Prolong Battery Charger Question

seems early for any of this. racking up miles on a 2011 is good for the battery. i would wait until you see signs of degradation, but i'm no expert.

 

Welcome to Prius Chat .

I have the Prolong setup on our 2010 with 171 k miles on it for the very reason you are taking about.

It has kept our battery in great condition and restored life into the pack .

But every situation is different. Have you seen any signs of the pack getting weak? Fast cycling of the bars on the HSI display? Battery not lasting in traffic?

I also share the setup with another member here in my geographic area to help reduce costs (and currently have the charger and Discharger loaned out to another member who is rebuilding a battery ).

So it comes in handy and can be good if you want to keep your Prius for a very long time.

Hope that helps.

 

That's an excellent idea.. Defray the Cost.

 

I thought so.

 

Yes, they have an incentive to sell units but IIRC Prolong recommends grid charging on hybrid batteries as early as 5 years old. Gen 3 batteries started appearing here in failure reports a couple of years ago.

There are too many variables in each owner's situation to give an definitive yes or no recommendation.

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Ahh but can owners recognize degradation when it happens so slooooooooowly? (The frog in a pot of hot water analogy.) Hybrid owners don't get the same snazzy feedback monitors that we PHEV owners do (guess o' meters, charge times, etc.,). Trying to judge performance by fuel economy numbers is one way but those can also point to other factors (weather, tires, ICE maintenance, driving conditions, etc) that can muddy things and if one waits till there are more definite signs like a rapidly rising/falling SOC meter, it's really of little benefit by then.

 

all good points. but when is too soon too soon? perhaps investing in mini vci and educating oneself would be a better place to start.

 

I would say, before 8 yrs / 100K miles on a non-CARB state and 10 yrs / 150K miles in a CARB state.

as it is under warranty

 

Well what’s the battery warranty in VA?

That’s one place to start. If it is 8/100 then now is a perfect time to start as it is about to go outside of the warranty period.

I installed our Prolong harness at the 149 k like mark out here in CA.

Haven’t looked back.

 

makes sense in one way, but a weakening battery might die after the warranty. i would say close to 150k is a good time to start, regardless of warranty. but if one is serious, start monitoring the state of health earlier, as a benchmark.
also, i would be more concerned with time than miles, especially for those who don't drive much, and maybe warmer climes.

 

The warranty time frame is an important factor and something I considered addressing in my previous post but decided not to open that can o' worms but since ya'll did........

One way to look at the option of deferring battery maintenance till after the warranty has expired is this: do folks defer proper oil servicing till the powertrain warranty is over? No, it's important to do it all the time. So is waiting 8 or 10 years out to finally do something about the battery the right course of action???

 

i guess because oil servicing is time proven and recommended by all engine manufacturers, where battery servicing is more like playing pin the tale on the donkey.

 

The issue is that you have to break the seals on the HV battery to install the harness. If you install it prior to the warranty expiring, and then the battery does fail, you're going to eat that battery replacement. Odds of it happening are pretty slim, but my luck would just about guarantee it would happen to me.......

 

If you are out somewhere and the battery fails under warranty and you have installed that Prolong Charger "Pigtail". When Toyota see that they are going to deny your claim void your warranty.

Removing the pigtail prior to having the vehicle towed in is not an easy task.

 

Yeah the little insiders secret about the knob on the orange safety plug to remove the tamper identifying tabs isn’t well communicated.

But I am a believer in Murphy’s law and I don’t gamble for the same reason .

 

And the green lightweight plastic tape seals that tear as soon as you move the cover

 

wow, that's important! thank you!