Hybrid Automotive Prolong Apology

It takes a real man to admit that he's wrong, and I feel sure that your apology will increase your standing in many other readers' opinions, as it certainly has done in mine!

 

Jeff’s a great guy.

He still answers my questions .

Glad to see it worked out in the end for you.

 

I'm wondering how much extra battery performance and life these add. Trying to figure out if it's worth it.

 

I have seen better performance. IMO it is.

I just lent out the charger and Discharger to another member here who had a “failed pack” (a bad module) and since replacing the cell and reconditioning the pack, he’s at higher mpg than he has seen.

Now it’s only ~200 miles into this, but the data will be collected over time. But even with a failed module, replacing that can still get good life out of a pack.

You still on your original pack?

 

I have 3 Gen1s. 1 is on a new Toyota battery, 1 is on a "reconditioned" battery and the other is on a rebuilt battery with updated cells. I can see how it might be worth the expense but I'd be looking at about $1000 for a system and 3 harnesses. It would take a lot of extra MPG to get that money back so I'm wondering how much extra life it could add.

 

3 gen 1’s, that’s impressive. I still see a fair bit of them out here, but you’ve tripled down.

Some questions:

• How old is the new Toyota pack?
• How old is the reconditioned pack?
• How old is the rebuilt pack?
• How much use does each get?
• How much longer would you want to run each, or is there a succession plan?
• If a large expense were to happen on one of the Prii, would that be the end of that Prius?

I share the setup with another member here, and the more setups you have, the more economical the gains.

I don’t look at it just from mpg gains, but cost avoidance and reliability improvement. If I don’t have to worry about spending money on replacing or rebuilding my hv battery, that’s good. If I can avoid having the car down unexpectedly due to a failed pack, that is also desired.

In the end, it’s all about time and money and how you choose to allocate it.

 

The new pack was put in last year after my daughters boyfriend filled the car with diesel. The fuel company covered it and a ton of other stuff because they filled the stations regular underground tank with diesel. Oops
The reconditioned one (I think by a member here in St. Joe, MO) and the rebuilt one I bought from the same guy last year. He said they were both done "recently" so I'm not sure what that means. They work fine now.

The new one and the rebuilt one don't get used much. My daughters drive them. The reconditioned one is mine and goes about 15K a year.
I want them all to run forever
The one daughter's with the rebuilt pack would be gone if it required a large repair. It has over 200 on it and right after we got it the tranny went out. We put about 1500 in it to replace the ICE & tranny so we're way behind on that one already.
The other 2 I'd like to keep running for a good long time.
The one I drive is an extra so we could rotate cars to get them all reconditioned.
I'll just have to do some hard thinking about what I'd do with each one if it required a new battery. I hope those new cylindrical replacement packs work out. It would be nice to not have to dish out $3000 for a new Toyota pack.

 

I believe the Gen 1 charger is different than the one for Gen 2/3. That limits sharing a bit but it would work good for 3 Gen 1s. You would likely want a harness for each car to make things easier.

 

I asked @2k1Toaster about a pack for the Gen 1. He said Toyota's current price on a new Gen 1 pack did not make his cost effective.
If you are interested, PM him, and he can explain things better.

 

Yah, that's where I got the $1000 figure. One full set (with harness) @$700 and 2 additional harnesses @ 150ea.

 

Actually Gen 4 NiMH would likely be best, but may be hard to find. They supposedly use a better quality nickel, according to Toyota. They have successfully been used in a Gen 2 by Todd from Tampa Hybrids.

 

More precisely, Gen 4 Trim One or Two only (not ECO).
Trim One was just publicly offered starting mid 2017.
Wrecked Prii are the only current sources.

 

Are the "young" OEM packs made with Gen2 cells?

 

The OEM packs from Toyota have new cells. Since they are compatible,I would expect they use either Gen 3 or Gen 4 NiMH cells. Toyota does not tell us that, AFAIK. Since they are compatible, they would not have any reason to produce the older cells unless the added expense of the better quality nickel in Gen 4 was a factor.

 

As already stated, in 2k1Toaster's opinion his modules would not be economical for a Gen 1, given Toyota's pricing on new Gen 1 packs, which are priced cheaper than Gen 2 (but maybe now not so great a difference with the recent drop in price of new Gen 2 packs). Because of this he does not offer a Gen 1 19 module option.

If you were thinking of just buying 1 or 2 modules to replace failed modules, a) that wouldn't be physically possible, and, b) it would be technically unwise.

Otherwise, I just don't understand the point you're making about how it can be a cheaper option.

 

Sorry I somehow forgot this is a Gen 1 thread.
I do not know of any reasonable after market solution.