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battery balance questions

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Aaron Vitolins, Oct 12, 2014.

  1. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Hey guys and gals, last week I received my new grid charger fornm venice hybrid tech, and installed it the next day.
    When I first hooked up the charger my voltage reading was 221.. what worried me was the instructions said it should be "250-260 V" Hmmm. Then it said it would charge up to 300 V over night and stay there, okay? Well guess what, after 14 hours it pegged at 234.. what's wrong what am I missing?
    The instructions said to charge for 10-14 hours (preferably at night) and drive the next day and do that 3 times.

    After 3 days I finally got the voltage to 244. Never saw any improvements in battery performance or any mpg gain. Not real sure what to think. Any knowledge or thoughts would be greatly appreciated! BTW e-mailed the owner of venice hybrid tech, for him to tell me everything sounded excellent?????
     
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    I think that your instructions are for the Classic Prius, where the nominal traction battery voltage is 273.6V and the actual voltage is around 310-320V.

    The 2G Prius has nominal traction battery voltage of 201.6V while the actual voltage should be around 230-240V or so.

    I don't think it is reasonable to expect an mpg gain if there was nothing wrong with your traction battery to start with.
     
  3. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Okay that makes so much sense. Although I was expecting a slight mpg gain because it doesn't get all that fantastic mpg (still gets good mpg! Not complaining)
     
  4. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    From the Venice website:
    Output Voltage Price
    1 Honda Insight 180 – 200 V $ 275.00
    2 Honda Civic 180 – 200 V $ 275.00
    3 Toyota Prius Gen -I 320 – 340 V $ 275.00
    4 Toyota Prius Gen 2 225 – 240 V $ 275.00
    5 Toyota Camry 225 – 240V $ 275.00
     
  5. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    thank you! 225-240 is the regular running voltage correct? Somewhere I read it was actually 201 Volts.
     
  6. Aaron Vitolins

    Aaron Vitolins Senior Member

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    Is there any cheep, safe discharger?
     
  7. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    Nominal resting voltage of a new pack is 1.2*6*28 = 201.6
    The charger outputs a voltage some 10-20% higher than that.