Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

I'll trust your experience rather than have to experience it myself.

 

Well the low-wattage bulbs aren't really a big problem, but the 200W jobbies (x2) tend to get a bit toasty, so it's nice to have them outside the car and even then I used a bloody great fan keeping them cool! If they're inside the car, you need to keep all the windows open! Either get a 5' ext. cord, or (Jeff!) make the Prolong Harness 5' longer!

 

Sounds like loads of fun .

All I did for my foray was swap the harness from the Charger and Intelligent Discharger. I turned off the buzzer as I wasn't sure if I would be around when it finished and didn't want to spook the neighbors .

Thanks for the suggestions for improvement .

 

AC feels good but it is devil for gas mileage :-(

(I use my AC all the time too lol)

 

Gas in WA maybe $2.30 a gallon? At only 40 mpg, I think it's still pretty cheap to have the comforts of AC

 

I've done three reconditionings with the light bulb method and here's three things I've noted:

1) I chose to do reconditionings on holiday weekends that I don't typically travel (Jan 1 and July 4th) so I have plenty of time. A regular weekend just isn't long enough although it is for my monthly balance charge.

2) I dutifully recorded the times/voltage readings the first two times so I could compare to the example before/after chart on Jeff's website. Every 15 minutes for the first couple of hours, then every 30 minutes as the rate slows. This also shows me where the big drops occur for bulb changes.

3) I notice the "bounce back" effect after a bulb change to a lower wattage where the voltage goes way back up. This makes the next stage last longer than originally anticipated. So...... (the following is not advice, it's just something I've decided to try), I now leave the higher wattage bulb burning longer past the charts' thresholds and very closely monitor the rate. I try to judge/guesstimate the amount and then switch to the lower wattage bulb. If the bounce back is still too high, I swap back for a few minutes. Rinse, lather, repeat till the bounce back is below the threshold.

This reduces the process and keeps the whole discharge to around 4 hours. I immediately begin a 20 hr. charge cycle afterwards so I complete a whole cycle per day. Times approx: discharge 8am-noon, charge noon to 8am. So, I really only have to babysit the car in the mornings and can be free the rest of the day


Tip: I use mechanic's work gloves for the 200w bulbs as they can be very hot.

 

Pretty close to my procedure, too. I have also started doing a transition when I just change one bulb to lower wattage for a while to make for smaller steps in the wattage reduction. I looks weird because one bulb lights and the other one just kind of glows, but the volts drop faster than changing both bulbs but not as fast as changing no bulbs. Then I change the other one when the voltage bounce stays below the change set point voltage.

 

yes I agree 100% allow 4 days. Now I see why the automated is so cool. hard to pay attention for so long especially at the end where you are getting tired.

 

So spent the day driving my rejuvenated battery around and its very impressive. The car feels so much better. It was doing this subtle loss of power thing where on a straight highway I could feel the power going away just slightly like the engine was stumbling but it was not the engine. I gained 10mpg's also. Now i feel solid power very nice. The other weird thing I immediately see is is for the last year the engine would be very noticeable when it turned on. Very unsmooth turn on when sitting. Lot of jiggling of the car. Mild clunking and very noticeable shut down too. Sometimes it was disturbing how loud the shut down was. When the light would turn green and I would begin rolling out and applying pedal I could notice the engine turning on. I could hear it. Thats stopped the engine now comes on like it did when it was new. Unnoticeable and very smooth. Very odd but real.
I guess if the hybrid battery is not powerful enough when loaded to spin up mg1 it would not spin up fast enough? I have no idea whats going on there but its real.

Also the battery never went below 6 blue bars all day. Around town stop after stop. It used to go to 2 purple bars pretty fast like in a fast food pickup line. Not sure how long it will last but right now I have a brand new battery back in my car.

Night and day. My car may be the exception to the rejuv rule in that I have 110K miles and no codes thrown. My delta was not more than .25 volts so it was a fairly health battery to begin with.

 

This is my first.

 

I noticed that too, a very real observation.

 

It sounds like it really needed it! Quite an improvement.

 

OK, I seem to have a couple of free days, so about an hour ago, I started on what is my third full-recondition. Starting conditions ~60% SoC; 222V; 356mA, and here's a pic: (note the extension cord!)

 

Good luck to you sir let us know. When I saw the discharger out in the sun I cringed. You can't do that where I live as the charger would be cooked sitting in the sun like that after about 10 minutes. The Sun will rip your hide off down here.
Will, where do you live in Maine or Nova Scotia?

Sidenote my battery is still at 6 blue bars. Blows my mind it does not move.

 

Well, the schedule did change. I just started my first charge/balance. The car is in the garage and the temperature is in the 70s. It's not supposed to heat up again until Monday or Tuesday of next week so I'll just do without the car for the weekend. Wish the rookie luck!

 

My garage faces south, I'm in southern New Hampshire, the glare of the sun totally wiped out the display in that pic, but the garage door is normally closed, although it does get toasty in the garage with the sun beating down on the door.

This is the third full recondition I've done with the Prolong System, and I've also done several short recons with balance in the interim, the overall fuel consumption in my three years of owning the car is around mid 40s, and the best on one fill-up I've seen is about 51, and the best instant on a journey I've seen is just over 60. The SoC spends most of its time around 65% and the best SoC I've seen is 81% a couple of weeks ago. The only time I've ever seen purple bars was just after I got the car, before I started using the Prolong System, but the lowest SoC I normally see is around 50%, but only for a short period of time.

The car is a 2009 Gen II and has 121,700 miles on the odometer, regular services done. Summer shoes on at moment (Antares Ingens) 46F/44R.

…er, that's it!