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[Review] Prolong Reconditioning Kit

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Vysse, Aug 19, 2016.

  1. Vysse

    Vysse Junior Member

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    So I picked up the Prolong Reconditioning Kit and wanted to give a little bit of a review on it. I will probably update this as time goes on since I will likely have a different experience over time.


    Installation
    Installing was pretty easy overall and it felt very much like it was OEM because of how perfect everything fit in there. You only have to cut one wire which is nice because I didn't want to tear my vehicle up too much. There were no especially unique tools needed for the job either. It did take me some time to do but that is partially because I was double checking everything and making sure it was done right. They also have certain cities where you can get it installed for a fee but I lived near none of them and even if I did it was easy enough to do myself.

    Usage
    So once it is setup it is easy to use. Discharging sucks because you will need to check on it frequently or order their Intelligent Discharger (but I ended up not as it was another 400 or so dollars) but it is pretty simple. The instructions can be a bit confusing and I found myself going back to them a lot but again I double check things. Charging is easy to do but can take quite some time. All in all it took me 5ish days to do a full reconditioning.

    Actual Results
    So first off I have not driven much just into town and back which is about 70 miles or so round trip. My MPG went from a high of 43 with an average of 41 to a high of 50 with an average of 46. Also considering there are a lot of hills round trip where I was driving I think I could do better. These are highway miles and will update with city when I can. Now my battery still hasn't gotten full bars yet but I am hopeful. It does seem like my battery drains faster then it did before though at least when heavily accelerating/going up hills. My battery overall seems to be fuller then before but still won't fill those last two bars. Going to contact Jeff and see if he has insight on this. One final note the car seems to run quieter then before and overall better.

    Conclusion
    So far so good. I will update if/when things change. I hope somebody finds this useful.


    [UPDATE 1]
    So I took a different route today then usual to a different city that is technically closer and easier on gas to get to (less MPG). I got average 59 MPG and as high as 65 average MPG. There was some city driving but that only seemed to keep my MPG stable.
     
    #1 Vysse, Aug 19, 2016
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2016
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  2. hchu1

    hchu1 Active Member

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    Good info, continue the update. (y)
     
  3. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    I recently bought just the charger and am seeing very positive results. But was tempted to go to the next step so bought the 2 light bulb discharge kit and the discharge cable. I was disappointed in that I have to go back in there and cut up the charger cable and re-install it to the relay contactor. And now there's a fuse buried in the battery box so if that pops you have to go back in the battery box again.
    From an Engineering standpoint I think they could come up with one harness with maybe a connection box at the charger end that houses the fuse and does it all so the customer does not have to go back in to the battery box again and change it. That way it would be a seamless transition to discharge. And offer only one harness.

    Anyway not having discharged it yet I too am confused also about the discharge levels and when to change the light bulbs. The 2 charts provided on there website seem to contradict themselves.

    Btw, how many miles on your battery? I have 96K on my car and I bought it new. The Florida heat got me.

    How long of a charge/re-balance did you do after the discharge?
     
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  4. Vysse

    Vysse Junior Member

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    It was confusing at first but I now understand it all quite well. One chart is for each discharge cycle and shows how low to go. The other chart is when to change the bulbs. I have 117k on my car.

    Given you haven't used the discharger before but have used the charger I am curious to see if you see a difference. Please keep me in the loop as to how it effects your car.
     
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  5. jeff652

    jeff652 Senior Member

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    This is a fair criticism, and the number one reason we receive post sales phone calls. We are working on addressing this as quickly as we can. How to discharge using the Prolong Simple Discharger is going to be the topic of our first ever video that will be coming out very soon. It should be released by Sept. 15th (I think). We are going to be making several videos over the next few months to better communicate how to use our products. Hope you guys can stand to see my ugly mug, because yours truly is going to be the star of the show ;-)

    [​IMG]


    In the mean time, give us a call at 800-589-0730 and we can talk you through the process.
     

    Attached Files:

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  6. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Ok Jeff thanks,

    Regards,
    Ray
     
  7. Vysse

    Vysse Junior Member

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    Posted some updates from the past few days of driving.
     
  8. AAA

    AAA Junior Member

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    Well, how was it in the long run?
    Was it worth it to buzzer with expense and regular procedures
    as opposed to just getting a new battery ONCE with guaranteed results and no maintenance?

    (Not to mention some possible extra fun
    )
     
  9. Jmack111

    Jmack111 Member

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  10. andrewclaus

    andrewclaus Active Member

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    Incandescent lamps are resistive wire filaments and don't care whether it's AC or DC. There's no inductive component.

    At 200V, you should have matched 120V-rated loads in series. Does anyone know why the lamp base blew up in the video? Bad math? Bad wiring? Maybe both? Good thing the guy wasn't hurt--I hope he had eye protection in addition to the nice gloves.
     
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  11. jeff652

    jeff652 Senior Member

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    Without seeing the wiring, it's impossible to say what he did wrong. Thankfully our light bulb dischargers have never done that :eek:
     
  12. Jmack111

    Jmack111 Member

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    Well kinda true but the light design for 120 volts 100 Watts that .88 amp he putting over 300amp in to the light was my point. Better off doing one or two cells at a time much easier to do and then charge it back up

    but just running the AC at max and parking the car well to the samething then going down a big hill to charge it

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  13. jeff652

    jeff652 Senior Member

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    #13 jeff652, Jan 13, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2017
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  14. WilDavis

    WilDavis Senior Member

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    OUCH! My goodness that looks molto serioso! I would guess a short or mistake somewhere in the wiring! I used the 2-lamp setup when doing my first discharge/recondition about a year ago, and remember that there was a short flash from the base of one of the 200W lamp bulbs when I removed it at the first bulb change. Looking at your video makes me wonder if there might have been a fault in the base of the lamp you used (I've had bad lamp bulbs on more than one occasion). BTW I use Nitrile gloves, and although your Gauntlets-Of-Ogre-Power might be fine for insulation, I find that they reduce my pleasure (…so to speak) :eek: - from my previous postings re. Prolong, you'll see I have much the same reservations as you re. the discharge cycles being difficult to monitor and predict, but if you follow my posts, you will learn that the most recent full recondition (see posts passim) was totally successful (using an Intelligent Discharger), took about 80 hours in total, and I can report that the SoC is spending most of its time now in the high-greens (62% to 75%); the MPG is about what I would expect for this time of the year (gasoline mixture) and my driving mostly short runs about town. - hope this helps - Wil :)
     
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  15. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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  16. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Please stop.

    Software limits both battery charge and depletion about 30% on both ends so no matter what you do the car if healthy will not allow you to deplete the hybrid battery more that 70% nor come close to fully charging.
    OnLy way to fully 100% charge or discharge is manually with outboard system like prolong.
     
  17. Jmack111

    Jmack111 Member

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    Wasn't aware of limits but would use a 220V DC to AC 110V /220V and use a heater that will do both 110 or 220v with a variac so you can turn up the voltage slowly easier on the batteries but I thought if you depleted the batteries completely. I thought you have to have a special charger to charge it I would probably use a car charger with the variac that can do 2amps or less to charge the battery adjusting to the proper voltage

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  18. Jmack111

    Jmack111 Member

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    Or the base was 60watt base max


    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  19. andrewclaus

    andrewclaus Active Member

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    Nope, those open keyless bases, even plastic ones, are rated at 300W or more. The ones I just checked said 600W. And that was not a thermal failure, which would have melted slowly--it sure looked like a very low impedance short circuit. I agree with the above it was most likely a wiring fault.
     
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  20. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    I see a couple possibilities on the lamp base blowing up. One is that the wires looked pretty bad. Used? Perhaps the sockets weren't up to snuff either. Sometimes the hot connection in the base gets wimpy and doesn't make solid contact. I've had several light fixtures where that happened and I had to reach in with a hook of some kind to pull it out and get some tension on it. This being a DC circuit, there's a pretty good arc when the bulb screws in and makes contact and a bigger one when it breaks contact. If the socket was loose, there would be lots of arcing and heat build up in it. Because of that arc, I'm considering finding a suitable switch to put into the wires of my Prolong discharger to avoid wear and tear on the light bulb socket and the bulb itself.

    The other possibility is that maybe the guy had the sockets wired in parallel rather than series. Way more current and heat that way.

    Edit to add: I got the Prolong because we had two Gen 2 Prii. Even though I now have a PiP, my wife still has her '07 Gen 2.
     
    #20 jerrymildred, Jan 14, 2017
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2017
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