case that's designed anything like a Prius. I'm not going there! Take it easy on me, haha.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Oddly enough, your conclusion is correct; however, your failure to see the implications of your own conclusion indicate that your first claim of fluids expertise is not correct at least not in the area of air flow and heat transfer. If you think about the implications of your own conclusion, you should be able to figure it out. The following word should give you all you need to know: "slipstreaming".

You suggest this of someone presenting not just theoretical data, but well understood and exhaustively tested data dating back decades, yet you make no similar request of "helpfulness" from the OP, who hasn't even presented theoretical data, objective data or even a summary of scientific methodology that even suggests that meaningful data exists.

WITHOUT THE OP PRESENTING A SINGLE BYTE OF EMPIRiCAL DATA, I would give weight to a claimed meaningful methodology and statements of comparison. What he has given is nothing better than a hobbyist playing in his garage making statements of comparison made primarily for marketing purposes - some of which CAN'T be substantiated with any level of testing due to their absurdity.

 

Are the New Replacement Packs from Toyota Built with Gen 2 cell technology or are they built with Gen 3 cells. Speaking of Which, How are the Gen 3 packs holding up in the 2010-12 cars?

 

G3 cells

 

Gen3 is not much different battery than Gen2, but Gen3 does not allow battery drain on loss of fuel, and a couple things like that seem to reduce incidence of HV Batt fails. We have no batt fail data from Toyota so we really are clueless except to say very few Gen3 batt fails yet. Not many 2009 batt fails. Just starting to hear a few 2008 batt fails.

 

2k1- ...yes I would not be surprised if 2006 model year is up to 10%+ batt fails now. If the failure rate continues like that for the future years that Prius sales skyrocketed (2008-2012), there will be huge increasing need for batt replacements. However, my gut feeling is maybe the failure rate has improved somewhat.

 

I am starting to think we may now have hard evidence that Gen3 batts are doing much better than Gen2 re: reliability.

About 4-years ago (2013) Consumer Reports did a Prius owner battery life survey. At that time 2006 model year was already up to 3% failed HV batts per CR. Here we are now 4 years later and we have very few reports of 2010 batt fails. Normally we see PriusChat attracting those Prii owners with maintenance issues such as bad batteries, so the Gen3 silence is fairly obvious.

Perhaps one factor is that Gen3 handles empty gaso tank better re: HV battery charge management.

 

My opinion is the turd gen batteries are far worse than gen 2. My 2010 SOC is already fluctuating from full and empty quite fast. I think the battery is worked much harder in the turd gen, to give it that little better mpg