He started a borderline thread in Fred's House (since deleted) & it ended up with some NSFW posts. I notice this guideline too. A quick note about bashing or flaming - blatant off topic bashing of any car type, manufacturer, etc will not be tolerated here on Priuschat outside of the Off Topic forum. He definitely loved bashing his "Disney car"
Our 3rd gen, similarly, has no regular "mode" that directs all the air to the windshield. Best you can do is heat/defog, a 50/50 mix. I know there's the guns-blazing front defog button (with full-tilt AC), but that always seems a momentary use thing.
I feel like I missed an episode of "The Walking Dead" and everyone at work is telling me Glen got eaten by zombies. I have never pushed that front defrost button, just no need yet. I'm sure some day I'll get stuck parked outside where it frosts up on me. Does the front defrost button rev up the fan speed as well? My other modern vehicles all turn on the AC when the air flow is directed to the windshield. I believe even the 1994 Taurus I had in college did this. I think if I noticed the Prius didn't turn on the AC when defrost is selected I'd have come here to start a thread complaining about it.
What do you mean by momentary use? The Gen 4 has a from Defrost button. There his also an air flow setting that is supposed to direct some air to the windshield.
Michelle, thanks for starting this thread, so I didn't have too! 3 degrees out today, and I had frost on the INSIDE of my windows when I got to work... I've been doing everything wrong! Eco on, recirc on, driver priority on... I've always thought that having recirc on would help with heating, since it's reheating warmer air... ...didn't realize I was always wrong Great advice! Will try all these... I might have been breathing a little heavy.... I didn't even realize there was a FAST mode ! Need to re-read the manual! Thanks all! This thread has been a very rewarding read!
The fan seems to run at a fairly high speed in Defrost mode. From the 2017 Manual (2016 should be the same)
Yes, there's the #4 option: 50% to feet and 50% to windshields. But what I miss is a similar, regular mode that's 100% to windshield. It used to be the norm, say back in the 1980's. Really handy when you don't want AC, just want to put all the air on the windshield, in cold/rainy climates.
Just put it on auto..... I run mine in eco, with driver priority on and it works fine in low temps (it hasn't seen below 0F yet though). Unless I'm trying to burn off some frost I don't think I'd take the HVAC system out of eco. I use driver priority all of the time as well because I don't see any reason to worry about heating up the backseat area. It probably does help with heating however it is also recirculating the moisture from the snow you tracked in, and from your breath and sweat, etc. That moisture will condense onto any cold surface it finds, in this case your windows. Using fresh air keeps the humidity down so there's less moisture in the air. Even if you don't feel like it's very humid your cold window is plenty cold enough to condense any water vapor available into water droplets.
Mine is just fine in Eco, driver priority in low temps as well. If the windows start to fog up, all I have to do is hit the front defrost and it's gone within seconds Heating your car in winter isn't rocket science...
With integrated ceramic electric heater... These cars are really packed w/ little bits of tech here, there and everywhere... I can understand how some people are overwhelmed by all the buttons and settings.
My demist buttons are on the drivers door. When the heater is off the vents default to screen and feet (same as defog). So when it's not freezing cold and I don't have the heater on, as soon as the screen or side windows start to mist up a little, I resort to cracking open the windows a little to improve the airflow. This demists the front screen and the side windows quite quickly when the engine is up to temp, without turning on the heater.
I think we called them "Quarterlights" Turn them out to suck air out and turn them around to suck air in for ventilation.
Thats the one, it's a shame Toyota made them fixed (non opening) on the Prius, but I suppose it's more secure.