Something went "puffff" under the hood then a/c stopped blowing cool air!

Sounds like you broke a line and all the freon blew out. Rare.

Is this a salvage car?

Don't use the ac until you have it checked as you may damage the compressor. There's a switch that will lock it out with no freon but don't try to use it till you find the leak.

No idea where you live as you didn't bother to list it in your avatar so not sure if your urban. Lots of ac repair places where I live and pretty much all of them have Prius experience. They can check the system for $50 around here. They can locate a big leak pretty fast they inject dye and locate it quickly. Hopefully the front condenser didn't go as that's expensive. Lots of posts about that and most were people who had just bought the car at salvage auction and the car took it in the nose and had a damaged condenser that was rigged up.

 

I have had this happen to me. It was a different car, A/C is A/C it was so hot the pressure in he system got so high, it blew the safety plug out! I had to have the freon bottle replaced, then the system recharged! I was in Phoenix and about 112°! We will not be retiring there!

 

A system that leaks so quickly will have an obvious oily splash around the point of failure. So it should be possible to inspect visually and find the source.

Also, just a nit, there is no freon anymore. Gone, done, last century. It's called refrigerant, type R134a these days.

 

Yep your not alone. Many stories just like yours.

 

Freon is a DuPont trademark. It was developed by Thomas Midgley, the same chemist who developed tetraethyl lead in gasoline.

The original term was R12 or R22.

Today, it's R134a.

I still have a supply of R12 and R22.

R22 is now $38 plus a pound wholesale. It will keep going up, since they will not be making it and it is being phased out. No new R22 machines have been made since 2010.

A lot of R22 is being stolen out of old home air conditioning units.