Quick Question re: charging battery while parked

it is more important for the 12 volt battery than the hybrid battery, but a smart charger can take care of that.
as hybrid batteries age, their tolerance for sitting is reduced. they will slowly seld discharge to a state that can damage the individual cells that are the weakest.

you can force charge the battery once in awhile by pressing hard on the brake, and flooring the accelerator.
keep an eye on it, and do it every time the battery icon drops below four bars.
it is impossible for us to know the state of your batteries, and recommend a drive time or frequency

 

yes, that would work. but if it's not a smart charger, it could eventually damage the battery.

a smart charger knows the battery level, and turns on and off to keep it topped up

 

As your hybrid battery gets older, the lack of regular driving will get more problematic. You could invest in a high voltage trickle charger to address that in the same way you address the 12v. Or you could plan to upgrade to a NexCell Lithium that doesn't have self discharge issues like Prius NiMH packs have... The trickle charger for hybrid battery is available via maxx volts or hybrid automotive in the $500 range or you can build your own for $100: Build Hybrid Battery Maintenance Gear For Under $100 | PriusChat

 

sorry for my poor explanation.
you want to keep the 12v charged so it doesn't die. separate issue from the hybrid battery.

you also want to keep the hybrid battery charged, which requires the engine, whether it is driving it, or force charging through the gas pedal.

a new battery will sit for a long time, slowly losing chage until it reaches a critical state, where it is damaged by the low charge. that applies to both batteries.

about half way is fine for the hybrid battery, though higher is okay.
the 12v likes to be near the top all the time, but short infrequent drives won't keep it there, because there is a constant drain on it when the car is off to keep some systems running.
that's why you need the smart charger.

the hybrid battery is isolated by the main relay when the car is off. there isn't an outside drain, but they do slowly self discharge.
the older the battery, and the poorer the state of health, the quicker it will reach a dangerous state and be damaged.
you can judge for yourself by starting the car, and seeing where the battery icon level is. you may find that it needs frequent charging, or infrequent. i would check it regularly in the beginning, then slowly back off the frequency as you grow comfortable with what rate it is losing charge.
a decent battery can go months without being charged

 

The older the pack gets, the greater the difference of discharge rates between blocks. Once you get a block discharging significantly faster than the other blocks you get the red triangle.

 

Just watching the mfd will tell you alot about how happy the hybrid battery is.

Is the battery going into no blue bars at a stoplight or a drive through. Ho fast do the blue bars decay at a light or drive thru?

And more importantly how far in the drive does it take to make the battery go from a purple bar into one or 2 blue bars? And yes a nice 30 minute drive is what it takes to keep the hybrid battery happy its now almost 15 years old. That's really old for any battery.

Btw, its at the most sweet spot for a recharging using a hybrid battery re charger like a Hybrid Auto recharger. You will then get another few years out of that battery as there's probably still some meat on its bones.

Its good to keep it alive for a few more years as new battery systems appear all the time like the lithium pack and get cheaper all the time.

 

So little information provided on the age, mileage and prior use of your two Prius’s it is very hard to be specific.

Generally the more you drive the better, the less you drive, the worse. Easy to keep 12v charged while sitting even with a battery tender solar charger. HV battery wants to be used.

If you don’t need two Prius’s why keep the one you favor least? Sell it now into a seller’s market, bank the money, use the better one and enjoy the ride.

 

That fills in the gaps.

It’s hard to sell a Prius with over 250k miles no matter how great it is. The uninformed prospective buyers never believe it can be in good repair. Also as you may notice on this forum a lot of other people bash them too as being risky with expected major repair items ready to manifest themselves. A well maintained Prius can last 500k miles although probably more likely 300k or so.

Sounds like one of yours is the dog car and the other one is the people car. That locks you into the situation you’re in.

If you let your dog roam into the nice car it likely will no longer be nice or a bear to clean.

The less you drive the dog car the less likely it will last longer or as long as the people car. Ironically that’s the way Prius’s work.

Insurance costs also factor in significantly to total cost of ownership. And if you don’t insure it someone will steal or total it, Murphy’s Law.

One thirty minute trip a week may be enough but make sure you change oil not based on miles alone. I’ve left mine for nearly a week unused occasionally but alway did it with dread.

 

you have two nice cars, i would do what it takes to keep them that way until you find another.

it may be inconvenient, but worthwhile

 

30 mins may be enough but dont know how cold its getting up there. Lots of g2 prius owners over the years put sheets of cardboard in front of the condenser to keep the engine warm in the winter. Living in Fla I have never never seen it that cold here but maybe soon lol...but looks like a bad winter this year. Not a bad idea to have a block heater also if you live in the tundra.


Its a good idea to get a scan gauge type obd code reader that reads out the engine temp since a G2 has no engine temp gauge which is madness. Scan gauge which is now Xgauge is a very handy thing to own. Pulls hybrid codes and temps and mounts nicely over the steering wheel. Works in all cars....I've used mine numerous times.