I have a vacation home that’s a high-rise condo, and my Prius sits there unused for weeks/months at a time. The garage has no power outlets or sunlight, so a normal trickle charger or a solar one is out of the question. I also don’t have anyone who can start and drive my car periodically. Calling AAA has thus far been my solution and I have already replaced the 12V battery a couple of times because the battery goes bad. I’ve heard several options, including disconnecting the negative terminal of the 12V battery, installing a battery kill switch, disabling SKS, and disconnecting the dome fuse. Unfortunately, I’m not car savvy, so I don’t even know what’s involved in disconnecting the dome fuse. Also, I’m not sure where I would disconnect the 12V battery because I’ve heard that there are several points where you can jump-start the car. Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!
welcome! with the parameters you've given us, i would say you're between a rock and a hard place. would trading it for a different car be out of the question? certainly, you can try pressing the sks switch under the steering wheel to off when you're leaving.
I would uninstall the 12v battery and put it on a plug in trickle charger inside the house while gone for all that time.
another thought is a portable jump starter, but letting the 12v die between visits will kill it in short order. disconnecting the neg cable is the best idea, but then you have to crawl in through the back seat to get to it. or you could connect the jump starter to the jump point under the hood, allowing you to open the hatch normally.
See if getting a solar or wall charger and using long term (secure) parking while your away is cheaper than paying to have dead batteries replaced at your garage parking spot. Some storage unit businesses allow long term vehicle parking (usually RV's); might be cheaper than parking lots.
Most convenient for me, and no memories lost, is to leave the battery as-is, hook up my smart charger (at the jumpstart point, under the hood). Let it run to completion, then just leave it on. A decent smart charger will can be left on thus, gives it a very slight boost from time to time. This is my strategy now, when the car's been sitting 3 days or more. My pref's, but there's a lot out there, and it should be around 3~4 amp: CTEK 3300, or 4.3.
