What have you done to your car today?

[Jez]

25C would be mentally hot in any car ive experienced

 

[[TW]Fox]

The point is that all those variables you mention are automatically dealt with. If I set off to work in the morning and its cold outside my car is toasty warm inside. 8 hours later if it's warmed up outside its no longer going to give me the same early morning toasty interior. It just works, as the car knows what temperature it is outside, it knows how sunny it is etc and it uses all of these variables to automatically control the hvac system.

Just because it says 21 on the display doesn't mean it always feels the same inside.

If that's how you used your climate its no wonder your current system meets your requirements. The entire point in climate control is to remove the need for user adjustment and to automatically respond to environment variables etc.

 

[Howard]

25C would be mentally hot in any car ive experienced

I was gonna say, that sounds horribly uncomfortable, but each to his own I guess...!

 

[mrk]

I once put my CC to 32 degrees for pic luls. Fox went mental

 

[iaind]

Your car's cabin will warm up in the depths of winter just as fast if it's set to 20 or 21C than if it's set to 25 though. Do you really do an entire journey with the climate set to 25C?

I 110% understand that it warms up just as quickly, I preach the same thing myself... we can stop covering that part off

25 is a stretch but I do enjoy it warmer when it's cooler outside and vice versa- normally I'd vary between 18 and 22. I have had it as high as 25 before in order to dry off after getting caught out in freezing rain and getting soaked to the skin

 

[Jez]

There is one exception to the climate control rule:

In a convertible (I will use a Merc SL system as an example) when its bloody cold outside but you still want the roof down, you do need to mess about with it;

-Manual fan speed, set to max (the climate will never use max fan speed on auto)
-Manual vent mode, directed at feet so that the heat wafts over you from below rather than coming blasting out in your face

 

[[TW]Fox]

Well ok no system is ever going to know you want to use the car as a human tumble dryer

 

[iaind]

There is one exception to the climate control rule:

In a convertible (I will use a Merc SL system as an example) when its bloody cold outside but you still want the roof down, you do need to mess about with it;

-Manual fan speed, set to max (the climate will never use max fan speed on auto)
-Manual vent mode, directed at feet so that the heat wafts over you from below rather than coming blasting out in your face

I've done similar in normal cars with the windows down. Sometimes it's nice to get fresh outside air on a cooler day

 

[mrk]

I just leave it on auto with the roof down, seems to have no problem. It won't ever use max fan, though it does reach 3 notches below max if it's particularly cold outside. I did toy with manual the first few weeks but then realised there's no need.

BMW one seems to cater well to fixed and folding roof equally.

 

[Howard]

I just turn the system off completely on the rare offchance that I fancy driving with the windows down.


Jez and the other fancy-pants SL convertible owners can just activate their airscarf

 

[Jez]

Airscarf is for fancypants double facelift models (2007-)

 

[Conscript]

This is what I mean about people not really ‘getting’ it. Why would you have it set to 25c? You wouldn’t. It isn’t going to make it any more toasty warm in winter nor is it going to heat up any quicker when its cold. It’s a main thermostat setting – you don’t constantly adjust your home central heating thermostat do you? You don’t set your home thermostat to 25c do you? You might manually turn a radiator up from time to time but that’s not the same thing as adjusting the main system attempt randomly every time your mood changes.

I do "get it", I understand exactly what the setting is. I don't bump it up to 25c for quicker warming, nor reduce it to 16c for quicker cooling. What I'm saying is, it's perfectly logical for the temperature you are comfortable with to be different occasionally.

A house thermostat isn't really a fair comparison. Of course I don't constantly adjust that. But generally, I'm wearing the same sort of clothing in my house all the time. Whereas if I get into my car in the winter, I'll probably still be wearing a heavy winter coat or jumper. Whilst 21c might be a nice comfortable temperature the majority of the time, wearing stuff like that wouldn't be comfortable in that sort of temperature for the whole journey, so I might nudge it down - easier than trying to remove clothing while driving.

21c (+/- 1c) is generally recognised as the optimal ambient temperature for people. So, the system stays set to this and maintains that, if you get in a freezing cold car it’ll heat the car up and be toasty and warm on the way to doing that and then gradually reduce the vent temp as it approaches it. So you get the toasty warm effect in winter. If it’s hot outside and a sauna inside it’ll cool the car with chilled air in exactly the same way. It even adjusts for the effect of solar gain. It just works.

Obviously sometimes we want to deviate from this – you’ve been for a run and you are hot, you want cold air. You don’t need to change it to 16c to get this, you can just over-ride the main vent with only cold air. Bingo – blast of cold air. Ditto if you want it a bit hotter than normal or something.

I think this is where we might be arguing different points. At no point have I suggested adjusting the climate control for such short term gain. I don't continually adjust the temperature to influence the actual temperature at the vent. I just set it to a comfortable ambient temperature. Generally this is 22C, but as I said above, this might change depending on what I'm wearing.

Continually changing the temp dial just seems to defeat the point of AUTOMATIC climate control, plus it isn’t even that efficient. Unless you dramatically change it, adjusting from 21c to 19c isn’t going to suddenly blast you with ice cold air, whereas the vent control allows you to do that if you wish.

As above. I'm not continually changing it to get the vent temperature to change, but I do see your advantage claimed with being able to do that individually.

Obviously this might differ in a more basic setup but in a decent system you set it up once – to your preferences – and forget about it. It takes care of everything else automatically, if your window fogs up the fogging sensor detects this and diverts air over the screen without you needing to intervene. If the sun is making it feel hotter inside than usual it detects this and blows colder air, etc etc.

This is how I work mine – I set everything to auto, 21c and then never need to touch the climate panel ever again.

I do the same. It's set to 22C and rarely touched. It blows colder when the sun is stronger. My simple point was that 22C is not always the perfect ambient temperature for what I'm wearing. I'm happy to nudge it down a degree or two in the winter when I'm wearing heavier clothes - which is why I was querying the individual vent control; I can see the advantage for getting a very quick fix of warm or cold air from the vents, but ultimately I'm going to want the ambient temperature adjusted slightly anyway.

It’s actually frustrating to have to constantly fiddle with the main temp setting in cars with a less useful system installed.

Yet you're happy to fiddle with the individual vent temperatures?

 

[Atari]

Doesn't matter when you turn it on. If it's a good system left on auto at a set temp like 21 degrees then it will handle everything that's required and push air around the vents dynamically to the vents that benefit the most for the ambient conditions. be sure to leave AC on too. Most cars will retain the AC on setting when the car is off and the car has climate control. There's no reason to ever turn AC off in any season.

Interesting, does yours retain the AC memory when you start the car?

I tend to leave mine as is in my 330, in the morning the display comes on and sits at its lowest setting but it doesn't feel like it's actually blowing any air out, once it's a little warmer, the fans ramp up but the car does take noticeably longer to get its coolant up to temperature - though I'm not sure if it's just displaying that on the guage as it's dampened to sit in the middle temp ranges.

My AC definitely doesn't remember what it was set to, it's always off when I get in the car.

 

[Conscript]

I can only guess you have not used a fully featured system with stratified vent control for any length of time as none of the criticisms you raise are an issue. It just... Works. Its wonderful.

Basically I barely need to think about it, my car just always seems to be at the perfect temp with minor adjustment available at any point. 21ish is such a temp that its pretty much always right in any situation and the system compensates for external variances that might change that.

Its a common one, people always seem to think separate vent temp control is pointless until they use it.

I've been in a car with it, but not really long enough to notice the benefit. But then, I've never really had a problem with the poverty spec dual climate control in my own car; it too maintains the ambient temperature nicely enough that I rarely have to think about it.

The only time it changes are in the above posts, where I'm wearing clothing of one extreme or the other. Oh, and I generally turn the system off entirely with the windows open.

But fair enough I guess.

 

[Jez]

My AC definitely doesn't remember what it was set to, it's always off when I get in the car.

That sounds broken, it should remember the setting in a BMW 330

 

[Atari]

That sounds broken, it should remember the setting in a BMW 330

I shouldn't have stated that definitely, truth be told, I haven't a clue if it does or not. I'm one of those that turns the climate control on and off as I often prefer to have the windows open I'll give it a try after work and see if it does actually remember what it was set to.

 

[Jez]

It should always come back to what it was left at

 

[Vita]

I hardly use my AC. If anything my heaters always on 22.5c and blowing down. The FSR had a moment in winter when my heaters wouldn't blow at all but it's sorted itself out.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

This is how I work mine – I set everything to auto, 21c and then never need to touch the climate panel ever again. It’s actually frustrating to have to constantly fiddle with the main temp setting in cars with a less useful system installed.

You had better have a word with your passengers the last photo you posted of your car had it set at 20.5c How do you work that one without touching the climate panel, get them to change it back when they leave the car ?

Frustrating to have to fiddle the main temperature but happy to fiddle with a vent temperature ? Seems similar actions ?

 

[[TW]Fox]

Haha, I am going to have to check what its set too now