Humor me -- Replacing the BIG battery without gloves.

alas, poor cyberprius, we hardly knew her. fwiw, i have never heard of anyone dying while exchanging a prius battery. constant vigilance!

 

No poems necessary just yet my dear.

if your sweating it and its smart to start thinking about it..... be proactive.

Buy a hybrid battery charger from Hybrid Automotive and you'll get a few more years out of it. A "conditioning full charge" works. And once you install the battery interconnect charging dongle you can throw the charger on it willy nilly. I bought one recently from them but have not installed it.
But I know it'll do what I need done. And there very responsive folks. My delay is I'm working on building a 200 volt dc Inverter dongle so I will be able to use the Hybrid Battery as a 200 volt Inverter DC supply. A never ending high voltage dc supply as long as my Prius has gas. The big one Lizabeth is coming to this god forsaken state sooner or later....without ac you will surely die.

But I digress....Like me your battery has not thrown any codes yet so is a Perfect candidate for charging. Mine is older than yours and no codes yet. Nothing beats the oem battery. Very high quality battery. Worth taking care of.
Just like anything else you have to maintain it. But look who I'm talking too lol.....

Check them out:
Hybridautomotive.com

 

That could also be said about working on the Prius traction battery.

The Toyota repair manual advises the use of those gloves because the manual assumes that the typical mechanic doing that job does not have experience with high voltage systems. Hence to reduce liability, Toyota prescribes very extensive safety guidelines to be followed including the use of lineman's gloves.

It is certainly possible to kill yourself while working on the battery if you are determined to do so. However, if you remove the safety interlock and avoid touching high voltage with both hands (thus allowing an electric current to flow through your heart) you should be OK.

Also - instead of using those expensive gloves you could pursue an alternative approach. For example, using rubber gloves intended for washing dishes. Or latex gloves that you can buy at Costco. Although those gloves are not as effective as the lineman's gloves with respect to electric shock protection, they are better than nothing.

 

Two hazards--shock and arc. I wear latex or nitrile gloves under new leather gloves when I need to handle or work near a live wire. I wear safety goggles and cotton clothing as well. A Prius battery pack isn't an extremely hazardous energy source, but the DIYer still needs to be careful.

 

Never worn 'em.

 

In the event your effort goes south -- which I seriously doubt and seriously hope does not happen:

Stealing some lyrics from It Must Have Been the Roses, by the Grateful Dead:

<She> layed her head down in the roses
She had ribbons, ribbons, ribbons
in her long brown hair
I don't know, it must have been the roses
All I know is I could not leave her there

I don't know, it must have been the roses
The roses or the ribbons in her long brown hair
I don't know maybe it was the roses
All I know was I could not leave her there

 

You could do what I did, let Harbor Freight solve the problem.

I used a combination of rubber blasting gloves inside leather work gloves. Less than $10.

Would I use these to work on high voltage power lines where I knew I was coming into direct contact? No.

But looking at the process the HV gloves seemed more like a CYA thing. I had no problems and relative peace of mind.

 

As described above any reasonably insulating gloves will work. I mean, it's ~220V.

You can touch ANY part of the battery you want... with one piece of body. If you don't complete the electrical path, you can't get shocked. I make a habit of working with only one hand, or two hands touching the same tool. When I'm connecting/disconnecting the main +/- cables from the relays, I double check that no other part of me is in contact with the car. This precaution would only be necessary if two faults were to occur... HV leak at the battery, AND the 12V relay(s) stuck closed. Pretty remote chance of that... plus, I still check the main terminals for voltage AND the terminals on the other side of the main relays.

Toyota made it pretty hard to shock yourself unless something really goes wrong as I described above. Even then the safety plug removal cuts the voltage down by a good measure.

 

CPII, if you choose to go at without gloves, remember to removed any jewelry to minimize any arcing potential. It's similar to when I tell my daughters when we are buying purpose-built running shoes we're not going to the Ball here Cinderella, we are after fit and comfort. In your case we're looking for additional measures of personal safety for low to no dollars. I would say no gloves are fine but I would have a continuity tester to verify no power after the orange service plug is removed. .02

PS, Love your attitude towards maintaining your ride!

 

$80
Gloves cost $60.
Covers cost $20

It only takes one error to make it worth buying them.
No one makes anyone wear safety gloves.
Just like you don't have to turn off a circuit breaker to replace an outlet.

You'll be fine except for that one time you are not.

A business with employees is always going to tell them to wear the gloves.

If you did not have any time to buy gloves, or there was no gloves nearby, you could certainly do the job without them if you are careful and fully understand what you are doing.

 

.
The guy who replaced my big battery has over 25 years experience with such batteries. He wears the high voltage safety gloves all the time.; when just replacing it and when working on one in his shop . . . $80 or so is cheap insurance. Accidents happen.
.

 

Remember to remove the safety plug from the battery. Allow 20 minutes for capacitors in the inverter to discharge. Measure the voltage at the terminals, terminal to terminal and terminals to chassis, to confirm. Should be zero or a few fractions of a volt. Never create a circuit through your chest. Work right handed. Keep your left hand (heart arm) in your pocket not resting on the chassis. When lifting the battery wear leather gloves. Sheet metal is sharp.

 

Your welcome Kris. Always enjoy helping you.

If you were even remotely close I would come help you as you are a pisser.

As far as shock injury goes most of the time the shock doesn't hurt or kill you its the reaction your body takes to avert the shock. That instant reaction of OUCH! Thats when you fall off the ladder or whip back and strike your head or break a hand recoiling. So be aware of whats behind you....relax...follow Keiths advice and don't make a circuit....

Pull the BIG ORANGE PLUG!!! And always WEAR PROTECTIVE GLASSES!!!!! please...

 

If you're a lefty, it's okay to flip the working/pocket hand.

Bolded for truth!

 

after installing newpriusbatteries, with some cheapo gloves, IMHO i would use some bigger, better gloves if i ever messed with a Prius battery again. for both the sheet metal slices and the electrical situation.

it seems to me that theoretically its pretty safe. but its one of those Black Swan situations - there is a very low probability of something bad happening, but that bad thing can be extremely catastrophic. it doesnt feel like working on a gasoline car replacing an alternator or something.

it feels more like the situation with a table saw - lots of people use them every day without injury, but even the safest most experienced woodworkers can have some bizarre distraction for a split second, and then they get injured, sometimes killed (see youtube).

 

Now you've done it. I absolutely HAVE to change the channel anytime one of those shows comes on that has skateboard accidents, etc that show arms and legs bending in unusual directions. Typical blood, guts, etc doesn't really bother me, but something about those appendage angles kills me. And now, after your post, I may have to add another category. It's killing me because I want to check it out, but at the same time I don't because it will be in my mind everytime I fire up the skill saw, bandsaw, lathe, and every other power tool I own. It wouldn't have been so bad if you didn't mention youtube. I hate you man......

 

With apologies to George Carlin, I've been noticing that everybody who takes more safety precaution than I do is an idiot, and everybody who takes less is a maniac.

I do own the gloves, and the protectors, and they are hanging in their bag, indoors, in a temperature and humidity-controlled clean part of the house.

I do not, however, use them enough to feel the necessity of sending them to a lab for yearly recertification, or replacing them on the official schedule as if I were using them in a business. I'd feel like an idiot.

I was curious enough one time to try to find info on the tests that would be done in a lab. If I remember right, one would involve filling the glove with water, suspending it in water, and using a megger-type tester to measure conduction between the water inside and the water outside. That would be a test that I more or less have the stuff to unofficially perform, if I wanted to check before using them, and not feel like a maniac.