Went to the drive in last night with the kids in our brand new Prius. The speakers at the drive-in are not awesome, and if you tune to the right station, you can hear the movie over your radio. We were going to do that, but I was a bit afraid I'd drain the battery and we'd be stuck needing a jump after the first feature! So - would the car have started fine after running the radio in ACC mode for two hours?
Good question. I'm very curious as to what the answer will be. One day I had to do the same thing and got too worried and kept the car running.
Couldn't you just leave the engine on and in park, and it would just fire up the ICE to recharge the battery as needed?
I'd do just that; keep the car powered up and in park; that way you can use the HVAC, too, in case the windows steam up (from too much warm popcorn, of course). I have to pick up friends sometimes from the airport or the transit station and it's great to just be able to keep it on...usually, if you're careful about not cranking the heat or A/C too much, the ICE will hardly run at all.
You should be fine. I have sat in the car for about 3 hours listening to the cd player with the car in 'acc' (I would think the cd player would take more power then the radio). As long as you didn't run down the battery anytime recently (meaning you have been doing normal driving for a few days prior) I think you should be fine. I would think the engine going on during the movie would be distracting... and wasteful. Anyone else want to share their radio experiences. -Peter B
The Prius really doesn't have a need for ACC to speak of, in general, although it's nice that it's there for specialized occasions. I wouldn't take the chance of running down the little CMOS battery in the trunk when the big traction battery is more than capable of running the radio for quite a long while, no doubt the engine won't turn on at all, and there's no down side to keeping it in Ready.
The radio draws around 1-2 Amps at near full volume. The battery is a 38 A-Hr unit. You've got about 5-10 hrs before you get into danger territory. If you're going to do it a lot and worry about it, buy one of the portable "emergency jumper" units. They are small and very affordable (around $40). Just be careful you don't cause the headlamps to come on. They will drain the battery in an hour or two.
If you're going to a double feature at the Drive-In, you'd be going into that 5-10 hour danger area that David Beale mentioned. IIRC there was some discussion on this, without a definite answer. I know that some have left it in Ready. If you do go the ACC mode route, I suggest you turn the screen off to cut down on power consumption. An alternative would be to bring a portable radio and use that for the sound.
I went to the drive in about a week ago to see Transformers and Evan Almighty on a double feature, and had absolutely no problems, the movie started at about 9:30 and the second one ended in the 2:00 neighborhood. I initially was a little scared, but didn't think there would be a problem but I took my jumper cables anyway. One thing I ran into is that the Prius automatically turns off the radio after about an hour and I had push the car power button to turn it back on. Oh I also turned the display off on the MFD (not sure how much power it uses).
Thanks for all the feedback. I feel reassured and next time we hit the drive-in, I think I'll go for the ACC mode. (Though I may just bring along one of those portable jumper units mentioned!) I'm so glad to have found this site. As a new Prius owner, it's been invaluable. Now - onto the waxing threads to figure out what wax to try!
Why not just leave it ON and eliminate any possible bother? The last thing I'd want to do at the end of drive-in movie is look for a jump.
