Air Conditioning

[Hanny]

I apologise now if this is deemed a stupid question.

I have the manual air con and was wondering if it is right that you have to turn the heating dial down to cold for the air con to work?
I would have thought that it would have over ridden any temperature settings.

I am just a little concerned that maybe it isn't working, as there doesn't seem to be any difference between cold setting + no aircon, and cold setting + air con.

I also guess that it isn't really the best time of year to be trying it?!?!?!

Any guidance [constructive ] would be appreciated.

[baldie]

Try this:

Put air re-cirulction on.
(no outside - cold - air can get in)

Put air-con on.

Crank up the heat so the car is very warm.

Crank the dial to cold.

If you get noticably chilled air - it works.

- or you could wait for summer

Dave

[Hanny]

Bloody good idea that!

I shall try it in the morning, as it could be a long long wait for summer.

Thanks

[BruceK]

Using the a/c does not override any other temperature settings - i.e. the heater - but this is a good thing.

You'll notice when above a certain temperature, (around 40F for most cars), and you turn on the windscreen demister, the a/c will automatically turn on to reduce the moisture content of the air - of course you add heat to the process. But you can do the same thing through the car's dashboard vents.

That means on typical winter days that you can take fresh moist air from the exterior, heat it up with the heater and then blend in cool, dry air from the a/c to obtain nice warm, dry air (shoot it out the dash vents) which is very useful in demisting all of the car's windows.

In short, by properly using the a/c - even on cool, rainy, damp days - you can drive around with perfect visiblity (no misting) on all of your windows - no matter how many heavy breathing passengers are in your MINI.

[lightbody]

Hi there,

I dont want to sound patronising, but you do realise that it does more than just chill the air dont you?

You should be able to see it doing a really impressive demisting job and it works whenever the button is pushed in, even if dialled to "hot".

I think its also the case that it takes a short while for the whole system to get icy-cool - you have to wait for the venting pipes to be non-warm before it will be really cold!

I have the manual aircon on my MINI too - only time i've used it so far is when i get back into the warm car after the jetwash (me soaking!) and the car instantly mists up. Aircon on - misting goes straight away. Fab!

[monsta]

Plus, unless they have solved this, the MINI air-con will make a funny 'grrr' noise when the temp is set to cold and the aircon is first turned on..

[Hanny]

Thanks Baldie, et al.

Tried your suggestion this morning and here are the results.

Quote:

Put air re-cirulction on.
Put air-con on.
Crank up the heat so the car is very warm.

Result: Got bloody hot

Quote:

Crank the dial to cold.

Result: Got bloody cold

Summary of results.
It works.

Thanks again all.

[lightbody]

monsta - mine doesn't "grrr" - in fact its silent!

[rich]

Quote:

Originally posted by lightbody
monsta - mine doesn't "grrr" - in fact its silent!

Try putting a tiger in your tank!

[monsta]

I was told that they all do this. In fact I think we discussed this on here at the end of last year.

When I need to start using the air con again I will take it back to the dealers..

Cheers

[Garry]

I would like to add my support for the comment that one of the great features of air-con is the ability to demist the inside of the car windows.

Using a mix of air-con and warm air on wintery rainy day makes driving much safer.

This is one of the main reasons I ordered air-con with my car!