I want to balance charge my Prius HV battery. But since it is needed every day, I thought I could just buy 1 or probably 2 second hand ones from the breakers and make one good HV battery out of it, so I can swap that one for my own and then check mine. Maybe this will lead to refurbishing HV batteries for selling, but we'll see about that. As far as I know, there's no people doing that yet in my country. If and when I do this, I will try to run the whole reconditioning process of off solarpanels so I can claim 100% green refurbishment . (This is more because I don't have electricity in the garage where I would be doing this, but why not use it as a marketing instrument...) I did an internet request for HV batteries and they came back with 500 to 750euro (~600-900$). This seems pretty excessive for unbalanced and unchecked Gen2 batteries... What would you consider a reasonable price?
That is the price range most junkyards want in the US. They also want your core back which defeats the purpose of buying a battery. This website can show you what every junkyard in the US is asking for batteries. Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market Brad
What's the "core"? I think the cheapest was also the newest, so maybe I should have taken it more serious. But I thought I had seen Ebayprices of 200-300$
"Core" is an esoteric expression, maybe only used in North America? Basically means the price charged by seller of the battery is contingent on you giving him your old battery.
You have been listening to the WRONG people. Balancing the multi-cell battery is NOT NEEDED EVERY DAY. Indeed, a good argument can be made that your average owner doesn't need to worry about that at all......EVER.
I don't think he's saying that. Just that he needs his car every day, so his battery refurb technique needs to work around that.
I think as Brad points out the price you pay depends alot on supply and demand where you are. I just bought a very low mileage battery (60k kms) for my highlander for around $350 cash. Now you go on car-part.com and people want alot more money for ones with alot more miles but the key is to know where the value lies. If you have alot of people near you that are rebuilding these (we don't), then obviously the cost of that supply will go up. The things I look for are: 1) lower mileage 2) came from a cold location (heat is a killer of battery life) 3) how long has the battery been out of service (I prefer ones less than 3-4 months out of service) 4) test the voltage before buying (not fool proof, just another check to help you choose wisely)
In my opinion, it would be a better option to buy something like the Prolong charger advertised around the forums for $200-$400 and take a weekend off to balance charge your battery than spend up to double that for used batteries that may very well not work at all and could cause problems just to accomplish the same purpose.
