When to Use the Car's Recirculation Button - Main Street Mechanic
When to Use the Car's Recirculation Button - Main Street Mechanic
You know that button in your car with the arrow that looks like it’s going in a circle? It’s one that not a lot of people know exactly what it is for even if they do push it on occasion.
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But there are a lot of people out there that never use the Recirculation Button because they just don’t know what it can do. Don’t worry; it’s awesome when used right – read on!
In the Winter and Cold Weather: You don’t want to use Recirculated Air in the winter because it traps humidity inside the car, resulting in super foggy windows – not good! So when it’s cold outside, make sure that Recirculation is NOT selected. There are some that think it makes sense to not have “all that cold air coming in” if they are using the Fresh Air mode (It has an arrow going from outside to inside the car on most vehicles), but they need not worry. The Fresh Air mode forces the outside air through your heater core so it’s nice and toasty before it reaches you, and your windows will de-fog a lot quicker and stay that way while you drive. Fresh Air is your friend in the Winter!
So what exactly is that button for? It’s mainly for the Summertime.
Using the Recirculation button helps get your car as cool as possible when it’s hot outside and you have the A/C on. It recirculates the kind-of-cool air that you get from the A/C when you first turn it on, and the longer it’s on, the cooler you car gets until it’s as cool as the system can possibly be. (If your A/C doesn’t get very cold even with the Recirculation button pressed, get your car to the shop right away, there’s likely a problem.)
If you use Fresh Air – the air from outside that’s much warmer in the summer, the air conditioning must work continuously to cool the hot air from the outside when pulling it into the vehicle, so it’s definitely not ideal. You are also putting undue wear-and-tear on your A/C compressor and getting less fuel economy as a result.
There is a chance, however, that the Recirculation button is missing on your car. Many newer models are equipped with sensors that monitor your in-cabin air moisture levels and switch automatically between Recirculated and fresh air, so don’t stress if you don’t see Recirculation or Fresh Air buttons on your model, you’re just fancier than the rest of us. Apparently.
Pro Tips: In Summer, roll down your windows for a bit when you first get going to flush out all of that superheated, stuffy air that’s built up in your car from sitting in the sun. Even if it’s just for half a block, you’ll have a jump start on cooling Old Bessie down to a comfortable temperature as soon as possible. In Winter, hit your A/C button when you first start the car to help clear the windows faster. The A/C system de-humidifies air by nature, so it will shorten the time it takes. Don’t worry, your heater will still warm up as it should, just make sure it’s set on HOT!
When should you use AC recirculation mode? - Drive
Your car’s air conditioning has a handy feature that an alarming number of people don’t know how to use, but learning how to do so will save you fuel, improve your health, and even reduce fatigue on a long drive.
Situated somewhere around your car’s air-conditioning controls, the recirculation mode is represented by a little car icon with a figure inside, and an arrow that loops around within the car’s interior.
Pressing this oft-ignored button does one of three things – each of them making the experience of owning and driving your car that little bit better. In this article, we speak to an air-conditioning engineer at Ford Australia to get the lowdown on AC recirculation mode and how to use it for best effect.
Your car’s air conditioning and heating system (called ‘HVAC’ in the biz, which stands for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) can draw air from outside or inside the car. Air is directed by a bunch of flaps and channels underneath your dashboard that open or close as needed.
The former is pretty self-explanatory and pulls air from outside the car, but using the latter recirculation mode seals the interior itself off and recirculates the existing cabin air. In older cars, this is controlled by the driver. In newer cars, as well as being manually controllable, it can be automatic.
You might think it preferable to always use fresh air, but that’s far from the case.
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“On a hot day, that’s a chance to use your car’s recirculation mode,” Eton Ng, Senior Climate Control Attribute Engineer at Ford Australia, told Drive. Based in Melbourne, Ng has worked for Ford Australia since on programs such as the Ranger and Everest.
“On a hot day, if you shut the door, warm air from outside will stop entering the car. In recirculation mode, cooler air from inside the car will be entering the HVAC system. That will allow the AC to totally cool the cabin quicker.”
When your car is set to draw air from outside, it’s cooling whatever the outside temperature is. But if you set your air conditioning to recirculation, it will cool the cabin air only, in effectively a loop.
“It’s much more efficient, and because we are reducing the load on the air-conditioning compressor, it [can] also improve your fuel economy,” said Ng.
Ng encourages owners of newer cars to use the air conditioning in 'auto' mode, which can also automatically take care of the recirculation for maximum cooling and heating effectiveness and efficiency.
If you’re in a tunnel, underground car park or a dense traffic jam, switch to recirculation. Same if there’s an old, smelly vehicle driving ahead of you and you can smell its exhaust fumes, or if there’s a lot of bushfire smoke outside.
“Some modern cars, especially those for sale in places like China and more developing countries, have an air quality sensor. They can automatically switch to recirculation air mode when polluted air is detected.”
Some modern cars have air filtration systems that can remove pollutants down to PM2.5 – very fine particles including dust, pollen and brake pad matter. Growing evidence links prolonged exposure to PM2.5 pollution with very serious long-term health outcomes.
On a road trip, switch to fresh air mode to protect against the build-up of carbon dioxide in your vehicle – which can make you feel tired.
“Especially in modern cars, we have door sealing and window sealing for both [noise suppression] and comfort, but at the same time, because we are in a sealed space, the CO2 can increase when using recirculation mode,” said Ng.
“Just switch to outside-air mode if you are on a long drive. On a warm day, if you want to switch back to recirculation mode for fuel economy for example, like if it’s 40 degrees, every now and then switch to fresh air, depending on how many people are in the car.”
The more people inside the vehicle, the more regularly you want to switch to fresh air as carbon dioxide will obviously build up more quickly.
Most internal combustion cars use the wasted heat energy of the engine to warm the cabin rather than putting load on the air-conditioning compressor.
“On a cold day, I’d use outside-air mode for fresh air,” said Ng. “The reason is, in recirculation mode, the moisture in the car, because of breathing, can lead to fogging windows. As well, when you hit max defog, the system will also run in outside-air mode."
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