They want $1000 up front, then a six-week wait. This is a huge red flag. I like the price and the "8 year" claim, but I think it might be scam, not sure at all.

Does anyone know? Has anyone used this website? Thanks for any input.

 

Not a scam. For me, order to ship was two months to the day. This morning I installed the BetterBattery in my 2007 HCH2 (received this past Friday), and couldn't be happier with how the car is working - no more recals every 10 minutes, and plenty of assist (so far), all the time.

Pros: 23% more capacity, new cells, and less expensive than refurb OEM battery. 2 yr transferable warranty. It appears to be a great battery, though time will tell. Well-packed, though bottom of shipping box was starting to bulge.

Cons: Difficult to get hold of those guys even simply to confirm ETA. A day or two after my order I received an email to the effect that they'd give me an ETA when it was in the system. At four weeks I finally reached someone, was told I was "number 4 in line" to get my battery built, and the person who assembles HCH2 batteries was only coming in once or twice a week. Not too reassuring. The next week I called again and was told my order had moved up to "number 3" - yay. Still no ETA. The following week (last week) I was just about to call again, and received an email the battery had shipped.

On some forum or another I read someone else's comments about them being hard to reach. So long as you plan for as much as an eight week wait and don't get too worried when they don't answer emails or return phone calls, I'd say they're fine. :-)

Hybrid-battery people, if you are reading this: Give your customers regular updates on their order, especially if it's delayed, OK?

 

I actually got really lucky. I took my 2005 HCH with 101,000 miles to a Honda dealer, and after an hour and a half I was told that my battery was "deteriorating" and that Honda would cover it.

So that was awesome.

 

Good deal. That Honda dealer sounds like a keeper!

I bought my 2007 HCH2 in Feb. with 116K miles on it for $8,500, from a private party. Similar cars from dealers were $10K or more, a few with recently replaced batteries, others not. I found dealers would not come down in price even if the car was showing obvious signs the IMA battery was toast. Anyway, this one was clean and well cared for. At the lower price I was okay with the likelihood it'd need a new battery.

Even with that failing battery I was coaxing 46-47mpg out of it - mostly highway miles on my work commute, but the frequent recals were starting to get scary because of unexpected and sometimes drastic loss of power. I had been compensating by using sport mode ("S" gear) more often, and being ready to floor the pedal if it decided to turn into a slug right when I needed to merge into highway traffic or start uphill.

Considering my HCH2 has also had "the update" to avoid deep discharge, I expect the new battery to last as long as I'll probably want to keep the car.

 

Just so everyone knows here is what I found: http://www.insightcentral.net/forums...ttery-com.html This is really bad news and I'm not sure what will happen if you already ordered a battery. luckily I got mine in on 4/24 and as of right now it is working. But so much for the warranty. So as of right now there is no more hybrid-battery.com

 

They accepted my $1000 deposit for a "Better Battery" on 4/22, then today (5/8) when I inquired about an ETA, I received a response that they had ceased operation on 5/4. At least someone responded, which is encouraging, but just in case I have disputed the $1000 charge with American Express. I guess the Hansens just didn't know on 4/22 that they were about to pull the plug. Bummer to the max.

 

I feel so **** lucky that Honda covered my battery under the 150,000 mile/10 year warranty. From the research I did, it didn't seem like they should have (2005 is ULEV, California 10yr/150,000 warranty is for SULEV -- 2006 Civic Hybrid and up).

Maybe they figured, "**** it, don't want the guy to regret buying our hybrid."

 

Honda replaced mine around 80k. It began failing again around 185k and now at 190k I've finally learned that this car actually has a regular starter. :-) Since there no longer appears to be any aftermarket source for these batteries, it's looking like the ROI equation post warranty needs to incorporate $3k+ every 100k miles for battery replacement.

 

That's actually cool with me, because this is a commuter car. I barely scratch 6k a year.

 

Your mileage may vary of course.

I'm coming up on 265,000 miles on my 2003 HCH and have never replaced my IMA pack. The CEL/IMA light has been on (P1600 and P1449) for close to 100,000 miles. I still get over 50 MPG and have no plans to replace the IMA battery as I decided long ago to just run it as long as I can.

I'll drive this car until the IMA system stops charging the 12V battery, the ICE finally quits or if the car rusts out from underneath me. Still shooting for 300,000...