Hello everyone. I just bought a 2013 about two weeks ago. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I have the chance to buy a spare battery from a 2011 for what I think is cheap $250 The donor car was wrecked. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my battery its in very good condition. I'm a tech guy and the reconditioning process interests me. My question is can the second battery sit around waiting for an unknown amount of time on the chance my battery goes bad? Thanks Tom
Welcome to battery work... That's about what my re-builder friends pay for packs, so you got a good deal. I've found that a pack that's not in a vehicle and kept on my parts rack do quite well for years, as long as I periodically trickle charge & balance once I get the latest self discharge numbers for the spread sheet. But if a pack is left in a vehicle for a long time and doesn't get used very often things go from bad to worse much faster than when it's well cared for on a shelf. The good thing about having a spare pack ready to go is not just a less than one hour fix if your existing pack goes bad, but also you can loan the pack out to Prius friends or sometimes someone wants to sell a Prius with a bad pack real quick and you could flip that car for significant cash real quick. What kind of work do you plan to get started with? Perhaps building a high voltage trickle charge so you can recondition? Here's one example: Build Hybrid Battery Maintenance Gear For Under $100 | PriusChat
Thank you so much for your reply. I will buy the battery!! I'm still learning about the rebalancing process and I'm going to check out the link to the Battery maintenance gear. As for my car its a 2012 with a 124000 miles from California. I live in the Northeast so it was nice to see a car with out any rust or corrosion issues. My first project was polishing the headlights. Next is LED bulbs throughout. I may purchase an inverter to us the car as a back up generator for my home if the power goes out!!
