I somehow got into a situation this afternoon where I was driving on snow-covered roads while it was still snowing. How does one use the windshield de-icer button? Leave it on when you're driving while it's snowing? (15-minute cycles) The warning message seems that it might work on the ridge of ice that develops near the pillar. True? Any actual experiences would be welcome.
Well, I went out and looked and might have answered my own question, at least partially. There are elements at the bottom of the windshield as you'd expect. There are also a couple going up the driver's side pillar (not the passenger side), pic below. It's not where the ridge of ice built up today at the end of the wiper's travel, so I guess it remains to be seen if it works. Anyone with actual experience?
No; I believe there's a heater grid along the bottom of the windshield - similar to your rear window defroster grid. It's suppose to melt snow that accumulates there, so your wipers has a clean, full swipe of the windshield - rather than bottoming out as snow accumulates there. Activating that switch would melt any accumulation there. The windshield itself should stay warm enough from your cabin heater. Unfortunately, this also will be a very expensive windshield replacement too - extra do-dads that increases cost. If or when you catch a stone on that glass. Sorry; didn't post when Prius chat hiccuped this morning.
As usual learned something new again about my LE features. And found a few other priuschat threads on this. Evidently a very localized (driver-side only?)/high power heat trace line that cycles off after 15 min. What has me stumped - the OM section as noted above flags this feature as an "if equipped". Soooooo.....are there Prius HEV or Prius Plug-In models that don't have it? My (and VelvetFoots) LE FWD is the lowest of the low trim/price wise and it has this feature. Doesn't seem to be a regional thing either - I live in SE Louisiana, purchased from a local dealer - snow/ice not exactly a routine event here (although last years Blizzard on the Bayou dusted my place with 4-6 inches). Just curious.....
They tend to cheap-out on those cars destined for third world countries and it's a legal out for Toyota.
The windscreen deicer, along with other cold-weather stuff, is not standard in Japan. Possible omissions are: the windscreen deicer, heated wing mirrors, rear floor ducts, rear fog light, grille shutter and water resistant front side windows. The rear fog light, grill shutter and windscreen deicer are only available in the cold weather pack; others are standard on some higher trims regardless. I believe the "cold weather" feature selection is fixed in Europe and the USA - no variation within regions or by trim level. Europe gets everything, USA gets everything except the rear fog light.
I have it. My house is at 8800 ft in the CO mtns. Many mornings it's -20* I usually pull up the wipers so they don't stick to the windshield and the snow build up. At that low temp, I'm not confident it would work fast enough. Although once I discovered it I use it anyway...lol If we ever get winter here I'll do a deeper dive
@KMO , I really miss the heated seats and steering wheel options I had in my last car, a MINI. I was too cheap though with the Prius.
I forgot about those two - I wasn't counting them as "cold weather" because they're not related to that pack in Japan - they're only trim-level options. Considering Europe, Japan and America, heated front seats are omitted in the US LE and SE only. Heated steering is omitted in base Europe models, Japan U and G, and US LE and SE.
