Hello, I am new to this group, I have a 2004 Toyota Prius, and I got it two and half years ago. I have some experience with Priuses but am pretty new to it. I am currently trying to recondition my hybrid battery modules. I have read a couple of forums and watched a couple of videos about it. I got two Tenergy T180 battery chargers because I found some info about them and I am also on a tight budget. I have been cycling the modules for the past four days, I am still in the process, but I don't like the numbers that I am getting and I don't know if it is because of the chargers or the modules are really bad. The results are very inconsistent and the majority of the modules that I have done so far have not even gotten a reading above 2500mah and I am very concerned about it. I don't know if I should replace the majority of them or find a better method. I do want to point out that I have been driving with a bad hybrid battery code for a long time and that might be the reason why they are all giving a low reading, but I would to hear your guys opinions and suggestions. These are the settings I used to cycle the modules. capacity 6500 chg current 5.0a dchg current 5.0a dchg end volt 6.3v CHG/DCHG 5T 5 min in between
It's hard to get accurate capacity readings until after you've reconditioned modules (three successively deeper discharges & recharges) And in general these Tenergy measurements aren't very accurate as they're only measuring how much electricity is being sent, not how much is being lost to heat and not received. Hope you got fans to keep the heat down! Also a much more accurate way to test modules is measure voltage drop at 2minutes when module is connected to 12v 50w bulb. You can use your headlight bulb if it's a standard Halogen bulb. Also more tests that help is how much voltage does each module lose after a full charge after a few days or longer of just sitting there (aka: self discharge test). And if you have a cheap thermal camera you can find modules that are running hot that let you eliminate them before they fail. You can also weigh modules and the lightest ones will be the one that have vented/lost electrolyte. There's more tests than that, but those are some of the best ones...
Thanks for replying, could you recommend me good chargers that I could use for this. How exactly do I recondition modules, because that's what I thought I was doing by cycling the modules? Could you explain how to measure voltage drop at 2 minutes, what should I be looking for? As well as how to find the bad modules by the weight or any other ways.[/QUOTE]
Yes I know that some will not agree with this.................. But "reconditioning" a battery that already has signs of getting "weak" is largely a waste of time. It might appear to make the battery better but in reality it probably will just change a cell that is slowly losing capacity to one that works better for a short time........and then fails completely suddenly a short time later.
You could have a lot of variables going on, including the wire size you're using, the stop voltage and the delta setpoint the charger is using to determine when the 'full charge' has been reached. I'm not familiar with the charger you're using, but they all typically use very similar programming. Why don't you try it with some lower settings, as banging it with 5A in and out, over and over, potentially with insufficuient cooling may be your undoing. Try using a 2A charge, 1.5A discharge, 8200 max charge mAh, 20mv delta and a finish voltage of 5.8v. Small wires or bad connections will give false voltage readings at the charger. Make sure your safety stops are not set in such a way that the charger times out. IE, don't have the max charge time set to 180 minutes if you're using a 2A charge rate. I've cycled thousands of Toyota modules using similar settings, but I've been using CQ3 chargers, which are a bit more limited on the discharge wattage than what you're using. More wattage doesn't necessarily provide an advantage, as you really want a lower current as the module depletes. I just finished a set of Highlander modules yesterday. 26 of 30 modules tested >6100mAh. 4 were bad. The goal isn't always cycling for improvement (although that does happen), but also verifying the module is good and has the correct voltage curve to show all individual cells inside are functioning properly.
CQ3 charger in this video. Some discussion here Hybrid battery balancing | Page 7 | PriusChat And here Cycling battery modules - do these results make sense? | PriusChat
