My car heater works great! Too great in fact. The other day it was cold outside so I warm the car up, hop in, crank the heater up a little to warm my frozen hands and within 5 minutes I was sweating, had to shut the heater completely off because even when I turn the fan speed down, it’s still comparable to sitting in front of a wood burning stove. I’ve adjusted the direction of the vents and all the other things a person can do to make it more comfy inside the car, but it still gets hot!
You never said that you turned the temperature button/switch down.
Yeah I’ve adjusted that as well and then people riding with me say it gets too cold for them. My other option is cranking that sucker up and just rolling down my car window slightly.
Many years ago, I knew somebody whose method of operating the car’s heater was to keep the temperature control set for maximum, and to keep the fan setting on its highest speed.
When riding in his car, I discovered that he would keep this routine going until the interior of the car was like a sauna and his passengers were gasping for breath. Then, he would shut the system down until it became absolutely frigid in the car. At that point, he would revert to the high heat/maximum fan setting described above, and then…well, I think you get the idea.
I attempted to explain the operation and purpose of the temperature control knob to him, but he seemed to be unable to comprehend what I was telling him. The next time that I rode in his car, he was still using the…bizarre…method described above. Your name isn’t Doug S. by any chance, is it?
;-))
No lol. I’ve adjusted the temperature knob on it and then everyone complains its too darn cold in there and so I turn it up again. I’m about ready to retire from the car pooling gig lol.
Have you tried turning it up part way?
VDCdriver, I used to ride with a guy who did the very same thing you described.
People are spoiled. Our Toyota Sienna has a temperature control for the driver’s side and a temperature control for the passenger’s side and a third temperature control for the rear passengers. I remember the cars my dad had in the 1940s and early 1950s that didn’t have a temperature control–only a fan speed switch. The heater was a box that hung down under the dashboard that contained a fan and a little radiator. There was a valve under the hood that you turned on to let the hot coolant flow through the heater. You turned it on in the fall for cooler weather and off in the spring for warmer weather.
The school bus I rode was always cold from the third row of seats on back. When I became one of the bigger kids on the bus, I had to ride in the back, except when we had a lot of snow. I then rode in the front seat with another large kid and we had to get out and man the shovels when we came to a corner. I didn’t know which was worse–riding in the back when we had cold weather with no snow, or riding where it was warm, but having to get out and shovel the snow so the bus could negotiate the corner.
Yeah I turned it up only part way and that seems to help. Had to go to the store today so I decided to tinker around with the temperature control lol…it helps a little. I’ve never really thought about the temp control much because I used to live in a state where you really didn’t need the heater too much and now I live in a state where I have to warm the car up for at least 10 minutes for the defroster to melt the ice off enough that I can scrape the windshield off and run the heater more.
WEll if I wanted to control the temp. the first thing I would do is use the temp control
My 59 Pontiac had no heat control 'cause the guy before me took it out. So it was on full blast all the time. That was fine in the winter with just shutting the fan down but in the summer I would just clamp the heater hoses shut. Of course in the winter I’d have to put new hoses on but small price to pay.
What do you do at home? Let me guess, when you’re cold you turn the heat all the way up, incorrectly assuming you’ll get warm faster? Then you get too hot and turn it down? Your home heat doesn’t throw heat at varying temperatures. Just like your car, it’s either hot or not.
Your car ahs a temperature control, probably marked in a range from blue (cold) to red (hot). Find a point somewhere in the range that is comfortable and the heat will come off and on to stay around that temperature.
They’re not the same. Cars have a blend door that mixes air from the heater core with either fresh or recirculated cabin air to obtain final air temperature.
OP, the temp selection is not binary. Set it to an intermediate level and wait until it settles to the new selection.
It’s still a thermostat, no? Door opens at a certain relative temperature, based on the switch position?
I don’t jack the heater up at home when I’m cold, the house would take forever to warm anyway. I just use a robe and slippers until its warm enough. When I’m hot in the car, I take my jacket off or I’ll redirect the air flow away from me. Too much hot hair blowing in my face while driving makes me drowsy and my eyes dry. I always knew the air coming into the car comes from outside and circulates through the engine and blows into the car. I figured that out years ago when I hit a skunk lol…needless to say until that stench eventually went away, I froze my butt off while driving. It would be nice if a car heater worked like a house heater.
I really can’t figure out if you’re having an actual problem with your heater or if you just don’t know how to work it for some reason. Anyway, I will make one suggestion, since you’ve mentioned the vents blowing in your face. For heat, you want to use the floor vents primarily, not the dash vents. If you use the dash vents, the top of your body will be warm while the lower part of your body is still cold. Maybe that’s what you’re attempting to describe here.
Yeah that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. I do have the function where I can direct the air towards my feet and not my face and occasionally I’ll turn it that direction but then I get cold. I have the same problem in my mom’s Armada. You can change the dial on the drivers side and the passengers in both front and back and I complain that its too hot and mom will say its too cold…of course me and mom always disagree on almost everything lol. She doesn’t like my driving, sometimes I wonder about her driving. Back and forth lol. I do miss my mom’s Ford F-150 that she used to have…It had heated seats, next car I own will have those! In my mom’s truck, I turned those on and it keep me warm enough that I didn’t even have to use the heater.
It may not be “just a thermostat”. You didn’t say the year or model of your car, but most simply have blend door controls. You set the setting based on your own experience and preference and adjust it as needed. More expensive cars do have “climate control systems” that automatically adjust the blends to a temperature that the driver sets, but most cars do not.
Blend settings are a highly personal thing. At any temperature above 40F I like to open the sun roof, open the driver’s window about 1", and direct warm air to my feet. It flows over my body, and I get nice cool air through my hair and on my forehead. I overheat easily due to medical reasons, and that keeps me comfortable.
Having made that point, when was the last time you had a checkup? How’s your BP and your resting heartrate? Have you ever undergone a stress test? These questions may sound like I’m crazy, but I’m not. Blood pressure, excess weight, and elevated heartrate definitely affect how easily we overheat.
I don’t mean to change the topic here, but after thinking about this posting and the other recent ones that you’ve made, I suspect that you might be driving in snow for the first time this upcoming winter. Is that the case? If so, you’ll need to make sure you have safe tires (winter tires or at least all-season tires with good tread left, depending where you live) and you’ll need to learn some things about how to drive correctly in snow.
AL5000, unless you have climate control, the temp setting is either a cable operated or servo motor control that sets the door to a predetermined position based on the input control position. It does not automatically adjust the door to maintain a selected temperature. Pretty rudimentary controls in the vast majority of cars…
Compared to a house furnace which heats at maximum capacity until the target is achieved. The thermostat has hysteresis built in so it’s not constantly cycling about the set temperature. The blower continues to run after the burner shuts down to extract all the heat.
Agree TT…except that my current computer-controlled natural-gas high efficiency furnace" allegedly adjusts its heat output based upon tracking of how long and often its cycles operatate to maintain the temperature. According to its operating manual, it’s in excess of 96% efficient. The exhaust is vented through 3" PVC pipe at barely-warm temperatures. Virually all of the heat energy from the gas is used to heat the house.
Even home furnaces are no longer binary.