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How accurate is the “Dr. Prius” app?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Reesmaxwell, Dec 10, 2018.

  1. Reesmaxwell

    Reesmaxwell New Member

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    I recently purchased my first Prius, a 2012: Four with 65k. Got a Carista ODB II and ran the hybrid battery life expectancy test...says 75.8% capacity. Not sure I believe that on an almost 6 year old NiMH battery.,,but maybe with only 65K?

    I’m not complaining, just wondering if Dr. Prius is at all reliable as measure of remaining battery capacity, or if it’s more of a tea leaf reading.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    good question. that seems low to me, do you know the cars history?

    i tend to judge by mpg's.
     
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  3. padroo

    padroo Senior Member

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    I agree with bisco, if you are getting good gas mileage it means your battery is doing it's job and don't worry about it.

    What kind of gas mileage are you getting?
     
  4. Reesmaxwell

    Reesmaxwell New Member

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    I forgot to look earlier today with two longer drives, but just now:
    41.9 MPG for 4.4 miles. Pretty much entirely flat terrain on that drive. Some stop and go. Is this reasonable? (Probably hard to tell for such a short drive.)
    This week I’ve been trying to just drive fairly normally, giving longer/less abrupt stops when I can (thinking that’ll regenerate the battery better than fast stops). I’ve also been a little more conservative from a stop where no one was on my @ss.
    I’ll keep watch on the end of the trip mileage the car reports. And I’ll try to take some longer trips to see.
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    actually, the shorter the drive, the more the warm up penalty, so 44 is very good.

    reset the trip meter and take it for a long spin (20+ miles) under varied conditions
     
  6. padroo

    padroo Senior Member

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    When I drive the same roads going places there are places I always get bad gas mileage for example leaving home. When I leave home the car is always in warm up mode so the MPG stay low until the engine can shut off and then I start getting the higher mpg. Some roads are good for gas mileage and some aren't, that's just the way it is. I get my best gas mileage when I go at leat 20 miles without stopping.
     
  7. Reesmaxwell

    Reesmaxwell New Member

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    Ok, all good stuff. I’ll find some excuses to go on a nice drive and report back.

    Thank y’all for your help!
     
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  8. VFerdman

    VFerdman Senior Member

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    Best way to measure gas mileage is to drive a few tankfulls worth and take an average taking measurements at the pump, not the mfd. Mfd can be, shall we say, optimistic. If it's cold where you drive and you have heat set to 72 it'll take more gas to keep the cabin warm. Typically summer is better for gas mileage.
     
  9. jacktheripper

    jacktheripper Active Member

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    The number 75.8% is a number from actually discharging your battery from 80% to 40% at 1C rate and compensate with other factors like temperature and variation during the test. The number sounds about right for a 2014.

    hope this helps.

    Jack
     
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  10. rjdriver

    rjdriver Active Member

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    A couple of weeks ago I did the Dr Prius remaining life test on my 2012 C with 127,000 miles on it, which I have had since new. The result was 84.99%, which I was pleased with, but somewhat surprised. I expected less. My miles are split as follows: 45% highway speeds of 55-75 mph, 45% rural roads at speeds of 30-50 mph, and 10% stop and go/city driving. I have checked the battery cooling fan maybe 3 times during the life of the car, cleaning off any dust found, but there was never much there. I don't often have passengers in the back, but when I do, it's usually one on the passenger side. I make sure the vent to the cooling fan is kept unobstructed.

    Have read here and in other forums of battery life expectancy ranging all over the place, from less than 100,000 miles to 400,000 miles on taxis in California. Does anyone have a handle on what factors might age a hybrid battery faster for one person than another?
     
  11. jacktheripper

    jacktheripper Active Member

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    From my experience:

    The number one enemy of the Prius battery is heat, since Prius traction battery is only cabin air cool, the cabin temperature pretty much decide whether the battery is going to be happy or not, and since the battery fan only active while driving above certain speed, local driving (taxi) tend to shorten the battery life.

    The number two enemy of the Prius battery is living at the hill side, imagine every morning you cruising down that hill, charging the hack out of the battery while it's still cold, the result is heating up the battery at a super fast rate and shorten it's life span.

    With the Dr. Prius App, you could override the fan speed if noise is not an issue for you, as of living at the hill side, slowly cruising down the hill might help.

    Jack

     
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  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I've just taken a first look, haven't done any of the tests yet, just the "battery monitor", and this is what I'm seeing. Green means good I think? @Raytheeagle ?

    IMG_0874.PNG

    The 15.96 and one or two of the 16.06 stayed rock-steady. One of the 16.01's (#7) I think, dipped to 15.96 once while I was watching. The in between ones were dancing around some.
     
    #12 Mendel Leisk, Jul 15, 2019
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2019
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  13. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Looks good;).

    Internal resistances per block seem a bit high, but not out of the norm(y).
     
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  14. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    At the risk of sounding pedantic, battery capacity is not the same as battery lifetime.

    Assuming that the app authors have labeled the readout accurately, it’s just giving you a one-shot comparison to what a new battery would store. You’d need more info to give it a time dimension, and to figure out how linear the loss is over that time.
     
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  15. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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  16. jacktheripper

    jacktheripper Active Member

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    @Mendel Leisk , that looks healthy from the first glance, but I wonder why the discharge/charge and MaxCharge wasn't showing on your screen capture? was it always like that?
     
  17. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    The car was not totally on, just two pushes of the power button without foot on brake, maybe due to that? First time I've used the app, so no clue.

    Interesting too: ambient temp in the garage (fairly accurate measure I think) was around 68F, and the car hadn't been driven since yesterday morning. The garage does heat up on sunny afternoons though. Still, seems like the battery's a big heat-sink. Centre temp sensor (#2) is slightly higher too.

    IMG_0875.JPG
     
    #17 Mendel Leisk, Jul 15, 2019
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2019
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  18. jacktheripper

    jacktheripper Active Member

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    Yup, the battery fan is always off when car off, those solid 30kg NiMH are pretty good at retaining heat.
     
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  19. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Nice thermometer :).

    Looks seasoned(y).
     
  20. WilDavis

    WilDavis Senior Member

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    …I agree! (…better be careful here, it's starting to look like Thermometer Envy! :eek:)
     
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