heat and defrost and decent mileage

[grege]

2018 titanium with heated seats.

 

Looking for recommendations for getting adequate heat from the blower.  I use the auto AC without issue, but wonder how folks handle their best heating/defrosting...

 

Does "auto" work well for heat settings?  Or is it better to manually select heat temperature (70F?  74F?  or...???F).  Heated seats help but won't be enough soon...which I'm sure will only drop gas mileage

 

Thanks!

Greg

[Redshift]

I'm a bit confused on what you are asking. Do you really think it matters whether you turn up the temp manually or let the car do it? The auto setting works great in all kinds of weather. Set it and forget it.

[SnowStorm]

Using re-circulation is the important thing.  I don't know if Auto uses it - I'll have to give it a try.  (Most auto-whatever algorithms don't do something I want so I rarely use them.)  You want to heat yourself, not the outside world.  Constantly heating 0F, 20F, even 40F air up to 70+ requires a lot more heat than just keeping the car warm using inside air.  But you have to keep an eye on it because the car will periodically switch recirc back Off.  I think when its cold enough it may stop doing that.  Set MyView screen to show ICE temperature and watch what happens.  You can be driving non-stop 'highway" at moderate speeds and without recirc the ICE won't stay up to the minimum temperature needed to center the gauge.  Recirc is also a must for AC.  Of course there are times when there's too much moisture in the car and you need outside air - but not likely when its really cold.

 

For defrost I just turn it on as needed and don't worry about it.  If you watch Climate Power in MyView you can see when the AC compressor is running during defrost.  As I recall, power draw is quite low - or zero.  You may have to turn off recirc.  A clear windshield is a must of course.

[markd]

I keep mine on auto but turn it off when I don't need it. The ice is going to run when it's cold and you start the car so you might as well heat the cabin.

[grege]

Thanks for the replies!  Will experiment with it a little bit.  

 

Greg

[notquitesane]

I don't like using Auto in the winter.  It heats the car's interior up just fine, but after it gets to temperature, the fan speed decreases and allows the windows to fog up.  I usually manually control it to keep the windows clear.

[DarenHayes]

Turning the heat on during acceleration is what i try to do most because the engine is running anyway.    wear warm socks lol... 

[djc]

While it would be nice to use recirc in really cold weather, in my experience it doesn't work well.  Really cold weather = really cold glass, so the least bit of moisture inside (including from occupant breath) condenses on the windows.  Coupled with snow tracked in to the foot-wells, which then melts and adds moisture to the cabin air, and it is isn't possible to drive safely using recirc in cold winter weather.

It might work if there were partial recirc, but it seems to be binary.