The ambient temps here started to get lower - this winter down to -12*C/10*F when I leave home for work. My office is 6km/3.7 miles away and in the mornings it needs maybe the half of the way to start blowing nice hot air. I don't use the "auto" option, because it keeps the fan off until the ICE reaches some temperature, which is after at least half a mile, maybe more. The speed is around 50km/h / 30mph. I have another gasoline car (2.0L engine) and it warms up faster. Is it possible that I need a new thermostat? How fast your cars warm up? I saw a youtube video showing that the Prius 4 can warm up without ICE with AC ON, I tried that on mine, but I can't find any difference in the temperature from the air vents. The air direction is to the footwell and windshield to activate the PTC heaters, but I think it starts to blow warmer air only when I activate the windshield defrost, otherwise it's the same. I haven't blocked the front grill because we have hot days between the cold ones and the temps can go up to 15*C/59*F in the afternoon
My 2008 Prius did not have great heat or cooling even when new and my 2016 seems like it is better but still doesn't warm up very fast. It seems the Prius engine warms up enough to stop pollution, then it shuts down to save gas. I'm sure all this can be checked with the right information and equipment but I have never done it. Someone that knows more than me will chime in i'm sure.
You could use 50% block of the lower grill in that wide range, with no problems. For this I use a single 1.5" diameter (outside diameter) flexible foam tube, the type used for insulating plumbing pipes, with a slit along the the length. 100% would be two tubes. Also, year 'round, I put short pieces of the same tubing on the crimped seam at top of fenders along the side of the hood, to better hold air in the engine bay. You could consider the block heater too. Apparently at present Toyota has had problems with the block heater, they've stopped manufacture, but it is supposed to resume before fall.
I grille-block my 2009 Gen II from November until April, usually the cabin temp is set to 74 degF, A/C set to "ON", and I just let the computers do their thing, and all is toasty within ½ mile or so, front/rear demist/defoggers set as/when necessary! I've stopped trying to second guess the system. Advice: Just learn to sit back and enjoy the ride!
I probably already know, but do not use the grille blocking suggestions on Gen 4. They have active grille shutters serving the same purpose.
Google "Toyota Canada Block Heater Recall" for Toyota and news outlet search results. For me, this is the first search result, from Toyota: Toyota Recalls Certain Accessory Block Heaters And one of the subsequent news outlet search result reports it's for block heaters in 2016~2018 "models", doesn't say specific vehicles: http://canada.autonews.com/article/20170724/CANADA/170729884/toyota-recalls-37000-vehicles-with-faulty-dealer-installed-block Also, I recently emailed our nearby dealership parts department, asking about part number and availability (because someone on Priuschat was having a hard time finding them), and got this back: As it stands most block heaters are currently not available for any new Toyota. Due to complications with quality from the manufacturer that makes the block heaters for Toyota. Toyota is working hard to rectify this situation but it will take time. Hopefully by the end of the summer or if not sooner we will have block heaters available for purchase. Warming the cabin vs warming the engine involves a trade-off: the less demands you make on the car to warm the cabin, the faster the car will warm. Too, if you shut vent system right off when stopped (say for red lights, on the way), the car is much more likely, even if only partially warmed, to shut the engine off.
That sounds suspiciously like the Alaskan 2016 Prius fire. It originally had the cord run through the active shutters though.
About 3.5 minutes then ICE goes off. Cold soak around 40 degrees parked under car port. Hvac off and no grill blocking either. After 2 miles driving around 30mph, EV will kick in as design to. Hvac still off, I never really use it. 2012 mid fresh cycle trim 4 w hud.
Since your other thread about the PTC heaters was the one that made me go out to my car and check, I trust you have ECO mode turned off, so the PTC elements are allowed to turn on. As it has always seemed to me, going back even to my Gen 1, on a cold morning the 700 watts from those elements never makes any difference I can feel with my hands in the airflow. But I have noticed it makes a difference in how fast ice on the windshield will start to melt. I think the ice makes a better objective observer than my own shivering self. -Chap
Yes, it's in normal mode, I started driving it with ECO mode off last few months. I'm starting to wonder if I have PTC heaters at all, sometimes it defrosts pretty fast, sometimes it doesn't... And the ambient temps were always below 0*C/32*F BTW, my fuel mileage is bad with this commute, it's 7.2/100 or 32 mpg At the stop lights I've started to use the EV button to shut the ICE down
Push Auto button to turn the system on (and sets everything automatically, no way to avoid this, as far as I know), then push the mode button till displays an icon with arrow pointing to feet. Then adjust temperature as you like. You can also override fan speed if you like, but adjusting temp will automatically increase/decrease fan speed, pretty much optimized.
I tend to use heat/defog mode more though: directs air to feet and windshield. When it's cold there's often a good chance the windshield will fog up too.
