heating the interior

[Simon333]

is there any advantage when heating the inside of the car when first starting when the weathers cold to use the a/con to dry the air coming in from the outside just till the interior warms up. thanks in advance. simon.

[FROSTYBALLS]

See

 

[Mick F]

On 12/9/2019 at 6:46 PM, Simon333 said:

is there any advantage when heating the inside of the car when first starting when the weathers cold to use the a/con to dry the air coming in from the outside just till the interior warms up. thanks in advance. simon.

Leave the aircon on permanently.  This car, and the last two had aircon, and they were left on all the time.  Never an issue.

Aircon will give warm air and cold air, and all points in between.

Mick.

[mrpj]

Yes as Mick advises. Leave it on all the time. "Conditioning" it dries the air too. There are however, temperatures at which the a.c. will not even operate (purposely) to avoid freezing the evaporator.

[Madasafish]

Leather steering wheel cover makes a difference when cold..I always wear gloves when paked after 7pm in winter..Aircon on all time.

[TonyHSD]

No point leaving air con on all the times, even though doing so you are wasting energy-fuel, extra loading  the engine especially in small cars, and in temperatures below 4C the air con won’t start anyway. Air con helps to dry the air and can be useful in situations when extra moisture is introduced into interior but in any other ways just crack open one or both front windows little bit and wait the car to heat up and all the moisture will be out and interior clean. Switching air con ON than switching OFF will make the things worse and you may also get bad smell too, but different people find different ways to tackle same problems and of course has different recommendations. You can try both ways and see which one works best for you. 

Regards 

[davekench]

17 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

No point leaving air con on all the times, even though doing so you are wasting energy-fuel, extra loading  the engine especially in small cars, and in temperatures below 4C the air con won’t start anyway. Air con helps to dry the air and can be useful in situations when extra moisture is introduced into interior but in any other ways just crack open one or both front windows little bit and wait the car to heat up and all the moisture will be out and interior clean. Switching air con ON than switching OFF will make the things worse and you may also get bad smell too, but different people find different ways to tackle same problems and of course has different recommendations. You can try both ways and see which one works best for you. 

Regards 

On the RAC site it staes the following - An air-con system is much like the human body – if not used for long periods it can seize up, plus circulation suffers. The air-con is filled with a refrigerant and some oil, and it pays to keep that liquid flowing and the components of the system lubricated.

[TonyHSD]

Using air con once in a while it is enough to keep your AC system lubricated and in working order for a long time. As I said there are two ways to do it., with ac on or without, both have positive and negative sides , everyone is free to use the one that’s most suited. People living in Russia for example that don’t see positive temperatures for months can’t use air cons anyway, so do you think all their cars have non working systems because of that?! AIr con compressors driven via belts has a clutch that engages and allows ac system gas and oil circulation even air con not ON, in hybrid cars like Toyota with electronic AC compressor that is managed via ecu so no worries at all. 

Regards 

[Mick F]

I'm with the RAC on this matter.  Thank you Davekench for stating it.

Ours is on all the time.  This car - and the last one - Fiat 500 - had auto climate control.  Leave it in Auto ......... that's what it's there for.

Last car was a manual air con.  Renault 1.6 16v Clio. That was left on for the 16years we owned it - from brand new.  Never ever an issue and no maintenance required or done other than the cabin filter change a couple of times.

Leave it on!

Mick.

[Madasafish]

Our Yaris is now 16 years old. The airon has been on all its use and the only fault was a need to regas about 9 years ago.....It probably needs another regas but hardly worthwhile as it still cools the air...

[PeteB]

When the Austin Metro was launched in 1980 the 1.3 version was available with A/C and the motoring press generally reckoned using it caused a 10% hit on mpg.

These days, A/C is vastly more efficient and on recent cars I've struggled to notice any measurable different in mpg caused by leaving the A?C permanent on in conjunction with Climate Control to manage things (except when temperatures exceed mid 20s).  This is particularity true of the Hybrids which, apart from the first generation Prius, use an electric compressor, which apparently reduces (but not necessarily eliminates) the risk of the bearing seals drying out and failing due to lack of use.

I certainly came a cropper with a Gen 1 Prius some 13 years ago when for just over a year I had use of company cars and only drove mine once every 1-2 weeks (which I had thought was enough to keep the A/C alive) - not only did the A/C compressor seals fail, requiring a new compressor, but some other parts of the system developed leaks too.  [On top of that, the brakes, which had hardly worn over 70,000 miles, rusted like hell and all four corners needed new discs and pads about 10,000 miles later - after another 70k, the replacements were still going strong.]