Can a Grid Charger help?

[kcarson]

First, there may be links to other threads that may answer this question, if so, please let me know (I did a quick check).

Anyway, my 2K MT, has a fairly new IMA battery (1.5yrs). Now if the car sits for a few days, the SOC is down to the last couple bars. It does charge quickly, but it seems to happen every few days. I am still in the 67-71mpg range even with the forced charge.

Would the grid charger help fix this issue? If so, is there more than one type of grid charger and who is currently selling them?

Kevin

[jeff652]

Yes it will definitely help. How much depends entirely on your battery. Every battery is different, so it is hard/not fair to map one persons experience to your own expectations. having said that so many people have had success with a grid charger that it is a very safe bet that you will see a noticeable improvement.

You can build a 'simple' charger for yourself, buy a 'simple' charger fully assembled and ready to install from me, or get the very nice 'complex' charger from Mike at http://99mpg.com/projectcars/gridcharger/

The three options vary greatly in price and features. Each person has to decide for themselves the best cost/benefit from the above three options.

[TopFuelTim]

Like Jeff said, in most cases it will definitely help.

All but two cars I have grid charged have responded very well, including the one I bought in May with a P1447 and P1449. Grid charging brought it immediately back to life. It was not super strong, but didn't give me any grief and I didn't have to grid charge it again, although I noticed it was down on capacity recently. I finally took it out this weekend, but only because my son is buying it, and I am building up a good battery for it.

That being said, I have experienced two battery failures this year in my three car "fleet" and neither one got further than a day after grid charging before the problems returned. Extreme heat (108 degrees F) and an 11 year old battery equaled an extremely low capacity battery in my CVT. My other was actually a 2010 replacement battery, but four of the sticks were bad enough that it was recalibrating every day.



My 0.02 worth,
Tim Glover

[jime]

Originally Posted by TopFuelTim

My other was actually a 2010 replacement battery, but four of the sticks were bad enough that it was recalibrating every day.

Was that a fairly recent Honda warranty replacement? Just gathering data

[TopFuelTim]

Originally Posted by jime

Was that a fairly recent Honda warranty replacement? Just gathering data

Hi jime,

Yes, it turned out to be the "stereotypical" Honda replacement battery. It was done in January 2010, and began showing its weakness this past January (only got 87 minutes discharge time then, and by June, it was 44, 50 and 57 on a triple cycle. It never set off an IMA code, but was recalibrating every day. I finally parked it. (This past weekend I put what I now call my "ho-hum" battery that I rebuilt from two HCH cores in, and it is definitely nicer to drive.)

However, I checked the 2010 battery sticks individually, and 14 of them check out great. I will be looking at the 2007 replacement battery I just removed from my silver car, and should have at least six very good sticks in it.

The 2010 battery is the one I posted test results on a few weeks ago. Using the Universal grid charger

My 0.02 worth,
Tim Glover