What is the normal safe 'Battery Drainage' while stuck in traffic and NOT MOVING for 15min.?

That’s a good question, that I’d like to know the answer too as well. Yesterday I came back from back from getting a Take N-bake pizza and when I got out of the car, I forgot to power it off. I was focused on getting the pizza in the house and in the oven. I didn’t realize I had left the car ON. Until about an hour later I open the door to my garage and saw the headlights ON (car in driveway, garage door open)

When I went out too the car, the Battery level was at 2 bars. I opted to take it for short 2 mile drive until the battery level was back up too normal. Then came back home and shut it off.


iPhone X ?

 

2 bars (whether you call that pink or purple), and the car will then start the ICE to bring it up the third bar (blue). It will continue this cycle for as long as the car is not moving or in very slow start/stop traffic. So, if that is what is happening, situation normal.

 

We ran into a "parked while on" situation yesterday in a rest stop near Boron out on the desert. My wife needed to use the facilities while our daughter and I remained in the car. I just left it on with the a/c also on and it took 10-15 minutes to get down to the 2 purple bars. The ICE kicked on as you describe to get it back to blue. The ICE then turned off and it returned to battery power. I assume it would have cycled again but she came back before it had a chance. The car was back up to 70 mph right away and the battery was back to the top blue bar in less than 5 miles (might have been less; I wasn't watching it that closely).

The situation repeated itself when she went into the Stater Bros. in Hesperia and we stayed in the car again. Since then we've put another 100 miles on the car and it's working just fine.

Sounds like we are all seeing what normal for these cars is.

 

the car takes care of itself, and it is all 'normal and safe' until your battery goes bad. then you need to replace it.
avoiding traffic jams won't prolong battery life.

 

My 2011 Gen 3, was accidentally stuck in traffic for about an hour. I got a warning message twice that said the Hybrid System had overheated and was shutting down. The engine continued running fine. I turned off the AC and any other accessories. In about 15 minutes the Hybrid system came back on. As traffic cleared, I got the car moving to create a bit of airflow. In a few minutes, everything was back to normal. I believe they're designed to take traffic backups in stride.

 

This is the Gen 2 forum. 2004-2009. Plus it sounds like you might need a new inverter cooling pump.

 

Call me corn fused

FYI
2004-09 Toyota Prius 2 Generation

dissection of your Question has a dissection of Answer

SOC(State of Charge) of traction hybrid battery color and bar levels

SOC Colors for Generation 2(seen only on MFD)

Green color SOC inference 64% to 81% charge level and dependent on bar levels

Blue color SOC 66% to 45% charge level and bar level

Pink color SOC 41% and lower (close to error code status)

simple google search of "Prius Battery SOC colors " can help