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Let discuss about the step by step instructions on hybrid battery reconditioning, Where NiMH batteries are one of the most efficient hybrid batteries available today. However, at 100% charge, they discharge more quickly than when they are at 40% charge, which makes them quite difficult to keep in optimum condition.
Today, almost 90% of cars use hybrid batteries to improve energy management, reduce emissions, and improve fuel efficiency. The hybrid battery is the workhorse of a hybrid vehicle. It stores energy from the gasoline engine when the vehicle is moving.
In the meantime, it recharges the battery with the assistance of a gasoline engine when the car is stationary. Some cars use 120 cells per battery while others have up to 250 cells, which gives them different energy capacities and, of course, different lifespans.
The hybrid battery is easy to recharge, and it needs only a few minutes. In spite of these batteries lasting for years, they will eventually fail. You will notice they are draining faster than before, and sometimes they won’t even charge properly.
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If your hybrid battery is out of warranty, it will be more expensive to replace it. You can save some money by reconditioning them instead.
Over time, batteries discharge their initial capacity because of the self-discharge characteristics and constant use. So, you need to have a good way of reconditioning that will be able to recharge cells and put them in good condition.
Many people overlook that overcharging a battery decreases its lifespan. In the same way, repeatedly charging and discharging also reduces battery life.
In such cases, there is one thing to do: recondition the battery or spend a fortune on a new one. Reconditioning is the ideal option if you don’t want to spend on a new battery immediately. But how will you recondition a hybrid battery? This guide will help you with the answers.
Hybrid Battery Reconditioning:
There are two essential elements of hybrid battery reconditioning: charging and balancing the battery pack and deep discharging the battery. Hybrid battery reconditioning involves combining the charging and deep discharging process several times.
This helps the battery to wake up from the dead. The constant charging and discharging process break down voltage depression in the battery cells. It restores the battery’s capacity and also equalizes the cell voltage, thus improving the battery’s life significantly.
Further, you can also recondition the nearly dead battery with a standard charger. However, you can’t do it all alone. Today, there are a lot of devices available that can help you to recondition a very old hybrid battery.
Also, you can search on the Internet, and over that, you can get battery reconditioning tools such as Cycleah, Deep Cycle Battery Rejuvenator, Battery Fixer, EZ Battery Reconditioning, and many more.
How to Recondition a Hybrid Battery?
Before everything else, you should disconnect the 12 V AUX battery to make sure it doesn’t discharge due to the interior lights while you recondition the battery.
Here’s the detailed guide on how to recondition the hybrid battery and increase its life:
Step 1
Start by charging the battery. Keep a note of its voltage. Make sure it reaches full charge. The voltage will automatically stop rising once you charge the battery fully. You shouldn’t leave the battery at 70% or 80% charge. A full charge and discharge process creates a cycle that allows the voltage depression to break down inside the battery cells.
Step 2
Now discharge the battery completely or at least 0.8 V per cell. Again, keep an eye on the voltage. Different batteries come with different voltage level termination points. You should check the pack level of your battery before charging and discharging. This should prevent the battery from discharging below 0.8 V per cell in the first cycle.
Step 3
Repeat step 1. Follow the entire process step by step. Make sure you stop charging the battery once the voltage stops rising. Hybrid batteries usually don’t come with an indicator that tells you when the battery is fully charged. Therefore, you should pay attention to the voltage every time you charge or discharge the battery.
Step 4
Repeat step 2. But this time, you should discharge the battery up to 0.6 V per cell instead of 0.8 V per cell. Don’t forget to check the voltage as the charge comes down. The voltage shouldn’t go below 0.6 at any cost. The system charge and discharge process wakes the battery up from its sleep.
Step 5
Repeat step 1 again.
Step 6
Repeat step 2 but now, discharge the battery up to 0.5 V per cell. This is the last discharge of the entire cycle. It should break down the voltage depression completely.
Step 7
Once you finish discharging the battery for the last time, it’s time to charge it again. Make sure you run the charger for at least 6 hours even after the voltage stops rising. This process ensures the balance of your battery pack.
Step 8
Disconnect the charger from the battery once you complete three cycles. Let the battery sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour before you start the car.
Ideally, you should charge and discharge the battery thrice. But if you don’t have enough time, you can perform two discharge cycles only. If you start reconditioning the battery on Friday evening, you are most likely to finish two discharge cycles by Monday morning.
Reconditioning Remanufactured Hybrid Batteries
Step 1
You should start by physically inspecting the used parts. This will help you separate the good parts from the bad. It is something that manufacturers often follow while remanufacturing batteries.
Step 2
Start a proprietary stress test. This test finds the weak cells in your battery. Once you identify the weak spots, you will know whether the reconditioning process is working or not.
Step 3
Step 2 gives you the good modules in the battery. When you find them, you should match them accordingly. Some hybrid battery packs come with 12 modules, while high-end batteries have 40 modules.
Consider the fuel injector of your car for a minute. When you use a new fuel injector, it flows almost similar levels of fuel as the old injector with seven injectors. But the new one matches the structure of the old injector, and that’s why it flows at the same level as the earlier one.
Similarly, matching the modules will mean making the path smoother for the electrons to flow. And that’s the reason you should keep the hybrid light off. Every cycle has a different reaction in the battery. The electrons push the cells to come out of voltage depression.
The battery, however, will pick up unmatched modules once you finish the reconditioning cycle. It is best to have access to most of the modules to avoid the car from stopping in the middle of the road.
Step 4
Assemble the parts and put the battery inside the car. Join the loose ends and see if the battery is working or not.
If both of these methods fail, then you should buy a new battery.
But what if you don’t want to do all these steps alone? You can contact your nearest car repair technician. He may know how to recondition a hybrid battery. But the issue is he may want to do it only once. If you know this process, you can recondition the battery as many times as you want.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading through the whole area of my write-up. I hope I had the ability to share good concepts concerning the topic. There are many points to obtain from replacing batteries.
For an extra comprehensive discussion on reconditioning old batteries, you can have a look at Ez Battery reconditioning review as they offer versatile courses about it. They have outstanding understanding products, and the instructor is offered in any way times if you require any type of aid.
The knowings you obtain from these training courses can be used and also made profitable if you such as. I have other posts that you can check out to learn more.
