My 2012 wants a Remote Start installed... in 2026.

block heater?

 

The engine can handle the cold. It will warm up faster under normal driving and you'll have heat.
You could wait until the engine warms up, at idle, but you don't need too.

 

On the Prius, is there really THAT much difference between the normal engine idle vs highway driving? Just do not be too aggressive initially and you should be OK, IMO. the Prius engine already tries to get up to temperature as fast as it can once it starts.

 

More or less.

It's a heck of a lot cheaper to provide technical support to a few professional installers than the general public. Given that most people don't install their own to begin with, they aren't even going against the flow to do it this way.

If it were me I'd skip the whole thing. It's not like you're driving a carbureted cast iron engine from the 1940s. There really have been a lot of advancements in engineering since then, might as well take advantage of them.

Another thought: just go around the block once before you get on the highway. Nobody's forcing you to take the shortest possible route.

 

FWIW, my block heater was replaced by dealership due to recall (fire hazard), and the new one is noticeably weaker. I’ve seen mention online it’s been revised from 400 to 200 watts. Even increasing plugged-in time from my old 2-hour time to 4 hours, pretty anemic.

 

Yes, it idles at a lot higher RPM than a none hybrid car.
Today's engines and oils don't need the old warm up time like the ones from the 60-70's.

 

Of interest (maybe): for the first block or two, driving after cold-start, the engine provides no motivation, it’s purely electric. You can verify: step on the gas and the car accelerates, but the engine, while running at fast idle, doesn’t change its tone.

 

In my experience; most hotels in snow regions usually has several dedicated spaces for plugging-in - ask the front desk personnel.

Not sure about the gen3, but on the gen4 - hitting the front windscreen defrost will force engine startup cycle. Once it's on; it will complete the ICE warm-up cycle before shutting-down. That's if the software hasn't detected that it's so cold that it needs to start the engine to warm the battery pack.

You may also want to crawl under the car to check the exhaust gas heat exchanger flap is free and working properly. If that flap is frozen in the open position - it's going to take longer to warm the system.

Hope this helps....

 

In Northern Europe this is daily winterlife indeed.

https://www.defa.com/defa-mobile-services/ for example.

It’s not a genius concept, unless you manage to get 220V - or have failover batteries ready…

(Do note G3 Prius has a oe 700W heater which makes defrosting fast).

 

Apparently, some clueless people do. I have a software update recall on my 2025 Camry and there are 2 ways to avoid display issues with the rear camera.

1. The camera image can freeze if you do not wait at least 3 seconds between power on and putting in Reverse.

2. If you turn the car on and off in less than 13 seconds, you may get a black screen the next time the vehicle is turned on.

Apparently there were enough complaints about both conditions to trigger a recall.

 

Haha! I figured if you were already committed to burning gas to solve the problem, why not do it with what you already had? Especially if the hotel is (as is implied) a temporary address.

...but congrats on the project all the same!