Hey I was woundering if I can put a grid charger on my hi hy. I see then on other hybrids but never on a hihy. If I can do it what grid charger can I get? Thanks

 

Bottom line is don't do it. It's very dangerous (fire risk, alkaline damage, etc) and doing it properly is still risky and expensive for the benefit it provides. You can do some minor charging with very low current chargers (ie mA) but again not much benefit to it. Best option would be to look at spending your money by adding more battery capacity instead.

 

This is nonsense advice. Grid charging at low voltage will re-balance a high voltage battery pack and either save it once it starts to go bad or provide exceptional maintenance throughout the life of the battery pack. I had the dreaded IMA fault battery code with my Honda Insight (which means if you bring it into the Honda dealership they will replace the battery) and installed a grid charger on it for 24 hours.

The grid charger completely balanced the batteries and it is as good as new. I've driven 10,000 miles with zero issues off a single grid charge. As soon as I started it up after grid charging the engine light went off, the IMA light went off and the battery started charging normally again.

I cannot recommend grid charging a high voltage hybrid battery pack enough.

Now, I'm looking to do it for my Ford Escapes just to maintain those batteries.

 

Like I said when done properly it is possible (not disputing the benefits of a properly designed grid charging system) but there are no off the shelf chargers for a HiHy (unlike both the Prius and the Insight) that I have seen so going custom you need to really know what your are doing or you can do serious damage to your pack. I damaged 2 modules just experimenting with low current charging so be careful.

Done incorrectly and your batteries look like this after:

 

Ahhh, ok I see what you were saying now. My apologies. I contacted HybridRevolt about this issue and they are coming out with a new 400VDC grid charger in about 90 days. They will be able to do the harness for the Ford Escape hybrid and I'm sure if someone asked they could probably do a harness for the Toyota Highlander as well.

 

I'd love to hear how it goes with your Escape Hybrid installing the grid charger and any benefits because I would certainly like to get one for my HiHy but no one seems to make one as of yet.

 

Great thread any updates?