fogged up inside windows

It's just part of the car - it's not going to wear out in the normal lifetime of a car - it is designed to be used. When A/C first came here, the ones which failed first were the ones which were rarely used.

I turned Climate Control <ON> when I got the car 6½ yrs ago - and have barely touched it since. Occasionally the Demist button for a short time, and if I'm really hot (like if I've mowed the lawn), I change the temperature for 10 minutes while I cool myself down. Then back again.

 

My only problem with that is that it becomes a source of stored moisture, to evaporate and migrate back to the inside windows the next cold night. To prevent this, it ought to be taken out and dried outside of the car (e.g. inside the house) regularly.

Otherwise, it is probably better than the towel my spouse used to used, which ended up putting annoying dirty streaks on the inside of the window that can be quite visible when the windows are dry, aggravating a certain vision problem I have. That forces new round of interior window cleaning.

 

You might check to see if the damper that switches between outside air and recirculate is working correctly...might be stuck in the recirc mode.

 

That was the problem with our car , once fixed, no more fogging!

 

SOLVED!!

After two frightening winters with this problem, my local Toyota dealer service tech fixed it. The HVAC actuator became separated from the heater inlet. Here’s the Tech’s notes:

HEATER INLET STUCK CLOSED, RECIRCULATING INTERIOR AIR. THERE IS A SERVICE BULLETIN(T-SB-0024-22) FOR DIFFERENT MODELS HOWEVER, SAME PROBLEM. THE INLET RECIRCULATE DOOR ACTUATOR DIAL DISLODGED FROM ACTUATOR MOTOR.

REALIGN DOOR PINS, REINSERT DIAL, LATCH ONTO MOTOR.

OPERATION NORMAL AT THIS TIME.

And, for the first time in two years, we drove 45 minutes without running the defroster + AC the entire drive… in fact we didn’t run it at all on a 20 degree night. So relieved, and I love my Prius again!

 

Glad to hear it and thanks for the update!!