Air con. recirc etc.....in winter

Banzai_Joe · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:10

Guys,

what the best way to bring the cabin air temp up to temperature in these current arctic conditions.
My Insigina has a/c, climate control.
1) Should i turn it on immediately in the hope that it will be giving out warm air within a few miles?
2) should i wait for the engine to get warmer before turning it on?
3) should i hit the recirc button? Doesn't that just recirculate the air that's already in the cabin? Which i guess would be warmer than outside, so might be a better punt?

I've never really understood the recirc button. Someone once suggested that it was useful in a traffic jam where you don't want to be inhaling the car in fronts exhaust fumes.

Any advice appreciated, ta.

Scania · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:14

I use my A/C all the time, I only use recirculate (which is what recirc is short for

) when I'm somewhere very dusty or smelly, or sat behind some smokey old shed, it recirculates the cabin air without drawing in said dust, fumes etc from the outside.

The A/C won't be operating below ~5deg C anyway, but it will still remove moisture from the cabin air afaik, either way, my car (BMW e46) or truck (Scania R Series HGV) de-mists much much quicker with the A/C on than with the A/C off, recirculate seems to make no difference in this regard in my experience.

Jono8 · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:27

I just stick it on auto and 25/26 degrees in these below freezing temps. Though, i have it off for when i start the car in the morning when it is freezing as otherwise it seems to fog up ridiculously. I find having it off whilst i scrape/de ice the car and then putting it on once i have got in and started driving is fine.

Jonnycoupe · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:32

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
I use my A/C all the time, I only use recirculate (which is what recirc is short for ) when I'm somewhere very dusty or smelly, or sat behind some smokey old shed, it recirculates the cabin air without drawing in said dust, fumes etc from the outside.

The A/C won't be operating below ~5deg C anyway, but it will still remove moisture from the cabin air afaik, either way, my car (BMW e46) or truck (Scania R Series HGV) de-mists much much quicker with the A/C on than with the A/C off, recirculate seems to make no difference in this regard in my experience.

If its too cold for AC to work then it wont be removing moisture. The whole reason it stops AC when cold is that the ambient air could freeze and maintain the frozen state of the condensing air on the evaporator and block fresh airflow into the cabin.

Howard · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:36

If it's proper digital climate control then you shouldn't have to touch it surely? You'll know which cabin temperature is comfortable for you in winter so just leave it set to that and the climate control will get the temp up to, and maintain, that temperature as quickly as it can.

Matt82 · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:38

if ice is so slippery, how on earth does it stick to the windscreen to well?

acemastr · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:39

I put my recirc on automatic today, air con has no charge, really should sort that one day... anyway, seemed to do a decent job, cut in behind a smoggy truck, no misting up.

Scania · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:41

Jonnycoupe said:
If its too cold for AC to work then it wont be removing moisture. The whole reason it stops AC when cold is that the ambient air could freeze and maintain the frozen state of the condensing air on the evaporator and block fresh airflow into the cabin.

Cheers for that, given what you say though, why would both car & truck demist quicker with it on? (I'm sure I'm not just perceiving that it does this, but freely concede it perhaps could just indeed be perception.....)

Porceliamone · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:44

I have an Insignia too.
With the climate control I whack the fans onto full (right knob), heat to max (left knob), recirc on. I find it the fastest way to defrost and heat the car on freezing mornings.

[TW]Fox · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:48

If it has climate control you don't do anything. What's the point in touching dials?

Banzai_Joe · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:53

I usually do leave my cc on auto. If i set the heat to HI rather than 27°C then the fans always kick in, but first thing in the morning they are blasting out freezing cold air (obviously), so i guess i'm stuck with waiting as long as it takes for some warm air them.
My vectra seemed to emit warm air quicker than the insignia does on a cold morning.

Howard · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:54

Just leave it. In Auto it'll sit there and wait until warm air comes out, then it'll banzai the fans until the cabin is getting up to temperature.

I wish more people understood how climate control works and why it's the best thing since sliced bread

Porceliamone · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:55

[TW]Fox;23310106 said:
If it has climate control you don't do anything. What's the point in touching dials?

If you leave it on auto to get to the temp set the fans don't kick out at full blast. It's a gentler flow set on auto. If you want the airflow real fast you have to manually whack the fans up.

Jonnycoupe · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:55

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
Cheers for that, given what you say though, why would both car & truck demist quicker with it on? (I'm sure I'm not just perceiving that it does this, but freely concede it perhaps could just indeed be perception.....)

Maybe its working? No idea could be recirc strategy so the air temp increases faster or the airflow is bias more to the windscreen as it thinks any command for AC is to help airflow.

or just perception. The humidity of cold days varies a lot aswell.

Howard · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:56

Porceliamone said:
If you leave it on auto to get to the temp set the fans don't kick out at full blast. It's a gentler flow set on auto. If you want the airflow real fast you have to manually whack the fans up.

Why would you want freezing cold air blowing around your feet?

Jonnycoupe · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:56

Porceliamone said:
If you leave it on auto to get to the temp set the fans don't kick out at full blast. It's a gentler flow set on auto. If you want the airflow real fast you have to manually whack the fans up.

I have a crummy Honda, albeit with climate and auto the bigger the difference between demand and actual the faster the fan will run.

[TW]Fox · 6 Dec 2012 at 11:59

Porceliamone said:
If you leave it on auto to get to the temp set the fans don't kick out at full blast. It's a gentler flow set on auto. If you want the airflow real fast you have to manually whack the fans up.

Maybe if your climate control sucks - blowing freezing cold air onto the screen isn't going to do much and it only takes about 60 seconds before it'll open the windscreen vents to direct less-than-freezing-air onto the windscreen.

Porceliamone · 6 Dec 2012 at 12:06

[TW]Fox;23310196 said:
Maybe if your climate control sucks - blowing freezing cold air onto the screen isn't going to do much and it only takes about 60 seconds before it'll open the windscreen vents to direct less-than-freezing-air onto the windscreen.

Well maybe mine does suck and yours is amazing. Does it matter though? Not really.

Porceliamone · 6 Dec 2012 at 12:07

Howard said:
Why would you want freezing cold air blowing around your feet?

I'm not normally in the car to start with and it warms up pretty quick.

Alibaba99 · 6 Dec 2012 at 12:44

Porceliamone said:
If you leave it on auto to get to the temp set the fans don't kick out at full blast. It's a gentler flow set on auto. If you want the airflow real fast you have to manually whack the fans up.

The aircon in my Saab ramps the fan speed up when there is enough temperature in the heater matrix to make this worthwhile. Manually turning the fan up just pulls load of freezing air through the cabin.

The only time this is worthwhile is if the outside temperature is above 3°c on a damp day, as the aircon is working at this temperature and so will keep the screen clear.