Can you store a HV battery long term?

If you buy the Prolong equipment and charge it up, yes.

First you’ll need to see the condition of the battery to determine the next steps .

But it is possible .

 

If you're going to buy the prolong for $700, plus another battery $500?. That is almost the price of a new battery at the wholesale level $1600. Why bother

 

StephenJ,

It sounds like you're planning well ahead. An alternate option to storage: If you can get the battery cheaply, and seeing that you're not under the gun for time, you may want to go the inexpensive route and get a small hobby charger. You have plenty of time to test each individual module in the pack to find where they're at in regard to capacity. On the 'new' battery, pop off the cover, remove the busbar/wiring harnesses. That should leave you 28 modules clamped together and mounted on the bottom plate. Record each module serial number and it's initial voltage. You can then use the hobby charger to discharge/charge each module. (don't forget to have a fan blowing across the pack for cooling) The initial discharge value is important because it will essentially tell you how much energy that module had stored at the time it was removed from the car. If all 28 initial discharge values are grouped closely, that's a really good thing. Sometimes they'll be spread out all over the place with some modules having 1000mAH and others having 5000. In cases like that, you definitely want to keep an eye on the weaker ones. After you've done 3 or 4 discharge/charge cycles on the modules, you'll know which ones are good and which are weak. Get matching replacement modules and build yourself a kick*** battery. Then put it in your car. Now test all your originals the same way. If your original is better, then put it back in. Whichever you have left that's not installed, you can either build it and sell it, or just sell it/part it out to recoup your $$.

 

And as JC said, if you're looking at $1200 for a total, you're way better off getting a battery from a wrecked 2016/2015 for the same $$ or less and just swapping those modules into your pack. Ten years of no worries............

 

Does that mean a free battery? If so, that would make a little more economic sense but if your 09 battery last for several more years because you're proactive and begin grid charging now and not waiting till you have problems then that could mean a lot of effort at trying to keep the donor patient alive. You would also need two harnesses as swapping them out is not advised and would be a real PITA labor wise.

 

If you really want to be proactive and get your battery situation sorted out, you should start looking for a late model battery 2015+ ($1200). Put this newer battery in your car and sell your old working battery for $500. Your net cost would be the prolong cost. Without the headaches of constantly maintaining your battery again

 

Is the case plug n play?

 

No, you would need to swap the modules if it's not a gen2 battery.

But there are many gen2 cars with replacement new batteries by now, chances are a wreck might have a newer Toyota battery

 

You’ll have to pull off the cover to the battery and inspect the individual modules for their serial number.

There is a decoding system and if you search here, you’ll find the method.

If you’re going to investigate though, pull the orange safety plug for safety.

 

If the modules have been sitting that long, you'll have to charge them in order to test them/use them. If you stick them in a car and fire it up, the batteries will probably die a very quick and painful death.

 

Read this:
Gen II Prius Individual Battery Module Replacement | PriusChat
Everything you will need to know is in there. You do have the luxury of only needing one hobby charger as you are in no hurry.
And build a load tester.

 

i think ni-mh likes a full charge. get a prolong set up.

 

Tough question @2k1Toaster ?

 

My wife told me the same thing the other day.

 

When a battery is refurbished, it just means it (hopefully) has been through a thorough inspection, cleaning, and charge/discharge cycles. That "refurbished" term is liberally used and it doesn't really tell you anything about what's been done to the battery.

Even if a "refurbished" battery has been reconditioned the proper way, it still will lose charge when it sits. The weaker cells will drop voltage much faster than the stronger ones on the pack (it's basically made up of 28 used modules at this point). So you would still need to fully charge the battery after it's been sitting for maybe 3+ months before using it.

Dorman has a spec for the selling dealers to return the battery to the manufacturer if it hasn't sold in a certain amount of time (since it would be out of balance and discharged). It may be 6 months on Dorman's timeframe, but I would say 3 months is the limit I would let a battery sit before it needing a top end balance (recharge).