Can I borrow your battery charger/balancer/reconditioner?

It can....and does.
Trying to "balance" a string of series cells by working on the whole pack while still together is where the biggest waste of time comes in.
The current going to each cell will be limited by the worst one in the string.......just like when it is charged in normal use.
The new one(s) may never get fully charged and/or the old ones might fail quicker.

SO.....to really do any good, you must work on each cell individually BEFORE you work on the whole pack together.
By the time you buy the equipment and harness to do that properly, you might have spent about half the cost of a new battery or more.

This is not necessarily a bad thing to do but one needs to understand the trade-offs.......and the fact that you might not really save any money in the long run.

 

I know zero about the Volt Max. Sorry.

 

I just wanted to clarify as I don't think you are comparing apples with apples.

It seems you are comparing A) a Maxx Volts (MV) charger with B) a Hybrid Automotive (HA) deluxe reconditioning package, given the pricing you quote.

As far as I am aware, MV in A) only offers a charger, no discharger.

HA deluxe recondition package in B) gives you a harness, a charger, and an automatic discharger in the set.

To do a fair comparison, you need to look at an HA charger only product, which is priced similarly to the MV, but also includes the harness you need. Be aware that if you intend to purchase the discharger later, you need to get the "discharger ready" harness which will work with both the charger and the discharger.

 

Hybrid Automotive also has a package with just the charger and harness. They sell those items separately too.

 

That's exactly the point I'm making in my last paragraph. Sorry if I was not clear.

 

In reality, it is not. It represents good value for money for what you get. Consider some "rebuilders" are charging $1.500 for a set of sketchy second-hand 15-16 yo modules.

$25-$35 for each good module, maybe more if you can put some time into each one to do some cycles and provide some quantitive benchmark like mAh capacity.

 

@jeff652 @Raytheeagle @jerrymildred and several others would disagree with that state. Jeff designed and builds the Prolong charger. I understand if you call Hybrid Automotive they are willing to explain the operation of their system better than anybody here except Jeff.

 

I don't see how one thing follows the other, can you please explain in this scenario how it is the biggest waste of time?

Can you explain how working on a module of 6 cells in series is different from working on a battery of 168 cells in series? Given that it is not possible to access individual cells due to the sealed nature of the prismatic modules, how do you see working at module level to be different (and inherently better) from working at the battery level? I can see that it is possible to get finer metrics and maybe tighter control, but that is really an individual goal rather than a better process.

So are you contradicting yourself? Are you now saying that using the Prolong system is doing it properly? The cost of which (at $683* for Prius Gen 2) is a little over ⅓ the cost of the cheapest new replacement option and less than ¼ of a new Toyota option. For some, the newpriusbatteries.com aftermarket option is not an option, so stretching out the useful life of the existing battery becomes a different proposition.

For sure it is all about trade-offs. There is not a one size fits all solution here.

It is not as super good as you might think.

There are pros and cons for working on individual modules vs on the whole battery, but I don't think that the end result is necessarily that different however you do it. It comes down to what trade-offs are acceptable to you.

The biggest plus for a grid charging system vs RC hobby chargers is the ease of use (charging in place) and repeatability.


* That is for the package with the automatic discharger. If you take the value package for $469 it is a cheaper option with a manual discharger. Then cost/benefit ratios get even better.

 

That makes sense. The grid charger was designed to charge a pack. The hobby chargers were not. There are some apps (Dr. Prius.) that @TMR-JWAP likes to use that track the voltage of individual modules whilst driving, I believe. It also tracks other statistics.

 

You do not charge the whole pack using hobby chargers. To use them requires removing the pack and opening to get to the modules and there's nothing wrong with that. The modules are then charged/discharged individually. Multi-channel chargers can do more than one at a time, the most common multi-channel chargers having 4 channels so 4 modules at a time. These chargers are generally designed to cater for charging multi-cell batteries up to 14 or 15 cells per battery (and in the context of hobby charging a Prius module is a battery).

 

Not really. No need to do them "at the same time".
Most reports that I have seen are folks who buy small variable voltage "hobby" chargers and do them one at a time.
The "special purpose" chargers that you are talking about are generally not equipped to do individual cells......I think.

And just a reminder that I think this whole thing is a huge waste of time and money........unless you really enjoy tinkering with things like that.