Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

84 volts should be fine.

17 volts I'd be leery of.

Good luck with your reconditioning .

 

Ah yes, my discharger goes down to 17v.
Should discharge it twice down to 84v or is just the once sufficient?

 

There is still a benefit to doing three discharges (with the second and third going down to 84V) but the third discharge is only going to be an incremental benefit compared to the first two. It is up to you whether you think it is worth it.

 

I'd do 84 volts as a floor.

Twice should be sufficient in addition to the 134 volt first discharge.

Good luck with the process.

 

Thanks guys. Also, do you find each progressive charge to take longer than the previous, in terms of volts per hour? I suppose that's a good sign?

 

Just monitor for the voltage leveling out.

Here's my thread from our old 2010 on the rebalancing:

2010 Prius II HV Battery Reconditioning

This may help .

 

My own charger (ready made 1000V 500mA CV CC), discharger (lightbulbs) and controlunit (Chinese 30V unit modified to 300V to switch OFF the discharging at a set point + a 30V modified to 300V kWh-measuring device) is nearing completion (after a few years...)

One of the things I will try to check is original capacity vs. capacity after cycling. But how do I determine the FIRST capacity? It needs to be full (or a known level of charging) to be able to compare the before-and-after capacity.

So just measure the begin voltage after resting for at least 10 hours, discharge to e.g. 200V and write down the capacity. And repeat this measurement (by somehow getting the packvoltage to the same start level) after the cycling?

Or fully charge the batteries (e.g. 250V chargingvoltage and cut off when charging current falls below 100mA) before the first cycle?

 

I like this question a lot and I will like to see some opinions about this, what am doing is trying to keep it real I don’t want to start discharging at 9 volts because it’s unrealistic so about 8.20 it’s more likely till 6 volts and something else am a believer that the slower you go the more gentle and accurate will be the result, am doing it at 0.6 charge and discharge, and a last detail, you need to make sure what is the capacity between 7 to 6 volts when discharging because in my case I have a module with 5 amps but as soon it go below 6.90 it just collapse and that will be a code (battery became weak) so I will say this is one of the more important test you can do to the modules you may want to know the capacity in the voltage range the battery works I suggest you to get a hobby charger, using a whole battery charger or discharger will not tell you the capacity and a load test it’s a basic test that doesn’t tell you the capacity, especially between 7 to 6 volts this is vital, good luck.

 

I have a hobby charger*.

But I want to prevent having to take the whole battery apart, both because of the work involved and the time it will take to charge each module separately (not to mention I don't intend on replacing weaker modules and I have no spare ones, let alone so many that I could assemble a pack of similar quality modules).



* (4 actually, but 2 died that were never suited for NiMH's cause they didn't recognise the deltaV and the newest one I don't trust as I think it will happily charge LiIons to 4,3 instead of 4.2V (and no, I don't have it set at LiPo) and I have yet to make sure how to properly calibrate and adjust it (Chinese knock-off))

 

If you don’t want to replace modules and don’t want to check the capacity I suggest not to do the discharge, only charge and balance because, when you discharge you open new possibilities, the modules may get stronger or they may get worse or died when doing as a whole pack because you can’t control the discharge of the weaker modules and they may go way to much more lower than the others ones, personally if I can go back on time I would never use the discharge on a battery on it last leg, it’s very risky and not worth it, charging and balance doesn’t hurt that will be all taking into consideration you don’t want to change modules.

 

Makes sense, but the hybrid automotive does exactly that, right? Discharging the whole pack and charging it up again to the point of balance charging is?

That's why I thought it would be the way to go. I have seen in 24V (20 D-cell) bicycle packs that charging to 28V worked, but as soon as I loadtested it, one or two cells failed pretty much completely and drew the packs so low, the bike would measure it as empty. But I think those cells were dead to begin with, which is not the case for my Prius (afaik).

 

If any cell is going to tip over and reverse or short, it was never going to be a good cell anyway. At least this way, you have a failure in a controlled setting. Better to know in the 'lab' and change it out than be stranded somewhere while out and about. It is more likely to happen when this balancing process occurs later rather than sooner. Another thing to remember is that all cells need to work well together as that is how it works in the car.

I do suggest discharging. Without doing the stepped discharges you do not get the benefit of bottom balancing. Bottom balancing is where you retrieve any lost capacity. Top balancing (controlled overcharging to get all cells full) has a very limited effect on its own.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

He mentioned he doesn’t want to change any module, so a controlled failure doesn’t seem like it’s what he wants, but it’s his call I said it you said it too he can get a failure in a controlled settings.

 

So you did, in my hurry, I skipped over and missed that. Sorry about that, Chief.

 

After trying to recondition my high voltage battery pack, I got the
fault code P0A80 several times. I replaced the 7 weakest modules, and
redone 3 cycles (134, 101, 84) of charge / discharge with Prolong
Deluxe, but the problem persists.

So I decided to replace the whole pack with remanufactured modules at 1-DIAGNOSTIC.LTD UK.
I put the new pack back in the car and started "Charging / and top
balancing".

The voltage stabilized at 237-238 V for more than six hours.
According HA instructions, this means that the battery charge is full and the balancing is complete.

Yesterday, writing to you, the room temperature was 95 degrees. And the battery voltage remained at 237v for 11 hours. When the temperature started to drop, in the evening, the voltage started to rise. So I decided to keep charging it.


Yesterday evening, before going to bed the voltage reached 240V, when I woke up at 6 am, it measured 240V with cool weather. I therefore conclude that the balancing of the battery is better in periods of low temperature (generally between the evening and the morning).


During the day the temperature rises, which causes the balancing voltage of the battery to stop increasing or on the contrary decrease.


I am currently on leave and I have a lot of free time, soon it will be summer and the temperatures could exceed 100 degrees Farenheit. Which would make the process complicated, especially since I will run out of time.


My question is:

Can I take this opportunity to recondition my new refurbished battery pack?


If so, what minimum discharge voltages do you recommend then? Would there be a risk of going down to 84V for new eBay batteries?



Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I know this thread is older, but do you have Any updates? I have a 2005 prius with 225k Mike's on it and everything is original. The battery is starting show signs of low voltage. I did take it to a mechanic who cleaned the sunload sensor and now the car doesn't go into pink anymore... Any help or recommendation would be appreciated I am not ready to get rid of my car yet. :/

 

I feel you, am not ready to get rid of my 06 either that’s why I did exactly the same you did I have the prolong deluxe kit because the same reason I was experiencing pink bars just like you so the prolong did help me to make it to another year but it really was a mistake for a 14 years old battery last year when I did it so individuals modules started to fail and not fun pulling the battery pack every time a module fail, so after only one year $720 dollars for the prolong 3 modules change in 2 different times and another that need to be changed again guess what it’s not worth it, so I ordered a new hybrid battery from newpriusbatteries for another $1600 so this is what I wish I would have done in the first place, so my recommendation is don’t expect you old and tired battery pack to last to long and if you like me want the problem fix for the rest of the car life you better save money and buy a new new hybrid battery ( not a new to the car I mean a brand new battery) lots of people call new to a refurbished battery just because it’s new to the car so don’t get confused.

 

Can you explain this in any detail?

 

!

 

Hate it when my sun load sensor gets dirty,