Using the heater or AC in a Hybrid

[Quadratica]

I am changing my car after 12 years, three options: 2018/19 automatic car: Yaris 1.5 petrol or 1.5 Hybrid or Honda Jazz 1.3

I suffer from cold hands/feet and need the car heater on (permanently) for most journeys. If I buy the Yaris hybrid and I am in a traffic jam will the heater/AC stay on all the time (I don't care about MPG as long as I am warm). Will the heater be on and toasty-warm when the car is running in Battery mode ? And in hot weather will the AC work without the ICE running ? 

Thanks in advance to all replies

 

[Big_D]

17 minutes ago, Quadratica said:

If I buy the Yaris hybrid and I am in a traffic jam will the heater/AC stay on all the time

Yes

 

15 minutes ago, Quadratica said:

Will the heater be on and toasty-warm when the car is running in battery mode ?

Yes

 

15 minutes ago, Quadratica said:

And in hot weather will the AC work without the ICE running ? 

And again, Yes

The ICE will kick in automatically to run the Heater/AC as needed. 

[Quadratica]

Thank you Big_D. The hybrid is my preferred choice. I assume you are speaking from personal experience ?. 

[Saxmaniac]

There will be plenty of heat, the engine holds enough heat to supply heater even when not running, if it cools too much it will automatically kick in to maintain temperature. There's a penalty in mpg but even then it's still using less fuel than a diesel 

[Primus1]

Also look out for a car with heated seats and steering wheel….

[anchorman]

I take beta blockers and my extremities are almost permanently cold.  The heater works perfectly in all weathers and you can even pre warm the car off your phone.  We use taxis every day at work and they all run round with the heater off to scratch a few pence which is crazy and very annoying.  There’s no way I’d do without the heater in a modern car to save a few bob.

[TonyHSD]

Best way to set your heating is in auto mode with ac on all year around. 
The car will do the rest for you. You can always change temperature settings up or down even by 1 degree and the system will respond accordingly and adjust its settings. 
In Toyota hybrids it is important to have your cabin clean and well ventilated, plus an ambient temperature all seasons because the cabin air also been used to cool or warm up the hybrid Battery located under rear seats bench. 

[Quadratica]

Thank you Anchorman. Good point about Beta blockers but I avoid meds unless my life depends on them. Cold feet are only an issue when I am sitting. Crazy to save a few pence without heating, agreed! 

[Quadratica]

Thank you Saxmaniac.

[Big_D]

17 hours ago, Quadratica said:

Thank you Big_D. The hybrid is my preferred choice. I assume you are speaking from personal experience ?. 

Yes, the Good Lady has a '72 plate Yaris Excel 1.5 Hybrid.

[anchorman]

You’ll be snug and not only that, they warm up really quickly.  My diesel days are done for a number of reasons and one was that they took three weeks to get warm.  

[Cyker]

Gah how do you lot get yours to warm up so fast?? On the morning commute mine takes ages; Even the engine temp display struggles to get and stay above the first 2 blocks on a cold day unless I turn the HVAC off!

[anchorman]

13 hours ago, Cyker said:

Gah how do you lot get yours to warm up so fast?? On the morning commute mine takes ages; Even the engine temp display struggles to get and stay above the first 2 blocks on a cold day unless I turn the HVAC off!

I haven’t got it now but both the YC with the M15 and the UX with the M20 that I have now are astonishingly quick.   They start pushing warm air before I’ve got out of the drive.  Your warm air probably can’t keep up with the car!   That’s with the AC on, I never ever turn it off auto.  

[skidlid]

If you want a really slow warm up get a 2002 onwards 2.0 TDCi Mondeo. Wifes commute was about 5 miles each way and it never put any heat out whatsoever.

Replaced with a 1.6 TDCi Focus. That warmed up slightly faster (a bit warm by the time she got to work) but if you sat in traffic the gauge slowly fell and the heat stopped (the car engine was running  - no stop start).

At the time I had a BMW 118D, heat coming out before I got off the street, told they had a electric coil in the matix as well as hot water.

[Cyker]

To be fair, with the ford it was probably the heater matrix failing or a problem with the coolant thermostat - No-so uncommon problems on Fords  

I can get mine to warm up faster if I drive more "enthusiastically" but it can be tricky to do that in stop start traffic  

 

[TonyHSD]

Toyota hybrids has the fastest warming up engines from all cars I ever drive. 
 When using hvac with ac on no matters if in auto or manual mode the air that comes into the cabin feels dryer and little bit warmer if you use no ac. 
I have been using manual mode for years without ac at all throughout the winter as I don’t really need it become of the time spend in the car heating can do everything without ac but lately in auto mode set 22 C° and the system works very we indeed. Keep it like that for now. 👍

[skidlid]

2 hours ago, Cyker said:

To be fair, with the ford it was probably the heater matrix failing or a problem with the coolant thermostat - No-so uncommon problems on Fords  

The Mondeo was new when bought and sold at 3 years so none of the above.

The Focus was also new when bought and at just under a year old the dealer agreed to swap the stat, made no difference. We know it was done because they made one hell of a mess with spilt antifreeze and new hose clips. What garage would make a mess instead of doing the job. The service manager appeared shocked when he saw the mess, had the bloke who did it come over to the car and told him he would sort it in his own time. They loaned us a car for the day. We kept it until it was 5 years old and it was exactly the same all the time so if the heater matrix was failing it was doing it from new.

Neither car had any coolant added during our ownership. Antifreeze concentration checked at every service and well withing limits.

Next car we bought was a Kia, we did look at the Avensis but the garage was rubbish, still were when we went to look at the Yaris.

[hind]

23 hours ago, skidlid said:

Replaced with a 1.6 TDCi Focus.

I've equipped mine with PTC heater (fortunately it was possible as the wiring was there and activation with proper PC interface was also easy, yet the installation was very painful to my back as the position was extremely uncomfortable) and it is much better now 🙂 that's why the diesel engine is so fuel efficient, the cabin heating is just wasted energy from the internal combustion engine work. 

With Yaris hybrid the heated wheel and seats do the trick, but with temperatures around 0 degrees it still takes around 20 km to fully heat up the cabin (I was able to feel that as the air from the vent suddenly became colder)

[anchorman]

I’m not bothered about it being fully warm, if it comes through warm I can live with that.