Defrosting front, rear, and side windows ?.

[Bernard Foy]

Hi All,

Now that winter is well & truly with us. I would like to know the best and most efficient way to defrost and warm up my 2019 Yaris Hybrid. All information greatly appreciated.

[TonyHSD]

Hi, 

first thing before you drive in winter is to clean the snow around drivers door, get in and start the car, set heating temperature at 22C° and air flow towards windscreen and footwell, set speed fan at 2 bars , and make sure AC is off. Turn on rear window defrost button this will clean rear window and side mirrors. If they folded do not unfold for now. If there is a snow you can now go out and clean the whole car from top to bottom, turn ON your lights this will help defrost them. After 5 min total you will have your car all clean and warm up enough to drive of, fasten your seatbelt, unfold your side mirrors and enjoy winter driving. Do not do hard accelerations until engine temp gauge goes in the middle, always slow down the car way before you need to stop completely, leave longer distance between you and the cars ahead. 👍

[Bernard Foy]

48 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Hi, 

first thing before you drive in winter is to clean the snow around drivers door, get in and start the car, set heating temperature at 22C° and air flow towards windscreen and footwell, set speed fan at 2 bars , and make sure AC is off. Turn on rear window defrost button this will clean rear window and side mirrors. If they folded do not unfold for now. If there is a snow you can now go out and clean the whole car from top to bottom, turn ON your lights this will help defrost them. After 5 min total you will have your car all clean and warm up enough to drive of, fasten your seatbelt, unfold your side mirrors and enjoy winter driving. Do not do hard accelerations until engine temp gauge goes in the middle, always slow down the car way before you need to stop completely, leave longer distance between you and the cars ahead. 👍

I’ve been doing some of it wrong Tony. 1: I had the fan at full blast, 2: I had the air con on, 3: I had interior air circulation on. There is a front window defrost button above the rear window one, I had that on. Thanks for your prompt response to my question.

[TonyHSD]

41 minutes ago, Bernard Foy said:

I’ve been doing some of it wrong Tony. 1: I had the fan at full blast, 2: I had the air con on, 3: I had interior air circulation on. There is a front window defrost button above the rear window one, I had that on. Thanks for your prompt response to my question.

No worries, if you want you can use front window defrost button too and doing so ac will be switching ON automatically if air temperature outside is over 4C°, my method works a bit slower but it’s more efficient in terms of energy consumption and in general it will dry the car better. Keep speed fan at 2 max as this is the sweet point where you get immediate air flow towards the windscreen and the lower speed helps engine warms up faster, higher speeds prolong the engine warm up time, keep also air intake from outside, never in circulation except in hot summer days with ac on. You may try my way and see how it goes. 👍🚗  

[Stivino]

If you have the fan on at any speed, it will take longer for the engine to heat up.   Using re-circulate helps to heat the inside of the car quicker as it is not drawing freezing cold air from the outside but, it also encourages moisture to form on the inside, using the air-con will counter the build up moisture.

[Bernard Foy]

7 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

No worries, if you want you can use front window defrost button too and doing so ac will be switching ON automatically if air temperature outside is over 4C°, my method works a bit slower but it’s more efficient in terms of energy consumption and in general it will dry the car better. Keep speed fan at 2 max as this is the sweet point where you get immediate air flow towards the windscreen and the lower speed helps engine warms up faster, higher speeds prolong the engine warm up time, keep also air intake from outside, never in circulation except in hot summer days with ac on. You may try my way and see how it goes. 👍🚗  

I certainly will T, no freezing temperatures these last two nights, however in this part of Ireland there will be more freezing temperatures between now and the end of March 😡🥶🚗. I run the air con continuously summer and winter. 22 in the winter and 16-18 in summer, any advice on that score ?

[bathtub tom]

I've been known to put a hairdryer on inside the car while I go and have a cuppa. You do need to think about where you're directing the hot air.

[Stivino]

27 minutes ago, bathtub tom said:

I've been known to put a hairdryer on inside the car while I go and have a cuppa. You do need to think about where you're directing the hot air.

I've been known to use a 2kW fan heater in the footwell 😀

[Bernard Foy]

13 minutes ago, Stivino said:

I've been known to use a 2kW fan heater in the footwell 😀

 

14 minutes ago, Stivino said:

I've been known to use a 2kW fan heater in the footwell 😀

Either of the above would be helpful, but wouldn’t be be prudent to leave them unattended 🔥. Thanks again guys for the comments. Any thoughts on my query re using the air con in relation to summer & winter??.

[Roy124]

Use AC for comfort and not habit as it uses power.