LOL that's sort of what it looked like to me all this time. I think I'd hit it once or twice before and couldn't realize what it did. I did use it yesterday while behind a school bus. It kicked my fan speed from 1 to 3 bars and took about a minute to clear the smell from the car after I turned from behind the bus. I think I should go check my cabin filter though, as it's been about a year since I replaced it. Same with the air filter. I knew I forgot to do something when I did that oil change a month ago.....
I've found you can't use that button when in defrost mode though given the hard fresh intake requirement. If you want clear windows, you'll have to put up with the smell.
I didn't know we had a cabin filter either! So, on the bottom row of buttons below the display screen, is it the button to the right of the MODE button? I thought that button just switched between the different vent configurations (air just blowing thru the floor vents, or just thru the dash vents, or air blowing out all the vents)....
Yes, that is the cabin filter button. It shuts off automatically after a while. I probably used it 2 or 3 times in the 1+ year I had my Prius. I never remembered it was there unless I got behind a diesel truck or bus in traffic.
As was explained earlier in this thread, the cabin air always goes through the filter. The outside air option runs 100% out side air through the filter The recirculate option is mostly recirculate cabin air with about 10% outside air for safety purposes. It all goes through the filter. The filter button cuts off all outside air for 3 minutes and once again, all air is run through the filter. It's useful when you get stuck behind a diesel truck, pass a dead skunk or a politician. The airflow, recirculate or outside, is controlled by a big servo control flapper valve located just before the filter in the airflow stream. The Toyota shop manual has some diagrams that show component locations.
I don't remenber which one, but one of the auto manufacturers calls it a cabin sweep button. They said it's to give the cabin air a good cleaning to take out pollen etc., then you use the system as normal.
We just got a 2011 Prius IV and it has a "Plasmacluster" ionizer that cleans the air for three minutes. The button is in the same place.
From the New Car Features: "The Plasmacluster generator produces positive and negative ions from the water molecules (H2O) and oxygen molecules (O2) in the air, and emits them into the air. These ions reduce airborne germs." The ions are discharged from the driver's side vent continuously whenever the AC button is lit. There is no separate button to turn the Plasmacluster on or off.
Hmmmm, I wouldn't mind having that on my car. I have horrible allergies, and I'm ALL FOR anything that would help purify the air I'm breathing inside the cabin. I wonder if we can upgrade our "regular filters" to do that... I miss that feature from my Infiniti FX45 I recently owned. That was some great air inside the cabin of that car. Out of the dozens of cars I've owned, I'd have to say that it was the most near-perfect combination of everything that I could want in a car. Except for sucking gas! lol
The Plasmacluster is a separate component located behind the driver's side vent. It has nothing to do with the cabin air filter, which is located behind the glove box.
I wonder if there is a way to keep the "air filter" button engaged for longer than 3 minutes. I'm in the car for 2.5 hrs a day and most cars on the road here in Texas seem to have the worst exhaust.
Without being refreshed, the oxygen within the cabin is quickly depleted. I've found on a Summer's day with four of us in the car, I'm sleepy within minutes of turning on recirculation. A constant supply of fresh air is a crucial safety feature.
If you mean just regular recirculation, I doubt you're experiencing a lack of oxygen. The regular recirculation on any car is never 100% recirculated; it's probably around 10% fresh (similarly, the fresh air setting is usually recirculating 10 or 20% of its air, to reduce load on the heating/cooling system). The "micro dust and pollen filter" may go to 100%, I'm not sure - I seem to recall reading that once, but I don't see it in either the service manual or the owner's manual. You inhale about 8 liters of air in a minute. 21% of the inhaled air is oxygen, and 16% of the exhaled air is oxygen; so you use .05*8 = 0.4 liters of pure oxygen per minute. The Prius's interior volume is 93.7 L (passenger area) + 21.6 L (cargo area) = 115.3 L. At 21%, that means it contains 24.2 L of pure oxygen. It'd take 60.5 person-minutes (e.g. one hour for one person, or 15 minutes for 4 people) to consume all of that oxygen. Realistically, you can't go down to 0% oxygen; down to about 10%, most people will still be functional (though impaired), or at 15%, you'd probably only notice if you were doing strenuous activity. So you can consume 6% (or about 7 L) before you'd start to notice; that'd happen in 17.5 person-minutes. BUT, the car is not sealed. I'm pretty sure more than a few of us have spent more than 5 minutes in a closed, unventilated car with 3 friends and not noticed a lack of oxygen, as the math might predict. In the summer, it might get uncomfortable due to heat and humidity, but not due to lack of oxygen. To avoid smelly exhaust, I'd recommend just using regular recirculate; on the (hopefully rare) occasions where that isn't enough, hit the filter button for an extra boost.
