Insight Storage Update
Before I left in October of last year I put both Insights up on blocks, installed a brand-new 32AHr AGM battery into the 2002 to replace the small Odyssey PC545 (the 2006 has its OEM 12v battery), made sure that both the 12v and IMA batteries were fully charged, and asked my neighbor to run the cars for about five minutes every 'few' weeks.
Got an email in January (after a cold spell) that the 2002's display was flickering and the car wouldn't start. Long story short is that I finally asked him to just leave both cars alone.
When I returned a couple of weeks ago, both 12v batteries were dead flat. Pulled them out and brought them both back to life with some carefully-controlled recharging including equalization. Stuck the 12v batteries back into the cars and the cars started perfectly and automatically did a recal and very shortly showed me almost fully-charged IMA batteries in both cars. Wife has subsequently done an 850-mile round trip to Oregon in the 2006 (at a trip mileage of 78.3mpg!) and my MIMA'd 2002 runs just as nicely as I had left it. Both 12v batteries are holding their charge and passed a 50A load test with flying colors. Even though I fully expected the AGM battery to stay dead, it's open-circuit voltage is holding at 12.7v which is just a little less than its normal 12.8v.
Conclusion: the Insight's alarm circuitry drains the small 12v battery over time and thus it needs to be cared for, whereas the IMA battery happily sits there barely self-discharging.
I've subsequently bought a couple of small very smart float chargers -
http://batterytender.com/product_info.php?products_id=4
I even found them on sale for $25ea at
http://www.pacificbattery.com/batterytender0123.html
I especially like their charging algorithm -
http://batterytender.com/battery_basics.php/#11
(Disclaimer: I have no financial connection with these outfits)
In the future I will be leaving these chargers plugged into the Insights' 12v batteries whenever the cars will not be used for even a few weeks.
Also, discovered another difference between the 2002 and the 2006: the dc-dc converter puts out 13.8v in the 2002 and 14.3v in the 2006 (75degF ambient).
My bigger fear during the storage was fuel going bad, but so far no issues... refilled both cars with Chevron as their hyped Techron can't hurt. Going to put over 1000 miles in the next week on the 2002, so we'll see...
JoeS.
[Edit: added the word "subsequently" to the purchase of the two small float chargers. For the 12v battery resuscitation I used my programmable 30A Victron Phoenix charger.]
JoeS.
