Yes the first car charge after a PROPER 12V reset took a while to do 15-20 minutes seems about what I saw, Then after each subsequent reset it took less time.

What I actually saw was it charged to 4 bars slowly, then it started quickly climbing to 8. I then flipped my switch on the 12v battery for 30s started the car again. Then again the heavy charge for about 3-4 minutes, then quickly to 8 bars. Rinse repeat.

I have now pulled the battery and put in my red neck blower. When I checked it was sitting at 181.1V on the .350A charger. I will check it later this afternoon then continue your proceedure.

 

Meant to mention earlier, had you put the bulbs in parallel, there's a good chance they'll pop. In series, they effectively split the voltage between them with 2X the resistance of a single bulb. In parallel, the resistance is 1/2 that of a SINGLE bulb, and you get the full voltage. I have a 500W halogen that I like to use for quick discharges, and it rarely lasts more than 1 full discharge to 120V.

I think the 4 to 8 bar jump is because the car suddenly realizes the battery is "full" at a mid-point in the charge cycle, and it runs it straight up - much like a recal with the bars increasing at 1 bar per second.

After 3X 12V resets/charge cycles, the battery should be very near or even a little over true 80% SoC, so I wouldn't charge more than about 5 hours, regardless of peak voltage.

Additionally, I have had best results waiting overnight before exposing the car to the fully charged pack voltage OR bleeding the back down to about 175V with a discharger if you're in a hurry.

 

I used big 150w incandecents for the discharge, used smaller 36w halogens for the final draw down to 2V.

I just checked my voltage and it is at 184.3V so I am going to stop charging at this point and start packing up. I have a 400 mile drive ahead of me tomorrow from LA (Lower Alabama) back to the Atlanta area. Been a good week, got the charging and cycles done, hung out with some friends I have not seen in years. Learned a lot from S Keith about the process. Interesting that as little as 3 months ago I was home bound and unable to even leave my apartment regularly.


Thanks for everything again, I am sure I will have more questions as time goes on. I will update this thread after I get back to Atlanta with the results.

 

If you monitor current, and it's less than 1A, the 150W incandescents are probably good to zero. I'm going to play around with this my next discharge.

Good luck. I wish you the best. Very glad to hear you're previous home-bound situation has changed.

 

Just a report on my trip back. gas milage was better than it had been, but it was only about 38. I suspect because it was mostly highway and gaining altitude that was about as good as I am going to get. My assist is much better now though and the battery seems to be behaving better.

 

Lack of recalibrations after 400mils?

What was your speed? If you were in the 70mph+ range, that's about all you can expect.

 

I averaged about 65 and was getting 38, but I had periods of very slow speed that got mapped into that as I was driving in severe congestion in lower Alabama (Florida Panhandle).

I believe I had 2 recals in the past 400 miles both soon after the 12v resets and then being on the road a short time. I expected both and I do not believe I have seen one since. All in all I spent way to much money on buying parts for the charging apparatus, but it was a learning experience and I think I would replicate the entire affair for far less now that I know what and why everything is there.

I suspect I have some maintenance coming up that will help milage further, but I am waiting till maint minder tells me it is time to change the oil.

 

I have a 2012 Toyota Prius C, its running great but the battery is showing deterioration. I also have a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid throwing P0A7F.
I would like to take charge of slowing the battery deterioration on my Prius and pushing the life on the Civic's battery.
I am an engineer by trade but am new to this kind of work. So I ask yall what you suggest I do/buy for my vehicles.

I've read quite a bit on grid charging & fast discharge so i am wondering what grid charger would be suggested for my vehicles.
EDIT: It is not an Aqua model

 

If you have an Aqua, I assume you're not in the U.S., but "yall" implies you're a redneck. Being from Oklahoma, I don't intend that as a derogatory term, and I'm qualified to judge.

You have stumped me. Perhaps you are an American redneck overseas?

The Civic has 132 cells. The Aqua has 120. I would consider a Prolong reconditioning package with the automatic discharger for the Civic and a spare harness for the Aqua. You should be able to use the charger & discharger for both.

Note that the Generation 3 Prius batteries generally don't respond well to reconditioning. This is because the Gen3 hybrid systems are extremely hard on their batteries, and the cooling system is ineffective coupled with poor thermal management parameters. Once a Gen3 Prius battery starts to show signs of poor performance, the entire battery is severely and permanently damaged. In most cases a handful of modules have 10-20% rated capacity. Typically another 2/3 of the pack has less than 50% rated capacity and only 4-5 modules are truly "strong" and reliable.

Reconditioning almost always does nothing meaningful for a Gen3.

I have direct experience with approximately 30 2010-2015 Generation 3 Prii and 6 Prius C. In 100% of cases, the above has been true. Your results may be different, but it is not likely unless you are in a VERY cool climate - like NEVER above 90°F/32°C.

Concerning the Honda, it's a wild shot in the dark. Unfortunately, the 06-08 HCH has the dubious honor of having the 2nd worst hybrid battery ever made with a 1 in 6 failure rate after 5-7 years. It is second only to the 09-11 HCH with a 1 in 3 failure rate in 4-5 years.

Honda did pretty much everything wrong on the 06+ HCH. Poor battery management in terms of depth of discharge and poor thermal management are the primary culprits. They made the pack more compact by removing the baffles in the 03-05 HCH that helped improve flow around the "D" cells. They staggered them such that flow between two cells directly hit the next cell down the line. Unfortunately, this means that at most 50% of the cell surface was cooled, which created a hot spot on the back side of every single cell. As a result, most HCH2 packs fail due to excessive self-discharge on almost every cell due to heat damage.

They tried to fix it in '09 by increasing the spacing between the cells to allow more airflow... unfortunately, they just created larger and more severe hotspots.

Ironically, the exact same cells in the worst batteries ever made are in the best hybrid battery ever made - the Ford Escape Hybrid. Why? Because Ford aggressively managed temperature (rear evaporator provides A/C cooling for the battery) and allowed uniform cooling with baffles between each cell group to utilize most of the available surface area for cooling.

Why all the blah, blah blah?

Investing in a grid charging solution may not pay off. You may want to consider putting your dollars towards battery replacement. If you decide to go with grid charging, they are a great way to maintain the health of good batteries.

 

"If you have an Aqua, I assume you're not in the U.S., but "yall" implies you're a redneck. Being from Oklahoma, I don't intend that as a derogatory term, and I'm qualified to judge." You've illuminated my ignorance. I thought Prius Aqua and Prius C were synonymous models of each other. I am from Chattanooga
Tennessee to clarify, so yes we do get temperatures as high as 100F in the summer.

This is concerning news, I was hoping I was able to catch the Prius early enough to slow down that process. I am not looking to dump 500$ + man hours on a solution that isn't statistically favorable.
I am not too experienced in these systems, but I am eager to figure it out. I just would rather not waste my time with it. Thanks for your input, I've read more of your posts than i would like to admit.