Interior Windshield Frost and Power button frozen

It's not uncommon for folks to outfit a Prius with a 12 volt to AC power inverter. About 1000 watts is the budget, more or less. That's enough to run some "low watt" hair dryers (sometimes easier to find as "pet dryers"), or some easier-to-find hair dryers on their low setting (maybe putting a blob of epoxy on the low/high switch is easier than finding a purpose-built low-watt dryer).

Then if you just make the car ready, you can hair-dry the frost off the windshield for as long as it takes.

Of course now we're back to the frozen power button.

There's a hole in the bucket....

 

Chap, most hair driers have a 120v/220v button that mechanically locks the drier in low power mode. No epoxy required.

JeffD

 

No epoxy because the 120/240 switch is harder to find or harder to flip than the lo/hi switch?

 

Not all good reviews. Obviously, many reviewers failed to understand electricity and current draw.

 

This may apply, I've seen water in battery try compartment in both Gen2, and Gen3...
Enough moisture to saturates the front windshield and hatchback glass, I know this is because it had happened to my son's 2010 Prius couple of months back...
Give it a look and see, nothing to lose..

Good luck!

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

120 for the 12V outlet. But direct to the 12V battery is about 1,000.

 

You're looking at the limits for the car's built-in "power outlets" (cigarette lighter sockets). Those are on light-gauge wire and fuses, and can supply only 120 watts (ten amps at twelve volts).

When people wire a 12 volt to AC inverter directly into the car's twelve-volt system (which should always be done with suitably heavy wiring and a dedicated fuse with an appropriate rating), the budget is mostly determined by the output capacity of the car's DC/DC converter. I don't know that spec exactly for 2019, but for 2012 through 2015 it was 120 amps. At 13.5 volts that's in the ballpark of 1600 watts, but some of that has to be for the car, which leaves the realistic budget closer to 1000 watts most of the time. (If you have a lot of the car's accessories running, especially the 700 watt supplemental heat, then the budget's a lot lower than that.)

You can find more on PriusChat in places like here and here.

 

The low/high/off switch is used every time you turn on the hair dryer so epoxy BAD there. The 220/120 switch is only used to lock the low/high/off switch out of being put into the HIGH position so you coul epoxy that one if you have no faith in the user.

JeffD

 

This looks interesting. Noticed in a local (KMS Tools) flier, for almost $20 (all funds CDN) less than this amazon screen grab:



Mmm, mixed reviews though...

 

I'll tweak the question a little and say that I would do it with the car showing READY, always.

Strictly speaking, the appliance then is not running "off of the 12 volt battery", but off of the car's DC/DC converter.

Whether the engine runs or not is then up to the car, which knows how to take care of itself.


Butane heat gun: I would be super leery of using that on ice-cold glass. I suspect the heat could be too concentrated, and crack it.

 

If you've got enough moisture inside to cake the windows in ice and jam your start button I'd be surprised if you don't have more issues pop up. That could be getting into all sorts of electronics and wiring behind your dash, your window and lock buttons, power seats...

You need to deal with the source which is too much moisture inside the cabin. I haven't had my interior ice up like that and I've had snow melt into pretty deep puddles in my rubber floor mats. I dump those out of there's any standing water in them at the end of a drive.

You might look into a dehumidifier. They make small battery powered ones for small spaces like cars. You could run it while you're driving and for a little bit after you get home to try to draw out as much as you can. I wouldn't leave it out overnight if temperatures are below freezing.

Here's one I found with a quick search:

 

I know I'm enjoying it, even though I "grew up" in the north and am extremely familiar with winter weather. Most Floridians weren't born here; they were exiled here from their home state because of their atrocious driving. Present company excluded, of course. My relocation was the result of a job promotion and transfer. There are several of us down here, but we're rare.

 

Yes, but only while the car is in use (or for a limited time after activating the "remote A/C", if 2019 still has that).