Hi friends. Brand new, just purchased my first Prius today (2016 3 Touring). Few questions, main one is regarding the S Flow air conditioning function. It makes it seem that when this feature is on, it is pulling energy away from cooling off the back seats and redirecting it to the driver or driver/passenger. However...where the heck are these back seat vents it's taking away from? Confused. Thx for your help.
There are no A/C vents, just rear seat heater ducts. I'm guessing the computer is programmed to blow weaker in "Front seat" mode versus "all seats".
So "all seats" really means "2 front seats"? The image they use in the vehicle to convey all seats is very confusing to say the least.
Ain't no back flow when she's gone. Only hot air every day. I know, I know, I know, got to leave those vents alone. No back seat vents/all a head fake.
It's actually quite good - what it does is: With "Driver Priority", it defaults to air to ONLY TO DRIVER'S FACE - unless there is a front seat passenger, then it does BOTH FRONT OCCUPANT'S FACES. For Maximum cooling, you can override it to go to FACE+FEET, either Driver Only, or both front occupants if there is a passenger. If you select all 4 positions (ie NOT S-FLOW), it doesn't do much unless you select FACE+FEET, then it sends it to the back passenger's feet as well. As such, it sends cold air to 8 outlets total, and increases cooling overall, but not as much just to the driver's face. Personally, I prefer a cooler car than a cold face and the rest of me hot. Though, it's not as good for back passengers as some other cars which have back face-level vents. But I'm still to have a back passenger, after 4 months.
Yep, the only vents for the back are under the front seats. The people back there will either have frozen feet, or a hotfoot! (But I rarely have rear passengers.) I never use that S-Flow thing. It seems to cut down the airflow. I like the face + feet setting. I like to direct a little bit of air into the back for the hybrid battery cooling.
I am sitting in my car right now, testing it. Everything about this Prius confuses me. When I press the S-flow button, nothing on the upper vents changes. The air blows the same out of the four vents, regardless if I have the button pressed or not. I thought it was supposed to be "driver priority"? Ha!
Yes and no. It basically means the car will attempt to cool the entire cabin down (so the fan will blow stronger and/or the cooling/heating will be more aggressive. Basically, the default mode). Shrinking it down to "Front seats" probably tells the computer to be less aggressive in cooling/heating.
My experience, when S-Flow is on it try's to detect who is in the front seat. It may take a minute, but if it detects that you are alone in the vehicle only the 2 driver vents will flow. The other 2 passenger vents will technically be "off" but some light airflow may still be detectable.
Yeah. Same with "Eco Heat/Cool". If it's 100 outside, you probably don't want S-Flow or Eco Heat/Cool on.
As I said above, for maximum airflow, change it to "FACE+FOOT" without S-FLOW - that adds 4 more outlets for the cold air to enter the cabin, 2 of which are in the rear (floor).
I sat there for 30 minutes, eating lunch, and I continued to get strong airflow out of all FOUR upper vents when the S-flow button was on. Then I started driving around, and nothing changed. Horsefeathers!
And I almost forgot about the two vents on each side under the dashboard. (The notorious "rattling vents" that some guys have reported.) They cool off my tootsies when I have the vents set to face/feet. But that S-flow thing? Nothing changes in my car. And that's just fine with me, I keep harping about simplicity!
Upon further investigation… When I have the vents set to face/feet, and I press the S-Flow button, my feet vents will no longer blow air. So I guess that makes sense… It all comes out of the four upper dashboard vents. You know what? I'm just going to get in that car, press the power button, and just drive the damn thing! I cannot figure out why, they have to make the Prius so overly and unnecessarily complicated. It's ridiculous! Same goes for all those phony driving modes!
