Reconditioned Battery/5 year warranty/1500 dollars

Perfect!!!! Tim, talk to us about your batteries!! What makes them better? What testing do you perform? If I were to open Melissa's battery, what serial numbers would I find on her modules?

 

Everything is okey so far. But I'm little bit crappy with the budget here 1500 dollars.

 

Tim? Still here? You were still showing on-line when I posted. Guess I must have just missed you.

Talked to a rep from Greentecauto a couple weeks ago. He was all happy to talk to me about how great they were and all the price and warranty options. Asked a few questions, similar to above, and it's been nothing but cricket noises ever since. Tried contacting twice more and get no call back or email. Odd, isn't it?

Contacted a "rebuilder" through craigslist a week or so ago. Asked similar questions and the initial answer was "trust me, it's my job" and then got the runaround. Asked again and got the runaround again. Next thing you know, cricket noises again.

What if you asked me? I have plenty of info to give!! I'm proud of my work. I'm not afraid to share it. I'd be happy to explain every step of disassembly and re-assembly and every nut, bolt and wire loosened and tightened. Every voltage check, every test performed using a programmable electronic load, every load test performed when installed in the car, every charge and discharge cycle while it's on the bench. The apps I use for testing and monitoring, the screens I use on techstream.

If someone asked me what I think makes my batteries better than anyone else's???? You can bet your A** I can tell them a lot more than just blowing smoke.

 

We are proud of our work as well. Being that it is a business we let our reputation speak for itself. I refuse to get into technical discussions regarding the exact equipment, settings, process steps that we use because we would like to maintain our competitive edge in this industry.

What if I ask you? I personally am not concerned about your process even though it sounds like you probably have a sound process. What matters is that you and your customers are confident with your process, not me. We do not speak negatively of our competition, mainly because we are all trying our best and the true competition is trying their best and is actually pretty good. This pushes us to continuously refine our process and improve our offerings to the customer.

I can share what we share with every customer that asks:

The reconditioning process is broken into several steps.
1. Disassembly and inspection of the entire battery and peripheral components.
2. Cycling of the modules to restore capacity and determine other key characteristics
3. Precision measurement of the modules - the modules that do not make our standard are placed in the recycle box
4. Grading and pairing of the modules to ensure the pack is well balanced
5. Charging
6. Final load testing to ensure all the above is correct and ensure behavior in the vehicle
7. Final assembly
8. Insulation checks

Along the way there are a few other improvements/modifications that are made including bus bar replacement, ECU upgrades, hardware replacement, paint, stickers, etc.

We have an in house electronics shop that rebuilds the ECU's and modifies them to prevent certain types of failures. We have thought about offering our reconditioned ecu's to the DIY community on an exchange basis as we know that these will be come scarce in the near future, or at least become expensive as the ones that come out of cores become increasingly unusable.

We have also considered selling module sets to the DIY community since we believe that our customers are NOT DIY, so that would open up another source of customers for us.

So while we do not openly share knowledge, we are working to improve the industry and offer solutions to truly help everyone while still maintaining our competitive position.

I hope this helps and that you can understand why we don't divulge our detailed specific equipment, settings, etc.

Have a great day.
TIM

 

You can DIY as Electron Automotive sells you a 28 reconditioned battery modules along with bus bars. Electron Automotive

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Why get a set of used modules when you can get a kit of new modules and harness from @2k1Toaster for $1600 including shipping to most of the US?

 

His business is too new as there's no track record of proven quality and reliability of those Chinese after market batteries. The batteries are not even tested as people have to buy them to even test them. It's like buying software still in beta stage.

Need at least 5 years of testing. I even posted in a thread about a Chinese manufacturer that manufacturers the same battery pack as they look identically the same as its like he trying to make it seem like he designed and invented something him self, when in reality he's just buying whole sell parts rebuilds them.

 

His batteries are rated & tested higher capacity.
One of the testers is our expert @ericbecky who has closely monitored and put over 1000 miles on the new kit.

IMHO "reconditioned" modules are a larger gamble unless they are from a proven low mileage battery pack. Even then, they can be destroyed if improperly reconditioned.

 

I was in that same thread as I seen it all. It's the thread I posted a picture of that Chinese manufacturer. You will find those pictures I posted in there. Chinese quality vs Japanese quality control is night and day as the Japanese use "lean" production with kaizen approach. That's why Toyota makes such great long lasting cars as William Edwards Deming helped Toyota to improve their quality control.
Lean manufacturing - Wikipedia

 

Getting too deep in discussion about kits might get this thread off track.

Not sure if there is a better thread to continue that discussion?

 

This entire statement is patently false. And no need to pollute this thread with more offtopic discussion of alternate packs. There are other threads for that.

 

Tim,

I do appreciate you taking the time to provide a reply. Another question for you. Pricing options on your website. Pretty much every other "builder" I've looked at or spoken too offers a handful of different "levels" of a 2004-2009 battery. Typically a $1000 bucks for a entry level very short warranty battery recommended for those people that want to immediately sell or trade in the car, all the way to $2200 rebuilt batteries that have (supposedly) super/high capacity/upgraded/whateverthelatestbswordis modules and a longer warranty, yet not new modules. (you would think at $2200, which is only slightly less than going to Toyota, these would at least have 2015 or 2016 modules)
Why do you offer only one level of battery at $1549(?)? Are these built strictly with Gen2 modules (date coded 2003 through 2009)? Do you offer Gen2 batteries with newer date codes or generation modules?

Now, I have to admit. Offering a 5 year warranty, now without prorating, is a bold move. Especially if it includes no travel fees, installation fees etc. (I hadn't looked, does it?) I bet it will be hard to keep offering that warranty as the years go by. If you decided you wanted to say "I'm answering no questions, we offer a 5 year warranty, take it or leave it", I would understand. Have you guys looked into the viability of the Chinese made duplicates of the prismatic modules? Have you ever tried them? Pretty sure I've seen them on Alibaba or something similar.

 

Note. The non-prorated warranty is only on all batteries sold after November 11,2017. The OP in this thread would have received a pro-rated warranty.

 

In the past Asian prismatics have not fared well. The car rejected them. They might have been good for some other applications, but not in the Prius. Been a while since I've looked at them though so I suppose things may have changed.

 

Nobody I have talked to have had anything good to say about any of the aftermarket prismatic modules available for the Prius. It's the exact thing I keep saying. Just because it looks kind of identical doesn't mean it is.

And to add to that, the cylindrical batteries that you can buy (CEBA being the largest maker of them) tend to work adequately in the car, however their longevity is suspicious because they aren't what they claim. Claiming 6.5Ah capacity and actually being half that or less than half that rated capacity, doesn't fare well.

The part of my kit that is "special" is the battery. You cannot buy those anywhere else. Just because it is cylindrical doesn't mean it's identical. Mine are stamped 6.5Ah and are 6.5Ah.

 

Now wait a darn minute. Are you trying to tell me that the pack of "billyjoejimbobs" D Cell batteries I just bought at the flea market aren't the same as those Energizer or Duracel D cells I used to buy before I realized how much money I could save at the flea market?

 

I have a better idea...... I invite you to bring one of your batteries to Raliegh and we subject it to our 30KW final load test. For the engineers thats 230 Volts at 130 Amps. Its either going to be good, or it will be destroyed in less than 30 seconds. Or we can use 8-10 amps like the AC compressor and accessories use....Your call.

 

For us über-nerds, is your final test a 30KW constant power eLoad? 130A constant current eLoad? Resistive? And a nerd pic of the load box itself would be nice.

 

All of those.. It has all the normal modes for an E-load. IEEE/USB controlled, water cooled. The test is done at 30KW, the Load is much larger. No need to share pics. Bring your battery to Raleigh if you want to enter the battery bench racing showdown..... Maybe I should set a date and we make an event out of it.

 

I've got my own 100KW/500V load here ☺