Prius Heat Working Properly?

Both my 04 and 05 heats up to comfortable level in about 10 mins. When it really cold around 0 it takes a little longer and usually the fan always stays on high when it's that cold, but above 0 the fan usually starts to gradually reduce speed after about 10 mins., if you leave it do it's own thing and not override it.

 

p.s. just to say - Prius in my experience has the fastest cooling/heating system, out of at least any Toyota I have driven. Since it is all electrical, it heats up much faster than an normal heater/engine would...

 

I drove my Prius in Fargo for one and a half winters. My commute was 10 to 12 minutes.

That electric heater is only at foot level, and is too small to actually feel any heat out of. But my feet got comfortable MUCH sooner than in my old Civic, so I think there was some heat coming out of it.

At 20 below zero I pre-heated the car for 5 minutes before driving, and after 5 minutes more (driving) there was enough heat coming out the hand vents to take off one glove at a time, hold my hand at the vent for a while, and then put the glove back on and do the same for the other hand. After 10 minutes of driving I could take my gloves off. After 20 minutes (on the rare long drive to the shopping center) the car was comfortable.

Amost all the heat comes from burning gas. The Prius burns half as much gas as another car, so has less waste-heat output. I once drive a Camry. Now that car put out heat!!! But in every other respect my Prius was far and away the better car.

In the end I left Fargo and moved here. The car heats up MUCH faster at 20 above than it did at 20 below!!!

 

I'm still waiting on my Prius, but all of this seems interesting. I'm in Florida, so temperatures such as those mentioned in the posts will not even come close. Maybe there will be a few days in the high 20s or low 30s, but that's as low as it gets for the most part. My concern is how the AC works!

 

for anyone having trouble with heat:

i have found that the auto setting it not always best. it start the heat flow from the feet. if you leave it like that it'll take about 10 minutes before the cabin warms up.

screw auto and change the air flow setting to the vents that face you. the cabin will be warm in about 5 minutes.

 

I never lived in Spokane, but visisted it nearly monthly during my last year or two at WSU. Spokane is downright tropical compared to Fargo, especially in the winter. However winter fuel economy is effected by 2 things, warmup times and winter blend of fuel, which has less actual fuel energy than summer blends.

As for effectiveness of the entire auto climate system, it is really quite excellent. I do find that when it it is very cold out the pause the system has before activating the fan and be a little annoying, especially when we are conditioned to have cold outside air running on us even in the dead of the winter as part of a normal cabin heat up process. But the coolant storage system really does help the car produce cabin heat more quickly than if it were not equipped.

 

The whole climate system in the Prius is probably my biggest complaint about the car.

Item: Some air will come through when the fan is off, but to change the temp, you have to turn the fan on. If you had the heat up in the morning, but you want it off in the afternoon, you must start the fan, then scroll down through the temps to cold, and then turn the fan back off. Otherwise, even with the fan off you'll get hot air coming out the vents. THIS IS STUPID!!!!!!!

Item: You cannot jump from Max Hot to Max Cold or vice versa without scrolling through the entire range. THIS IS STUPID!!!!!!!

Item: It ALWAYS defaults to outside air when you turn on the climate control. In cold weather (especially Fargo!) you do NOT want outside air until there's some heat flowing. You want to recirculate. It refuses to remember the last setting, so every time you shut off the fan and later turn it back on, you get outside air, whether you want it or not. THIS IS STUPID!!!!!!!

I do not like automatic, because I don't want to waste energy running the A/C if I don't need it.

My only other complaint about the car is that you have to come to a full stop for 10 seconds after it's warmed up to get into Stage 4 (full hybrid) operation. If traffic conditions do not permit this, you can drive forever and never achieve maximum efficiency. THIS IS STUPID!!!!!!!

That's my entire list of complaints. In every other respect this is the coolest, best-designed car in the universe.

 

I agree with Daniel on most of those points, especially with the default to outside air.

One observation ... when I initially bought my car, the heater was definitely not working well. I had on max high blast in 10 F weather and it was not even keeping the car warm. Being the lazy guy that I am, I waited before bringing it in to the dealer. After another week, I noticed it got better. After 2 weeks of high usage, the car was blasting very hot air with no problem and I've never had a problem since. Is there something that needs to be 'worn-in' on the heater???

 

Yeah, but I still don't like its choices, especially its insistence on outside air when the car is cold. Give me old-fashioned hand controls any day!

 

another reason I like the Classic Climate control is done with 3 dials on the dash. Don't think I've touched it in 3 months. 21C feet and window fan on low and I dont' want recerc. so that's just fine and a/c is another button. Do it by braile when driving.

 

My 2005 BC 6 purchased in the end of March doesn't reset to outside air. It stays where I used it last, which is usually recirc. Is this settable?

 

Works for me!

So far I've only had to deal with temps in the '30s F with cold start. I just put dash vent fan on high and max the heat, and get toasty in a minute or so. Then back off to keep from sweating.

I dread it when 'Bama gets hit with the teens, tho.

 

Have you *tried* forcing recirc when just starting out cold? You'll
completely fog the windshield in about 2 minutes, especially with
more people in the car than just the driver.
.
_H*