Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

Not sure I exactly understand that, or did you mean "discharge cycle"?

By full soaker cycle, do you mean the charge up until the voltage stabilises plus 4 to 6 hours? So, if you don't need to do the full soaker charge, do you go straight into discharging or do you still do a charge, and if you do, at what point do you stop it?

 

I just looked for the instructions that I remember and couldn't find it. There are three dischargers, the light bulb one, the expensive intelligent one, and the new less expensive automatic discharger. Instructions for the older intelligent discharger say to charge until the voltage is stable, and switch to the discharger without a extra 4 hours. The currently posted automatic discharger instructions say to go 4-6 hours past a stable voltage. Didn't check the light bulb instructions.

The automatic discharger instructions didn't exist when I was cycling it. Perhaps I saw an interim version of the new instructions. In any case, it's certainly safe to charge an extra 4-6 hours past reaching the maximum voltage.

The potential is to skip the extra 4-6 hours time per charge/discharge cycle if it works as well. I remember a post about that being Jeff's latest guidance, but I can't find it just now. Jeff?

 

Thanks Rob for the clarification.

 

I'm confused. You say your charging but you battery voltage is going down??? I've never seen that on my multiple chargings. I think you should have stopped at 241. Thats the most voltage I have ever seen on my battery doing a charge/balance. The hybrid cooling fan is running full blast right?

 

I wonder if the automatic unit has a logging feature? I may read the online manul to see

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It currently does not, but @jeff652 is working on that.

 

That would be interesting to have and would give them useful data as well.

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Yes, the fan is running full blast and yes, the numbers actually did go down. The instructions for the charger indicate that might happen.

"Once the battery becomes 'full' the balancing process will begin. During the 'balancing' phase you will most likely see a steady voltage reading or a very slow oscillation of voltage - perhaps a 1-3 volt swing over several minutes. This means the battery is in the balancing phase. The initial balancing can take 4-12 hours after the filling phase is complete..."

I just took the drop to indicate the first cell filled to 241. Later the weakest cell came along and only went up to 238 so the battery balanced at 238.

EDIT: I'll let you know how this next charge goes. I finished the 134v discharge a little after midnight so I'm already 7 hours into the second charge phase.

 

Sounds good.

During the first charging after filling and discharge is the charging linear or does it pick up speed? Over these first 8 hours the charge has gone up only 1 or 2 volts per hour and it still has almost 100v to go.

 

What are the amps it is charging at?

When I did mine, the charging was fast from the low voltage to 200 v but the charging amps fluctuated until 202v was achieved. Talked to Jeff and he said that was normal. After 202v, it began charging at ~0.348 amps until it got to about 239v, many hours later.

 

Sorry. My brain fart. Everything is fine. I really don't know what I was thinking. It's currently at 230 and charging.

 

I didn't know the charger only charges at .348 amps, that's really low trickle charging.

 

At the places that install the Prolong systems, I wonder if they can check the condition a battery is. Since mine is 4 years old and only 34k miles, I would be curious to get a baseline, use the Prolong as reccomended and retest another time.

However when I get the car, I'm going to drive it a month or so, record data before I use anything.

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At driving 3000-5000 miles per month, that should be good enough for a baseline I suppose.

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You probably don't want to mess with that battery until it's out of warranty.

 

Is it 10 yr/100,000? I don't recall and I'm probably good for 2 years because of mileage. By that time the Prolong system could possibly be even better I suppose.

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Qiuck search shows 8/100,000 in non California states

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I believe it's 8 years/100k for most of the country. Yes technology is always improving, don't buy it early until you need it. But the reason you don't want to do it early is you could void your warranty with Toyota.