Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

@jerrymildred or @Raytheeagle what do you think?

 

Starting/Driving the next morning after sitting all night should be fine, no need to disconnect the 12v either.

 

Great! Thanks

 

Don't worry about disconnecting AuxBat, I always leave it connected, according to @jeff652 that advice was aimed more at the Honda owners!

 

yeah I didn't disconnect the 12 volt battery in fact I hooked a 12 volt charger to that battery too. I always hooked a 12 volt charger when I charged my hybrid. Both batteries at once.
After I did my first and only so far discharge my re-charge never got higher than 222 volts where before it would reach 229 and then it was 240 at the beginning.

The effects of a hybrid charge soon wear off after about 2 weeks. But so far my first and only lightbulb discharge/charge has lasted a few months and the battery has been acting like a new battery.

 

I just checked on the process and the battery is at 242 Volts. This happened around 8 pm, so I will keep it going til midnight or so.

What is interesting is that my lights in the car when I open the door are very dim and the 12V battery seems discharged. Is this because of the cooling fan always running? Am I going to have a dead 12V battery at the end? Seems like a bad design, but maybe my 12V battery is weak.

Thoughts?

 

Fan is powered by the Prolong device

Turn off all interior lights (assuming doors are being left open) and never ready the vehicle while charging

242 is great, keep up the good balancing

Might be time to borrow Ed's 12v charger

 

I have closed all doors and turned off all lights. I am not sure what's draining the battery, but I have never had the 12V battery do that yet in this car. I assumed the fan is powered from the charger, that would make the most sense. This is a mystery, then. I have not readied the car, but I did turn it to ACC to roll up the windows when the sun went down. This was for a few seconds. Long enough to roll up the windows.

I have a 12V battery tender I use on my bike and I also have one for the lawn tractor. If it refuses to start tomorrow, I'll have to resort to those. They are very slow maintenance type chargers.

Could this be a symptom of a weak 12V battery?

 

If you connected the harness correctly, grid charger should be powering the fan. Also, do you have the hatch open (you should) for more air flow? If so, that light is probably running down the 12v.

Like Ed, I took the opportunity to trickle charge the 12v battery too so I wouldn't have to worry about turning lights off or keeping doors/hatch closed (in garage).

 

I turned off the hatch light. And I also closed the hatch. The intake for the battery fan is near the right rear seat. I had the windows open when it was sunny (it is a chilly fall day here in New England) and closed everything up when the sun went down. It's in the 50's here, so I am not worried about cooling. Ambient in the car with the windows and hatch closed is in the 50's, same as outside.

I am really stumped. I did connect the harness correctly, otherwise the fan wouldn't run at all (and it certainly does). There is no way to connect it wrong, is there? I can't think of a way it would be connected such that it runs off the 12V battery rather than from the harness control box. Unless the control box is doing something wacky.

 

The Prolong System will not drain the 12V while it is operating. The vehicles 12V circuits are fully isolated from the hybrid battery fan via a DPDT relay. If the Prolong system's isolation was not working, the fan would not run from the charger. Having a door or lift gate open will cause a drain, even if it is only from the dash indicator light.

 

Thanks for responding. All the doors and hatch are closed. I am stumped. Will go and check again now.

 

Yeah good luck, hopefully it charges right back up. Charging the 12V at around 500mA while charging the HV battery is a great way to maintain it. ~15V 500mA CC LED PSUs are only around $10-$15. I have one hardwired to my AUX battery so I can easily plug it in every time I plug the charger in.

 

I have a couple of battery tender type chargers. They are great. Low current (not sure how low) and they monitor the battery so as not to overcharge. Great for outdoor power equipment and my motorcycle when not in use during winter. I may throw it on overnight.

 

Don't "may". Do it. It is a great opportunity to ensure your 12 V battery remains healthy. The 12 V battery likes nothing worse than being run down and then kept in that state. Charge up your 12 V now and keep it on the trickle charger throughout the whole HV battery charging process.

 

No need to mess with the 12v.

While the guidance is 30-60 minutes, I let everything sit for a several hours.

No need to rush the process .

 

Or simply start it, put in neutral and turn on the A.C. for 10 minutes

 

As in, no need to disconnect it, but please do charge it.

 

I wonder how and why you get from 214V to 240V within only 3 hours?

I have charged 4 different packs from "normal voltage" (around 215-220V) to 238-240V and all of them took between 6 and 8 hours.
I alos used HA charger with charge load of 350 mA.

Another thought: "normal voltage" has a SOC of approx. 60%. "Full" is a SOC of approx. 100%, so the delta is 40%.
40% of the rated battery capacity of 6,500 mAh is approx. 2,600 mAh.
If you charge that with 350 mA it should take around 7.5 hours.

Are you sure all cells/modules in your pack are o.k.?

 

Generally, modules charging at quick rate indicates poor health.

I guess this is where you are leading the poster.