Had a 2012 V, updated now to a 2017. The Optima website, as well as the AutoZone website, say that there is no Optima battery option that will fit the 2017. The same old -767 battery is listed for the 2012-2016 Prius V. Have they just not updated things, or did they change the battery in the 2017 V? Paul
I doubt Toyota changed the battery. There are indications that if the 2018 Prius v comes to the US it will be basically unchanged too. My son enjoys his 2015 Prius v.
I guess I will dig into the trunk and see what the OEM battery is, and see if that matches the 2012-2016. Paul
Actually yes....it's a news car, and has 10 scanners, two way radios, and a 700 watt AC to DC inverter. It's got 24,000 miles of day and night shifts on it, and with the engine off, the "standby" power has steadily decreased. We used to be able to keep the engine off for an hour and a half before the inverter 11.5v low battery beep alerted, now maybe 7-10 minutes top before the little 12v is drained to empty. :-( Paul
Hoping the Yellow Top can take the more frequent 11.5v discharges better in the long run. How much is an OEm battery anyway...at common discount locations? Paul
I am not sure. Would it make sense to have 2 batteries in parallel to increase the capacity? Our experimenter @bwilson4web might have some insights on the issues doing that. I know he ran a 1000w inverter on an older Prius many years ago,
Think I would run two batteries with a marine battery isolator / combiner. This would allow you to run your offline loads with a large capacity deep cycle marine battery and still have the Prius battery for it's intended purposes. Some isolators will allow more than one battery. A good battery box for the second battery would be desirable maybe vented with a tee off the Prius battery vent hose. The lowest cost isolators are diode based and cause the secondary battery to receive lower charging voltages. A full electronic isolator costs more but will work better. Some models will allow a temporary switchover to jump start the Prus should the primary battery fail. As a result, you could keep the factory battery until it was really necessary to replace. An easy to get isolator is
We considered a dual battery on Prius V number 1, but the small Yellow Top in the 2012 seemed to keep the car alive long enough...this OEM battery going belly up so quickly was not expected though. Paul
The inverter will protect itself from overcurrent. The reality is that a deep discharge on your primary car battery causes just as high charging currents PLUS you have limited amp-hours with the factory battery to start with since it is smaller than normal. On top of that, you are potentially losing hybrid tuning parameters plus you are risking expensive hybrid system damage if you have to jump start the car. A properly installed isolator allows you to fix those problems. A secondary Marine Deep Discharge battery is designed for your kind of application and will likely last longer than a small Prius battery. When it does need replacement, you can find one anywhere.
oh, for shame, draining a car battery repeatedly to a voltage that low would certainly do it in prematurely. I would prefer a voltage no lower than 12.2 volts, before it recharges, if you want a long lifespan. The Toyota battery is pretty small for constant inverter use. Perhaps, a second battery should be added with an RV battery isolation relay for the inverter.
Well, going to replace it with another factory OEM battery. As for jump starting, I always perform that using a small jumper box connected to the battery terminals in the trunk, not from the front near the engine. The 700 watt inverter has an 11.5v shut-off, so this has been keeping the car from frequent complete discharges, but still not good. On a side note, the Yellow Top Optima in our old 2013 Prius went up in sulfuric acid smoke early this morning, after being jump started and allowed to idle to charge from DEAD. I am reading a lot of similar reports on the Optimas. :-O Paul