Rear 12v outlet

I suppose you could put one of those portable jump starters back there, eg one that float charges off of the 12v. Another possibility might be a 12v portable refrigerator while traveling.

 

To plug in emergency devices while pulled over on the side of the road

 

And to plug in 12V appliances (lanterns, pumps for air mattresses or inflatable boats, ham radios on Field Day, telescope equatorial drives during star parties, etc.) while car camping.

 

The 12v socket is switched, so it provides no voltage when the car is shut off. (At least that's what I understand; I've never tested it.) That's a disadvantage for some uses. But, it allows you to control a relay from that 12v socket and the relay can then supply high current directly from the 12v battery for equipment like a ham radio that requires relatively high current with minimal voltage drop from the battery. When the car is shut off, the relay opens and you won't have to worry about running the 12v battery down. You can't connect the ham radio directly to the 12v socket because it may draw more than 10 amps that the socket is fused for and, even worse, the long small gauge wire between the socket and the battery would have too much voltage drop for the ham radio to operate properly.

 

Old thread but.... Has anyone looked into changing this so it isn't dead when the car is off. It would be sweet to put one of the coolers with the 12V connector in the back for road trips / camping so I wouldn't have to deal with the ice. Yes I of course understand that the cooler shouldn't be left running in there all night but when you stop for lunch / sightseeing, it would be cool to leave it running.

Also,
Are all of the power points on the same fuse? The manual reads that way. Bummer if they are but I guess it's nothing that a pair of snips and a spare fuse slot can't fix.

 

You will need a lot more 12 volt batteries if you have it always on, the stock Prius battery is very small.

My best advice is to never use electrical power when you are not in Ready.

 

Yep. I'm just talking about using it when a stop is made for food / activity. Just an hour or so. Nowhere near enough power draw to drain the 12V battery. I certainly would never suggest someone do it overnight.

 

Please re-think that, as even the 'or so' puts the small Prius 12V battery at risk. I suspect these coolers are a major reason that automotive 12v outlets are now switched off.

 

Fair enough though I would disagree that there is any major risk of damage. The battery is 32 Ah and a cooler only draws about 4. That said, I could safely run the cooler with the car off for 8 hours before full depletion (assuming full charge and properly operating). One or two hours wouldn't even come close to endangering the battery.

As for being switched off due to things like that, you're likely right. Seeing that I have to explain the Ethernet cable on our customers PC's as 'the giant phone plug', the general public is likely not intelligent enough to realize the limitations of the vehicles and would even draw down the huge 12V battery that's in my Ram.

 

Don't forget a few more complications:
* The 32Ah capacity is for a new battery. It shrinks considerably with age;
* Prius seems to recharge the 12V battery remarkably slowly;
* My Prii seem to run at a significantly lower typical charge levels than the previous nonhybrids, considerably short of fully charged. This didn't bother my first Prius at all, which started quite happily at a voltage where my non-hybrid couldn't crank.

Put all these together, and I suspect that at many typical moments, the battery has far less available charge than you may expect. Stretch that one hour to two hours, multiple times (when the Significant Other takes 'just an hour', how long does it really take?), and suddenly the battery may be experiencing repeated deep discharges. Common automotive batteries don't last long under under this use.

 

Yes they are in fact insulated but take a while to cool off so any loss isn't ideal. Depending on which one you have / get, some work great and others are just so/so.

Basically, I like my beer cold while camping and enjoy tinkering with electronics / everything that I can change. I've never much liked not being able to do something

That's just the first thing that I thought of when I saw the power point there. Once my kid is older I'm sure it will be driving a power inverter and such while we're moving as well.

 

I love the fact that it turns off with our cooler plugged in. I've drained car batteries in the past with the cooler, and have no desire to drain the one in the Prius. It will stay nice and cold when you stop for lunch. If you're really worried just leave the car in ready mode and lock it (i.e. put the window down, close the door, lock the doors, and hit the automatic window up button).

 

I like you're style! Never thought of doing that but wished I could do such a thing a few times in my old Prius!

 

It's a great for people in the back seat to plug in chargers for iphones, ipads, DVD players, etc. on road trips. Especially for kids. I already have the front outlets occupied and it reduces the cords going from the front to back seats. You may want to add an extension cord and splitter.