Optima Battery Problem, warranty replacement location?

No. The Optima procedure suggests that you connect a good 12V battery in parallel with the bad 12V battery. The point of that is to increase the voltage visible to the battery charger so that the charger will provide charging voltage to the pair of batteries.

"Parallel" means that the positive terminals of both batteries are connected together, while the negative terminals of both batteries are connected together. "Series" means that the positive terminal of one battery is connected to the negative terminal of the other. The only reason you would connect the batteries in series is if you needed to produce 24V, which is definitely not the case here.

Regarding what cables to use, battery jump cables would be OK. The cables only need to carry 10A or less of current.

 

What Patrick said about the parallel connection is true, but remember that this customer service tip is only relevant to batteries that have become so far discharged that a modern "smart" charger" can no longer sense enough voltage to detect the battery, and therefore fails to even try charging it.

This procedure is therefore 100% worthless for any battery that is currently working (albeit at less voltage than you'd ideally like) in the Prius.

 

Do you have to pay the return shipping for the battery?

 

Thanks. I may get one from Amazon then. Although I need to pay tax, I can use up some Amazon gift cards hanging around from last year.

 

Yes I noticed that. See my battery test today.