Reconditioning Experience with Hybrid Automotive's Prolong System

Welcome to Prius Chat .

Some notes:

• There is only one fan that is part of the process: the hv battery fan
• The fan runs through the charger and Discharger
• You can use a battery maintainer for your 12 volt during the process

Mind sharing more about what you are looking for?

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

I'm looking to get a larger 250v power supply that would charge it at 2.5a (possibly limiting it to 2a) instead of using the prolong charger. Set it to 230v, charge, then set it at 300ma and up the voltage to 245. But I would need to find out how to activate the fan manually as I will have the cables but not the charger.

I would need to get a separate adjustable power supply for the fan so I could figure out how the fan works.

 

I'm curious. Which "Other Non-Hybrid" traction battery will you be grid charging? The Prius only has one fan. (Except the plug-in versions, but they are lithium.)

 

Hah, should have read all the way to the end of the thread. Raytheeagle pretty much said the same things I was going to say.

The only thing I'll add,

I'd be very cautious about using a higher current for charging except for in the same 40% to 80% SoC range that the car does. But if you were to use a higher current over that range, I'd definitely be ensuring I ran the HV battery cooling fan. How high of a current were you thinking of using?

 

Are you sure that is true for an "Other Non-Hybrid" ?

 

I’m not sure of anything.

But in what I’ve seen and done, we need more information .

Maybe @evildoughboi will return and answer our questions .

 

I'm not sure where this chunk fits in, but here it is anyway (…and it's useful for picking out other snippets of info. which might be useful in the future):

…and so starting the discharge to 84V (I'll check after 6 hours this time! )
13:48 134V 0.22A (4h 10min)
15:00 172V (…on the bounce! …darn! missed again!)
Oh well, let's try a long soaker, then discharge to 17V...

...settling down to 198V with current bouncing around (40-350mA) pretty quickly!
19:20 226V 361mA
08:40 234V 362mA (17hrs)
10:10 234V 362mA
00:42 238V 361mA (33hrs)
07:17 239V 360mA (40hrs)

Discharge to 17V:
11:36 144V 0.22A (4h 15m)

(134V happened @ 4h 20m (useful for future reference!)

 

Finally made it!:
12:33 036V 0.22A
12:50 017V 0.22A (around 5h 30m)

Now for the last long soaker!

 

I'm currently looking to get a gen2 prius but not sure if I'm going to get the vehicle and if I want to dive into reconditioning the battery. I have a pretty busy summer and while I have other vehicles I can drive, I may not have the time to figure all this out at this moment.

I would be looking to charge at 2A at lower SOC, below 40% and after a deep discharge. That is why I'll be setting the voltage at around 230 or 235V and the current should taper off once it reaches close to 230. Once its at high SOC, i'll be limiting the current to 300ma and doing a soak charge to balance the cells. I'm not sure what current it'll be at what SOC, but i'll try to be conservative so I don't overheat the battery.

 

How much time do you reckon you’ll be saving versus buying the Prolong equipment and using it as it is designed?

I think you’ll also have to consider the time you’ll spend trying to design what you want into this equation as well.

Since you can do other things while the Prolong equipment is servicing your batteries needs and requires very little interaction, you can do other things while the pack is being rejuvenated.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

…to me, it sounds a bit like he's trying to re-invent the wheel!

 

Agreed.

Somebody had already done the heavy lifting, I see no need to go any further .

My life is already busy enough, just use what’s out there.

 

I am reminded of the old saying about "keeping a dog and barking yourself!"
Just about to go and check the long soaker!

 

Final Soaker:
11:15 238V 361mA (22+hours)

 

The only benefit would be time of charge which may save anywhere between 5-10 hours per charge from low SOC, possibly more if i could track temperatures and rate of charge and optimize the charge. I would be essentially dialing in what the set voltage would be at (230 vs maybe as high as 240) to increase charging current and this is the only difference between this type of low current charger and what the "professionals" use. I agree that i'm reinventing the wheel, but this wheel may be faster. I think batteries may require a long soak (12+ hrs) at very close to maximum voltage for balance and potentially increase capacity, but I may be able to get there much faster.

 

...ah! ...there's the rub! (see my earlier quote re. patience!)

 

Well, here's the latest:

Final Soaker:
11:15 238V 361mA (22+hours)
22:00 238V 361mA (33+hours)

I'll let it run until around breakfast time tomorrow morning, and then let it rest for a couple of hours! Job done! Hallelujah!!!

 

Hallelujah! Indeed! Here's the final reading:
07:20 240V 360mA (42+hours)

I'll monitor to see if and what changes I notice!

 

I ordered the Prolong Value kit for my 2007 Camry Hybrid; shipped on July 10th, but still stuck in UPS ground glitches. A couple of things that might help others that own both a 2007 generation HyCam and the 2010 generation Prius and some questions:

1. The rep told me the charger for the 2007 HyCam could be used on my 2010 Prius as well.

2. However the intelligent discharger for the 2007 HyCam CANNOT be used on the 2010 Prius. This caused me to go with the bulb discharger (Value reconditioning package) as I didn't want to invest in 2 different dischargers. I didn't ask, but I am now wondering if perhaps the intelligent discharger for the 2010 Prius could be used on the 2007 HyCam (converse of the charger compatibility)? Or perhaps there's an internal switch in the 2007 HyCam discharger that I could use to adapt it to the 2010 Prius, or the converse?

I would appreciate a confirmation/clarification from @jeff652 on the above.

Thanks in advance.

 

I’m pretty sure the charger would be the issue as the batteries are different sizes.

But I’ll be in a similar position at some point when the RX450h battery will need to be reconditioned. I’ll just buy the correct setup when the time comes .

Good luck and keep us posted .