Battery Pack Replacement Options

...Or skip the hassle, and have the Prolong system teke the tedium out of the process. Hybrid Automotive even sells used modules they try & match to your pack. One stop shopping ant time savings without whack-a-mole.

 

Actually, it's way more hassle to fly blind with no charge-discharge data on individual modules and only use Prolong system. The bad rap that Hybrid Battery Pack rebuilding gets is based largely on people not taking the time to identify and replace the weakest modules before they go bad.

 

That is part of it. But even as you say this is very time intensive to do correctly. And most people don't have that time or patience.
But the second part of the reality is that NiMH like all batteries are consumable. They do have a finite life and will fail. When you are trying to breathe life back into a battery that is 18 years old, sometimes you just can't. You can help prolong their death, and you can revive them a few times. But it is a temporary solution.

 

That is why you offer an inexpensive DIY alternative with your Kit of new Cells for $1600 shipped, IIRC.

 

It doesn't have to be time consuming... When I first started one round of charging and discharging all 28 individual modules it seemed impossible. First time I stopped resisting and actually tried it took me two days and still seemed ridiculous/ impossible. Second time I tried I did it in one day...Third time I tried just 8 hours!

And from everything I learned I've now gathered up a bunch of kitchen timers, multi-testers, discharge lights, and chargers, which once assembled will cut a one round of battery conditioning from 8 hours down to below 4 hours, which is not only faster than the pro reconditioning machine that Prolong sells for $4k, but it harvests way more data too. This individual module charge very much compliments then putting it back in the car and and setting it up with Prolong's grid charging system. I highly recommend people use both methods! It makes a difference!

Most enjoyable challenge of this type of work is thinking up new ways to do everything faster and more efficiently, which frees up time to be more thorough. That's the puzzle I'm trying to figure...

 

I agree, but in a society of over-consumption where a third of all food produced ends up as waste and never gets eaten, where manufacturers plan the lifespan of their product around getting the owner to want to buy a new one rather than focus on durability and repairability. We have to wake up to the fact that we have limited resources and can't sustain mass over-consumption forever... We have to be sensible!

And Granted, I'd be way more excited to not work on an old pack and buy one of your brand new battery packs for $1600 (thought it was $1700?) but at the same time Prius having a hybrid battery pack that does great in a car for 10 years with no basic maintenance is amazing. But even more amazing is doing basic maintenance on all these packs to maximize the lifespan of them. That's essential if we're gonna shift away from a future of chaotic and highly destructive hyper-consumption reaching its limit.

 

Do you realize you are arguing with somebody who works with rechargeable batteries like these every day in his profession? I expect he knows more about the time to do the job well than almost anyone else here.

 

Do you realize I'm not arguing? Do you realize I'm discussing battery pack stuff with a collegue? Do you realize I'm likely to become a customer of him more than once in coming months? Do you realize that how long it takes to do a job can get way faster if your refine the process and then share that knowledge with your colleagues so they can benefit from it too? And most of all, do you realize that I'm not arguing with him, I'm only arguing with you because your belittling tone towards me indicates that you want someone to argue with you?