What 'brand' 12v battery do you recommend for a Prius?

How much are they? I just spent $208 at my Toyota Dealer for my wife's 2017 Prius and it came with an 84-month warranty. (And I noticed the CCA went up from 295 to 470...I know we don't really use that to start but they must've beefed-up the batteries a bit.

 

I put two of them in my Gen 2, neither of them lasted as long as the original.

When the battery in my used Gen 4 started failing, I figured what the hell and called the local dealer's parts department. The Toyota battery cost less, had better specs, and a better warranty.

Oh, and I don't know if the AGM is a good choice, but to be honest, the last one I put in my Gen 2 was a Die Hard AGM.

 

I I would say read the reviews and see what other are experiencing for this group size they're pretty much Prius and Prius like vehicle so quite similar and all of that I'm usually a problems run they run pretty deep but just by looking at the battery and the basic specs on it it should be able to hold its own and usually Walmart will do you reasonably well although on some batteries I have noticed you have to be very careful with they're very stringent about honoring the warranty kind of interesting.

 

dealer

 

It is made by a reputable manufacturer, although I cannot recall now which one. Read all reviews at Walmart.com. I would get one. Apparently they also sell (or maybe sold) one with the lower nonSKS CCA rating, and people who ordered the bigger one online sometimes received the smaller one at delivery or pick up. The one shown in the picture is the bigger one. However, I would run it past my portable battery tester in the store first, because sometimes batteries are DOA, or near to it, and what's the point taking that home? (Not just at Walmart, any time I buy a car battery, for any car.)

 

The OEM battery is selling for $169 with 84 months warranty while the Walmart battery $179 with 48 months warranty. I would go OEM again. My last OEM bought in May 2014 still runs strong after more than 10 years.

Battery 12V #00544-21171-325 | Autoparts.toyota.com

https://www.walmart.com/ip/EverStart-Platinum-AGM-Automotive-Battery-Group-Size-S46B24R-12-Volt-410-CCA/1247321234?classType=REGULAR&athbdg=L1600&from=/search

 

That is the smaller 325 CCA version. Right there in the URL. Open the page, click on the little red down arrow next to "More" and it opens up to show it is 325 CCA. I didn't think Toyota even made those anymore. Anyway, the 410 CCA Walmart one is ~$180, and the price at Puente Hills Toyota (usually the cheapest near me) for the 325 CCA is $182. Same price, 3/4 of the capacity for the Toyota one.

Wow, this battery with a similar part number doesn't give a CCA value at all, even when fully expanded:

HV 12V Battery #00544-21171-LEX | Autoparts.toyota.com

 

exide

 

My 2006 Prius came with 325 CCA 18 years ago when I bought it. I replaced the 12v battery just once in all these 18 years with OEM 325 CCA again. Never had any issues.

 

The SKS models are supposed to use the larger capacity battery.

I should add that the Ah and CCA ratings on S46B24R batteries for the Prius are inconsistent between different manufacturers. Here they are sorted by CCA then AH

?, 325 Super Start Platinum AGM (O'Reilly brand)
?, 325 TrueStart AGM (Toyota brand)
45, 325 Yuasa HJ-S46B24R (Manufacturer)
46, 325 Motomaster Eliminator (Canadian Tire brand)
45, 370 Marathon AGM Auxiliary (BatteryMart)
45, 370 Varta AGM
36, 410 AC Delco
41, 410 Interstate MTX-S46B24R AGM
41, 410 Duralast AGM (Autozone brand)
41, 410 DieHard AGM (Advance Auto and elsewhere)
45, 410 Everstart Platinum AGM (Walmart brand)

? if I couldn't find the value with the other specifications. Bizarre that some don't give this value, as it is not difficult to measure.

 

I wouldn't put too much faith in battery warranties; would just get a reasonably priced battery with a good reputation, and maintain it.

 

The price part is possible, the good reputation part is more difficult. Car batteries are notorious for being swapped from one manufacturer/internal design to another without any corresponding change in the part number by the ultimate vendor. So a battery that was great can become terrible and vice versa. It would be a lot better if the resellers had to use the name and model number of the original manufacturer on it, then consumers could at least know what they were buying without having to do a lot of hard sleuthing to find out "who made that".

 

Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) may not be the measure of performance you need to be looking at. CCA (ideally) is how much power a supposedly cold battery can provide to a starter motor to turn over an engine. There was a time, back in the early 1980s when a whole host of undersized batteries were being sold based on their CCA ratings. Yeah, they may have been able to provide a lot of CCAs, but when it came to actual battery capacity, they sucked. They just didn't have the total battery capacity, nor did they maintain that CCA for the life of the battery. It degraded pretty quickly. After living through that time, and all those sucky undersized batteries with huge CCA ratings I cringe when that's the only measure of performance that's used.

The CCA spec isn't that cold, nor is it for long enough (it's just for the first, I don't know how long, but not long enough for a really cold engine that's got some other issue).

Yes, CCA is one measure of performance. Yes, there is a real need for some cold, hard, battery rating number to look at when trying to compare batteries. I'm just not convinced that CCA is it. A battery can be designed to provide a quick initial burst of amperage, but that doesn't necessarily mean a good CCA rating means it's going to be a good battery. (The 1980s proved that).

Remember, the Prius doesn't use the 12V battery to start the ICE. Yeah, when first turning on a Prius, there is a sudden 12V battery requirement (for the brake booster, since you've gotta have your foot on the brake to get to the READY mode), and the power steering. There's also the inrush of power required to fire up other electrical systems too. But, it's not like it's being used to fire up the ICE, like an old-fashioned Chevy Pickup.

How long is that battery going to be able to crank over that cold-soaked small block Chevy if it doesn't start in the first 1/2 second? That's when your CCA rating ends and it's down to how many Amps that cold battery provides over the next 1/2 minute.

Overall battery capacity is measured in Amp-Hours (AH). In the case of the Gen 2, that's 45 AH. I know, it's not as impressive a number as the CCA, but it more honestly represents the battery's true capacity. Not how many amps it provides for the first second or two, but how much energy it actually stores.

 

Take a look at the sodium-ion 12v from Nexcell over at
Toyota hybrid battery upgrade pack– NexPower Energy

 

I always wondered if Toyota could have delayed/reduced some of this power usage until after the inverter was active to further reduce the load on the12V. For instance, I don't turn the steering wheel when the car isn't in READY, which is probably true 99.99% of the time among all owners. When the car is turned on by me, it is in Park and the parking brake is on, enabling the brakes isn't needed until after READY is reached and the inverter is going. I think the cabin fan may not be enabled until after the inverter starts, it always seems to come on after the READY. The only time the 12V is loaded is at start up, and as we have found out over time, the amount withdrawn at a start is not replenished in a short drive, which can lead to early 12V battery failure.

I agree CCA is not very relevant for a Prius. However, for some batteries, including the one from Toyota, that is the number they give.

 

The ultimate 12v sodium-ion battery for Toyota hybrid– NexPower Energy

Rated at 36.3 Ah. Read the specs - don't get it. What is the advantage over a 45 Ah AGM battery, other than weight?