Fuel efficiency and emissions are outstanding bonuses of hybrid cars, also price-competitive. Unfortunately, if your battery pack is damaged, your car’s overall functionality is rendered useless. It is, therefore, necessary to determine if the hybrid battery needs replacing or reconditioning. If you are also looking for an in-depth guide about it, then our article Hybrid Battery Reconditioning is going to be helpful for you.
There may be a problem with your battery pack, or its capacity has decreased. A cell or module loses capacity very frequently, so it needs to be reconditioned.
What is a Hybrid Battery?
With the exception of having the ability to recharge, a hybrid car battery is similar to any other battery. Electrolytes are iron-rich solutions that sit between two electrodes in hybrid batteries. Polymer films separate the electrodes to prevent a short circuit.
How Car Hybrid Batteries Work
A hybrid vehicle combines electric and conventional cars. In the same way as traditional vehicles, hybrid vehicles include both gasoline and lead-acid batteries. So that the driver is not even aware of the change in power source, the vehicle switches seamlessly between them. Regenerative braking is the process by which the electric battery recharges. Pressing the brake pedal produces energy that charges the electric battery.
An electric motor powers a hybrid motor, which draws energy from a battery to power an internal combustion engine. There is no way to charge the battery in a hybrid electric car. Regenerative braking and the internal combustion engine are used to charge the battery instead. A smaller engine can potentially be made possible because of the additional power the electric motor provides. In addition to reducing engine idling, the battery maintains auxiliary loads. This can help reduce fuel consumption without sacrificing performance.
Why is Reconditioning Important?
Battery reconditioning can often restore the performance of a battery. Hybrid batteries require regular maintenance to remain functional. Depending on their condition, there may be more than just a reconditioning service needed for hybrid batteries.
Reconditioning involves taking out damaged batteries or cell modules. This determines which batteries to replace based on the warranty. It would be necessary to replace the battery pack sooner without this capability. Battery reconditioning is the best option for those who love the environment or are cost-conscious. Technicians can focus on just the issue cells rather than replace the whole battery pack. The new battery can cost up to $4,500 for some models.
Benefits of Hybrid Battery Reconditioning
In hybrid cars, the battery pack is reconditioned when damage occurs after the warranty period has expired. Below are some of the best advantages of the Reconditioning of Hybrid Batteries.
- A new battery can cost anywhere between $3,000 and $6,000. The price depends on your pack’s specification. If you recondition rather than buy new, you will save about 25 to 50 percent on the total cost.
- With reconditioned batteries, hybrid car owners will also enjoy lower maintenance costs.
- By reducing these wastes in society, you can help protect the environment. Batteries of this type can pollute, especially our groundwater and soil.
Each hybrid car has seven cells in its battery pack, and an estimated 500,000 hybrids are produced every year. A total of 3.5 million NiMH cells are generated if all owners replace them after a year.
Hybrid Battery Reconditioning
Charge and balance the battery pack and deep discharge the battery is essential to hybrid battery reconditioning. A hybrid battery reconditioning procedure combines charging and deep discharging several times.
By doing this, you can prolong the life of your battery. Constant charging and discharging of batteries reduce voltage depression. Increasing the voltage will make the battery last long after its capacity is restored. Furthermore, it is possible to recondition almost dead batteries with a standard charger. Nevertheless, you cannot do everything by yourself. You can recondition a very old hybrid battery today using various available devices.
Step by Step Guide to Reconditioning Hybrid Battery
You should disconnect the 12 V auxiliary battery first to prevent a discharge. This is a detailed guide to reconditioning and increasing the life of your hybrid battery:
Step No 1: Charging the battery should be the first step. Write down its voltage. Check that the battery has reached full capacity. After it has fully charged, the voltage will stop increasing automatically. Do not leave it at 70% or 80% charge. When the batteries are fully charged and discharged, the voltage depression inside the battery cells is broken down during the process.
Step No 2: At this point, our battery must be completely discharged or at least 0.8 volts per cell. Check your battery voltage once more. The termination point of every battery is different. Charge and discharge your battery only when the pack level is low. In addition, Battery voltage should not be lower than 0.8 V per cell during the initial charge cycle.
Step No 3: Follow step 1 again. Proceed step by step throughout the process. When the battery voltage is stable, stop charging it. Typically, hybrid batteries don’t have battery indicators, so you won’t always know how fully charged. Whenever you charge or discharge the battery, you should pay attention to the voltage.
Step no 4: Moreover, follow step 2 again. It is important to discharge the battery to 0.6V per cell instead of 0.8V per cell to avoid damaging it. As the battery charge decreases, be sure to check the voltage. Under no circumstances should it drop below 0.6. Recharging and discharging the battery will bring it back to life.
Step No 5: Moreover, you again need to follow Step 1 Exactly given above.
Step No 6: Furthermore, Charge the battery for about five minutes after the second step has been completed. This will be the final discharge of the battery. This will end the voltage depression.
Step No 7: The battery should be charged again after you have discharged it for the last time. Even after the voltage goes down, you should continue to run the charger for 6 hours. That way, your battery pack will remain balanced.
Step No 8: Once the battery has been recharged three times, disconnect the charger. Moreover, allow your car’s battery to sit for 30 to 60 minutes before starting it.
Moreover, We recommend charging and discharging it three times. Even if you don’t have time for three phases, you can still complete the discharge cycle. By Monday morning, most people will have finished two discharge cycles if they start reconditioning the battery on Friday evening.
Reconditioning Remanufactured Hybrid Batteries
HV batteries used to be scrapyard parts before being remanufactured. Buying hundreds of cores allows them to buy thousands of modules (usual groups of 4-8 cells each). Simply put, to implement the process, you need to use many modules.
Step No 1: Physical inspection of the used parts is essential to separate the good from the bad, which is true for any remanufacturing task.
Step No 2: Set up a customized stress test. Your batteries will show which cells are weak during this test. You can determine whether reconditioning is working once you identify the weak spots.
Step No 3: Step 2 gives you the good modules in the battery. When you find them, you should match them accordingly. Battery packs with hybrid technology usually contain 12 modules while higher-end batteries contain 40 modules.
Imagine for a moment what your car’s fuel injector is like. Fuel is flowing nearly at the same rate as when you use an old fuel injector with seven injectors when you use a new fuel injector. In the same way, as the old injector flows, the new injector likewise does.
Modules that match flow electricity more smoothly. Keeping the hybrid light off is a good idea. The battery reacts to each cycle differently. When the cell voltage starts to rise, the electrons push it up. Once you have completed the reconditioning process, the battery will pick up incorrectly matched modules. The best way to avoid the car stopping in the middle of the road is to access most of the modules.
Step No 4: Put the battery inside the car and assemble the parts. Make sure the battery works by joining any loose ends. It is best to buy a new battery if neither of these methods works. Besides completing the steps on your own, are there any other options? A car repair technician can assist you. If he is familiar with hybrid battery reconditioning.
What Are the Symptoms of Hybrid Dead Battery?
The vehicle’s maintenance and driving habits, as well as its road condition, might help the batteries last longer. Battery hybrid modules are also at risk of wearing out over time. It is much more affordable to recondition the hybrid battery than to replace the whole unit, but if you don’t want to replace it before a certain mileage threshold, you should not have to do it. Essentially, hybrid batteries fail when they show signs and symptoms. Here are a few indications that it may be time to replace or repair it.
- Decreased Fuel Economy
- State of Charge or SOC fluctuations.
- Your hybrid battery is not holding a charge.
- It is more common to use internal combustion engines.
- There is a strange sound coming from the engine.
When you notice any symptoms of a failing battery, you should have your hybrid battery examined by an expert. You should take appropriate steps to correct the problem as soon as possible by knowing what caused it.
Wrapping Up
However, hybrid batteries suffer from imperfections and problems just as conventional batteries do. As time goes on, they will gradually wear out. There may be no way to extend the battery’s life for many years, but you can extend its life for less. It might be cheaper to do the Hybrid Battery Reconditioning than having the whole battery replaced, but it will get the job done. It can be used for another 2/3 years since it extends the battery’s life. The battery will also perform better.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do recondition hybrid batteries work?
Answer: Reconditioning saves you approximately 25 percent to 50 percent compared with purchasing a brand new. By replacing their old batteries with reconditioned ones, hybrid car owners can reduce maintenance costs.
What is hybrid battery reconditioning?
Answer: Battery aging can be reversed and restored to its original state using deep discharging techniques combined with charging and balancing processes. This process clears crystal formations and voltage depressions from NiMh batteries modules and cells.
Can we replace cells in a hybrid battery?
Answer: There are usually up to 40 individual panels or cells inside hybrid batteries, rather than one big battery. By swapping or replacing these modules individually, you may clear the warning on the dashboard.
Can you test a hybrid battery?
Answer: Checking the Hybrid Battery requires conducting a Stress Test. Repair shops need to have a tool capable of gathering live battery data to conduct this test. Stress testing will be performed using special diagnostic tools like TechStream for Toyota Brand or third-party scan tools such as Matco and Snap-on.
Will a hybrid car run without a hybrid battery?
Answer: The 12-volt power is switched to more by pressing this button. Transferring power from one battery to another will take some time. It is possible to drive a hybrid vehicle even if only one battery is functioning properly.
Do recondition batteries work?
Answer: Dead batteries can be revived using these chargers. People may wonder if battery reconditioning chargers work properly, but that is common. This type of charger provides satisfactory results and has a good track record.
What is inside the Hybrid battery?
Answer: Multiple cells are used in hybrid batteries. The hybrid battery pack in a car provides enormous power since it contains so many small cells. Positive electrodes are also present in both types of batteries.
