air conditioner: how to get fresh air into the car

Re: air conditioner

A little hint to our new Prius owners: when the "Auto" mode selects Recirculation, you'll see the icon on the dash. You can also press the recirculation button on the steering wheel to turn the fresh air back on.

 

Re: air conditioner

Yes, but if I just want fresh air without the fan going, is there any way of getting it other than twiddling with the temperature knob until the fan shuts off, or opening the windows???

On my old Corolla, I could just choose the vent setting, with fan off, and I'd get whatever air came through the intake (so basically, the faster the car was going, the more outside air you'd get).. Often, whatever came through the intake was sufficient without the extra noise of the fan going.. It would be nice if you could get this on the Prius as well.. Maybe I'll have to look into fiddling with the ducts and servos in the HVAC system...

 

There isn't enough air movement for my tastes. With no fan, it's almost non-existent. When set on Auto, it seems to run the fan more slowly than I (or my rear-seat passengers) would like, so I often manually set the fan higher.

 

My understanding is that even with recirculate off, most of the air in the Prius is still recirculated. This is done for energy conservation and is actually a pretty good idea. Subsequently though, if the fan is off, very little air will come into the car on it's own. I'd recommend turning the system on AUTO and then turning off the A/C button. The system should then change the fan speed to try to maintain the temperature setpoint. If you'd prefer that the fan stay at a constant speed, press the desired fan speed button and the system will discontinue trying to regulate it (the AUTO A/C light should also go out on the dash).

If you like this arrangement, you can have your dealership change the car's settings with their hand scanner so that the air conditioner will not automatically come on when the AUTO A/C button is pressed. You can still operate the air conditioning, but you have to go to the CLIMATE screen and press the A/C button to turn it on.

 

To better understand the operation of the Prius Climate Control I suggest you take a look at:

http://www.denso.co.jp/AR-e/1998/TW/climate.html

I really don't want my Prius to operate like my old Corolla.

 

seasalsa ,

Thanks a cool link. Thanks.

And I'm sure that link makes this point below but here goes.

The Prius has an automatic temperature controlled air conditioner system. Set the temp and the system does it all.

But it also has a totally manual override system. Shut off the automatic control and then set the fan and where you want the air to go. You can set the recirc manually as well. You can also have the AC on manually.

So the Prius has a fancy temp controlled AC, and it also has the same AC as a Corrola.

It's got both.

 

So, let's start by having you in your Prius with it in Ready mode. Now, switch to the climate control screen. For the purposes of this process, make sure that the auto a/c light is visible on the dash. Next, press the fan off button, that can also be accomplished by pressing the auto a/c button the the steering wheel until the auto a/c light on the dash is no longer illuminated.

Now, with the climate screen visible, you will notice that most of the buttons. are off, except for the ones which select where airflow is supposed to go. Press the button for which vents you wish to be used and drive.

That is your fresh air mode with no fan circulation.

 

Follow Jeromep's instruction... I know it works... how? Because I can smell the cow dung when I have just the vent in the open position.

 

Oh, I thought I'd add this. If you want no air movement in the cabin at all. turn off the A/C as I had mentioned above, then press the recirc button on the wheel or on the A/C screen.

 

'Sorry to be dense, but I am a newbie and I am not sure I am understanding how to get fresh outside air using just the fan. Let's say it is 59 degrees outside and that's what I want flowing into my car. I think the temp guage on my 2008 Prius only goes down to around 60 degrees, so even though I've hit the "OFF" switch, I feel like it is still blowing warm air in through the vents. Am I just getting warm air from the engine? I would have the outside setting on in this example. I just want the outside air temp to be what flows into the car. No heat or a/c. Thanks.

 

set it to max cold with the ac disabled.

 

You mean other than moving away from California? Sorry, had to throw that in. I was just wondering when I read your post, has your air filter been changed recently?