With the weather getting warmer and warmer, I occasionally hear the battery fan beneath the rear seat. It occurred to me that with the S-Flow climate control system turned on, all the air is focused to me, through the front vents. The battery vent wasn't getting any kind of cool air to it's intake. So I momentarily focused the airflow to the floor and turned S-Flow off so cool air could make it to the battery vent. After a few minutes, the fan slowed down to the point I couldn't hear it running anymore. Maybe I'm being extra picky, but it's food for thought for those owners in hot climates. Or if you feel the battery is getting hot and reducing performance.
I've never heard my fan either. I always have the AC on, and the vents on high-low. Always. Never use S-flow. Just a little extra precaution to maybe help that expensive battery back there. Not sure if it does any good or not. Also a concern is how hot the car gets inside while parked. Today was a mild 81 degrees. Even with tinted windows and a windshield shade, the interior temp gets to about 95 degrees. And it's not even summer yet. Prius rookie here. Still learning.
I've never heard mine either, but I don't use the S-Flow when cooling the car as it seems a waste of time trying to cool one area of the cabin, the AC seems to work better if all the cabin is cooled.
some people seem to hear theirs more than others, good hearing? i'm not sure it's necessary to direct the vents at the battery intake, all the cabin air is reasonably cool, compared to the battery.
I had reservations on the s-flow system since I first heard of it for this very reason. I try to cool my whole cabin evenly when it's really hot outside to keep the battery cool as possible
This is USA Owner's Manual - back-to-front from UK/Australia/NZ etc dashboard because we sit on the right side of the car. And UK has dual zone Climate Control I think. Brochure description: More from USA Owner's Manual:
Yeah, that occurred to me as well: I haven't heard the fan go on yet, but my plan is to do exactly that -- turn off S-flow -- when I do start hearing it. The biggest warm-weather annoyance for us so far has been the Softex seat material, cloth being not available on the Advanced model. Our backs can get pretty warm sitting in those seats for a while! It's not a huge problem for me, but a bigger concern for my wife. She's from China, and in that part of the world, a lot of people don't like fans blowing on them. She keeps her vents closed or otherwise not cooling her directly. iPhone ? Pro
Get your windows tinted. It makes a huge difference. It gets pretty hot and humid here in Ohio. I drove my car around for a week without them tinted and I felt like I was in an oven. Now they are tinted 20% all around and it is so much nicer inside.
They are and yes, it does indeed help. I can't recall the name of the tint they applied, but it claims to, and indeed seems to, have really good infrared blocking qualities. iPhone ? Pro
My mum would do that too (on my previous car with an OFF button on the vents) - but I convinced her to direct the flow away from her body and elsewhere (eg over her head as she's short) instead.
