Does anyone know of any way to make the remote A/C run the system for more than 3 minutes? 3 minutes isn't really enough to cool the car down and it heats up very fast as soon as it deactivates. I'd love the ability to run the AC indefinitely, or at least for 5 - 10 minutes. Anyone know if this is possible?
I actually find this option pretty useless. It would have the same effect if you just roll down all your windows for 3 minutes to let all the hot air out. An option to remotely roll down all your windows would be better and uses less energy
Agree. For me, if I'm within remote range, I'm walking to the car and going to open in in about 10 seconds. At that point, the A/C shuts off and was useless. I really miss the auto-open window feature from my last few cars, since that allows the car to open up and cool down as I'm loading stuff in the trunk, etc.
Not the answer you're looking for, but a remote starter is far superior. I thought the auto A/C would be nice, but then I realized it only worked off of electric. I would be nice in summer, but useless for winter. Remote start starts the engine, and the A/C will heat or cool to the specified temperature...running 12 minutes (IIRC) and shutting down if you don't override or open the door first. Yeah, you'll burn gas as needed, but if you really want to avoid burning gas, the remote A/C will cut out once the battery drains to a given point since it's not supposed to engage the ICE. I opted for a remote starter on a lower trim level Prius than a lot of extra money to have no "remote heat" on a top-trim Prius.
What would it take to add remote start to my gen 3? I'm also thinking that it may not run the engine after start while idling, just because the heat was on, so it might still be useless for winter? Correct me if I'm wrong, I just assume that, as it starts only on battery as long as the battery has enough charge.
If the climate control temp is set higher than ambient, the ICE will run to provide heat to the interior regardless of whether the vehicle is parked or in motion.
