12V Battery Charging/Maintaining, Apt. Dweller Solutions

IMHO; a jump box would be more prudent and she could start the car right away; instead of sitting there waiting for it to charge. As long as she keeps the car in 'Ready' mode while parked - listening to the radio, she should be fine.
Most of the issues was a bad batch of batteries and people x-mas tree a bunch of electronics into the lighter socket. Someone even admitted to putting in an oversized fuse into the circuit because they kept blowing the OEM sized one. Strange how bad news spreads like wildfire and good news gets ignored.....

Good Luck...

 

and tell her to never use any accessories unless the car is 'ready'.

 

@Probity said

 

Underground parking in an apartment complex is a very difficult scenario. Maybe just a battery disconnect for the times she's leaving the car idle for "1-2 weeks"? It seems to me it'd be near futile, managing "overnight parking at friends", often enough to effective.

With a house, we've got it easy. We drive about 3k kms a year (yup), and the car regularly sits a week, or more. I've got a CTEK charger hooked up during the idle times, near constantly. I've got a CTEK quick-connect permanently wired at the under-hood fuse box.

There's a brass bar for clamping jump starter, but there's also the main 12 volt cable feeding in with a pig-tail connector. It's under a fussy cover: remove that, and you've got relatively secure spot to connect the positive. Neg you connect to at grounded bolt.

I leave the quick connect socket under the hood, so hood has to be ajar to access. FWIW, anything hanging out the grill could be shorted out, by rain, or some joker with a paper clip.

 

Sorry; I've found that tongue-lashing really doesn't work. Explaining something is quite different from doing. You need to show and make them do it. Unfortunately, as a young adult - you'll need her buy-in. I've done that with my kids and my best friend's kids; when they wanted their drivers license. They had to demonstrate basic self rescue skills. That included jump-start, spare tire change, and basic fluid checks under the hood.
While you know how to use that jump-pack; it was simply a paperweight to her. They'll be OK; as long as they don't stray out of cell phone range. That skill set came in handy when we did a multi-family camp-out. One of them got a flat, so we were just drinking beers, while she was begging us to help her change the tire. "Sorry - we're too drunk to handle heavy equipment" but we'll hold the tools for you... She actually did pretty good, considering it's been a decade since those lessons. We did have to remind her how to break the lug nuts loose by jumping up and down on the tire-iron.

 

Did you see this thread?

 

Worked ok for me. The CTEK quick connect cable I'm using has an inline fuse too, fwiw. It's not a bad idea to disconnect the 12 volt battery ground connection when adding a ringlet to that positive stud.

 

I'm in the process of personalizing my LE, lol.

Velcro sticks to the trunk lining material. It's not as fuzzy as some other linings I have experience with, but it still sticks.

I put a big strip of velcro on the back of the Harbor Freight Viking jump pack and put it on top of the battery lid, up against the liner.

It's out of the way, easily removed for battery access or actual use. If too easily removed, lol, I might stick velcro to the top of the battery case, but it's brand new...

 

You many want to move that up front; perhaps under the seat. If your battery is really dead; you may not be able to pop the trunk and have to crawl back there to retrieve it.
As long as the car is parked in your garage, the cold may not effect it's use. Just remember that those lithium batteries likes to be warm too.

 

Not much room under the seat. Plus doesn't Toyota frown on putting stuff under the seats?

If I managed to unlock the driver door with the mechanical key, would I be able to open the side passenger rear door with the mechanical button? I'm thinking not.

edit: Still, I could open the passenger door from the inside, then open the rear passenger side door with the inside handle while standing outside, then make the reach. No crawling.

 

Was thinking similarly. Still, in a bad front end collision, it might become airborne. Under the seat would be better in that regard. And less prone to thieves' interest.

 

i put stuff under the seats all the time, why does toyota recommend against it?

 

That was from memory. Something to do with airbags?
For sure there's no woofer under there, lol.
Anyway, I tried to squeeze it under the seat and it wouldn't fit. I do have it all the way down though.
At least I'll see it in the trunk. I had a can of the inflate a tire under the seat in my old car that I only remembered when I cleaned it out.

 

The seat sensor for airbag activation. Too much junk under there can snag and disable it. "lawyer speak".
I've got my emergency 4-D cell flashlight/club under there along with road flares (chemical type). Got a couple of large old-time jump packs in the garage, that gets tossed in on road trips.

 

i put everything in from behind the seat, it's roomier, though i can't speak to gen 5 prius