One could just open the windows like a normal person would SKeith lol , temps drop instantly to near ambient. I don't know anywhere on earth that is 140*F outside lol but then again I've never been to Phoenix AZ. Maybe its like Mars.

 

Hmmm... a new user who just joined and is only posting about the MV charger/fan issue?

Welcome back Maxx. Long time, no rant. I've almost missed you. What say you support your customers better or design a system that isn't prone to errors with installation if that's really the cause? Hmmm?

BTW... practice what you preach in the other thread.

 

I went back and read this thread from the start and some stuff doesn’t add up. Then I found this attached post. SKeith is engaged in or was busted for corporate espionage while a commissioned employee installer still listed on Hybrid Automotive website they had him trying to buy systems from Maxx Volts to try and reverse engineer their grid charging systems. Evidently MV caught Steve Keith trying to make a straw fraudulent purchase, eBay ruled against him in his malicious act and banned him

 

LOL... "busted for corporate espionage?" How is attempting to buy a product corporate espionage? eBay banned him? LOL... Ummm.. .no. Still use ebay pretty regularly.

Kinda reassuring to see things haven't changed much with you. The only remotely true item on that list is #1. I am listed on their website as a dealer. That means I get about a 10% discount (I could get a little more discount if I bought several, but I only buy one at a time) when I purchase a system to install. That's it. No commissions. No endorsement deals, etc. The flow of money has ALWAYS gone FROM me TO them in the form of purchased hardware at about a 10% discount.

Maxx knows the truth. He knows exactly what he did and how it went down. The hassle of pursuing resolution was not even remotely worth the time and effort. If someone is willing to be petty and stoop so low to swindle me out of a measly $350 and then be a raving lunatic about it online, they can just have the money.

Funny thing is I eventually bought a MV system from an end user who was selling it back in July, 2018 with the same goal of doing a review, but ultimately, it means so little to me, I don't remember if I even opened the box. In fact... after looking around, I can't even find it. I'll keep an eye open for it now though.

I'm out something like $600 or $700 bucks between the attempted purchase and the purchase from the user - this amounts to MORE than the total discount I have ever received from HA and INFINITELY more than the $0 they have ever sent my way, and I just couldn't care less.

Have a great night.

 

SOLVED!!!

After a rather lengthy and “interesting” dialogue with MaxVolts, I got him to accept the return of my charger that I bought off EBay.

A little background, as I’m sure he will post here to try to discredit what I’m saying.

My charger was installed correctly and operating instructions were followed.

I also work for an industrial IoT company, and work with electrical engineers that have designed everything from consumer products to satellite systems.

What was concluded was that the MaxVolts charger fan controller back-fed into the cars BCM and basically cooked the onboard fan controller. They all agreed that not isolating the cars system from the balance charger was a REALLY bad idea. While his design makes installation easy, it does leave the cars onboard system at risk.

I replaced the BCM with a known good one and the fan operation is back to normal. When taking apart the malfunctioning BCM, their suspicions were confirmed.

 

Glad to hear it's resolved. Details on "when taking apart the malfunctioning BCM, their suspicions were confirmed"?

 

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I have exactly the same problem with my 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid after using a Maxx Volts grid charger. I'm no electronics expert but I long suspected that using the Maxx Volts 12 volt feed to run the IPU cooling fan for 12-18 hours continuously is not a good idea. Having studied the schematic of the IMA system, I too suspected that something inside the BCM may have fried. I shall replace it ASAP and report back. About grid charging in general, I'm not convinced it is a solution to a failing battery pack, just a bandaid to delay the inevitible of replacing the pack. I'm looking to rebuild the pack myself using new sticks from Alibaba.com. They claim they use Japanese cells but I don't believe that for a second but I'm still willing to gamble on Chinese made cells.

 

You're about 11 years late. Folks have been grid charging/discharging for about that long since the first Insights started crapping out. No one really claims it's a fix, but in many cases, packs remain operational without additional treatments for some time. I've personally seen one go 3 years between one single grid charge/discharge cycle. If it works at all, it's a periodic maintenance item that can extend pack life considerably. It's also useful as a preventative maintenance item to periodically restore lost capacity of a healthy pack and reduce the chance of cell failure.

Unfortunately, the HCH2 battery is a turd. Honda really screwed up the cooling system and has the dubious distinction of the highest failure rates in the industry, particularly in moderate to warm climates.

IMHO, if you can continue to retain function of your Sanyo pack with periodic grid charging, that's a likely better solution than using the Chinese cells.

 

If there is one thing I have learned about NiMh batteries (in all applications, not just automotive) it's that they seem to perform better with regular use. Prior to my current 2008 HCH2 which has clocked up only 30,000 miles, I had, 8 years ago, a 2007 model which I used daily as taxi. I purchased it from a Honda main dealer with only 7000 miles on the clock and I took it round to 197,000 miles over a 4 year period with absolutely no problems at all. I then gave up the taxi job and gave the car to my daughter who used it only occasionally and that's when the problems started with IMA and CEL warning lights. Back then I new nothing about hybrid battery technology or grid charging, so assuming that the battery pack was spent and the price of a new pack far exceeded the value of the car, the car was scrapped.

 

Experience with consumer grade NiMH doesn't translate completely to NiMH in HEV. HEV NiMH is the cream of the crop capable of high currents with very low resistance and low self-discharge. At the time they could still be procured individually for industrial applications, they were $20-25/cell.

Regular use is a common denominator, though they are drastically less sensitive than consumer NiMH due to their improved charge retention.

On 06-11 HCH, IMA lights are often fatal for the pack. They don't occur until many warnings have been received via frequent battery recalibrations especially if operating in a warm environment.

Note that 09-11 are notably worse than 06-08. They changed the cell spacing and actually made the flow dramatically worse with more hot spots. Failure rates of 09 and 10 packs were about 30% within the first 3-4 years. 06-08 were about 15% after 5-7 years.

Not at all uncommon to see an entire pack just take a crap due to heat related issues. They basically lose their ability to hold a charge across the board. It's shocking to see all 132 cells failing.