I had the opportunity to try out the Prius Gen III odor filtration system in FRED; yes I’ve decided to name my car FRED. And no “it doesn’t mean what you think it means”. Anyway, I took my many gas cans down to the local gas station, seeing as FRED was thirsty too, and I had earned a gas discount that would soon run out. If you have ever carried a gas can in a car before, you know that the odor stays with you for quite some time, even if the trip is short. Well I had 4 cans to fill as well as FRED’s tank, so upon arriving home the car had the most definite smell of gasoline inside. After removing the gas cans and returning them to my shed, my wife and I hopped back into FRED and started the car. As soon as the A/C was running and set on recirculate, I pressed the filtration button; almost immediately the air coming from the vents smelled fresh and clean. At the end of the roughly 3 minute run time for the filtration system, the car smelled perfectly normal. My wife and I were impressed by how effective it was. It has been a couple of days now and there is not a hint of gasoline odor, awesome!
Be very careful. Flammable hydrocarbons + ozone = Poof. Before he knew what had happened, Fred was dead.
Another test of the air filtration system will be, in this extremely hot summer, is the sweaty B O left by sweaty service people. Fortunately for you, in your part of the country they don't shove down your throat TOYOGUARD in which sweaty smelly Jacksonville SE port installers can leave quite an odor treating our new cars interior. An extra unwanted feature perhaps to be "enjoyed" sic for a long time. Your findings give us hope!
Another annoyance is dealer techs who have reccently smoked (not in your vehicle). I usually smell the grease on their clothes, too. Yes, I think BO would be even worse than passing a dead skunk. I once knew a large woman with a Camaro who was too cheap to run her AC in the summer, even when it hit 100°F. The BO in her interior would make your eyes water. By the way, those port installers SHOULD be putting down plastic sheets on the seats and paper on the carpet.
Flammable hydrocarbons + any oxidizer + ignition = Poof, got to have an ignition source, or no Poof. Also the amount of ozone produced is almost immeasurable, and I vented the car first. I also read somewhere that the 2012 model did away with the plasma cleaner part of the system anyway, I don’t remember where at the moment though.
We get a lot of dead skunks out here or smoke from when they burn fields. That filtration button is amazing.
I don't think the concertration with properly capped cans stored briefly in the car would be high enough for ignition. That said, my standard procedure is to open the windows and let it air out in the driveway, just to be safe. But it is good to know the filtation button does some good. The filter must have activated charcoal to absorb the smell. I have used Fram branded cabin air filter with activated charcoal + baking soda in my Camry before. It helped some when the filter was new, but I was not too impressed with it. I can still smell bubba's diesel exhuast and the road kills.
I was under the impression the pollen filter was electrically charged. That would make a dandy ignition source
It is in the row of climate control buttons, below the radio, and it shows a seated person with basically two arrow symbols crossed in front of their face. I won't state the exact position because I have heard that it varies with model year. I believe I have seen pics of it on this sight before, so just do a search on it.
My best friend in my avatar, "Sam" got it right in the mouth and face once. We couldn't get the pro shampoo for at least 24 hours, so I tried the old standby, tomato juice followed by another good washing with his regular shampoo. It took care of the worst of it until we could clean him up with the good stuff. Now, when we go outside and smell skunk nearby, he stays right with me. He remembers, and doesn't want to go through that again.
Good heavens, there's nothing to ignite here! If you take an open can of gas out of your car, the inside of your car might stink to high heaven, but you can wave a match around in the car and nothing will happen because there's nothing to ignite! Of course, if you put the match near the open can of gas, that's another story, but he had long since removed the gasoline from his car. He was only removing the smell.
Well a smell might mean residual fumes and since the fumes are what is flamable and not the actually liquid then yes it could be a danger.
That button IMO, simply was designed to get rid of fart fast. Without cracking open the windows. Who among our gaseous bretherens here found this useful?!
