Magic button to get heat to work in auto setting?

[Fazzie01]

My wife insists on turning heat/cool on maximum as soon as she starts her car...I gave up explaining that turning the temp to MAX COOL does not cool faster to 70F than setting it on auto 70F...same goes for heating...

This is true for some systems, but it does not seem to be so in the Ranger. On Auto, the system will aggressively slow the fan down as it gets closer to the SET temp, it does not act like a normal HVAC system that runs until the SET temp and shuts off. In the Ranger, if you want COLD now, MAX AC will run full bore - coldest temp.

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[Grandaccess]

I go with 69F for AC and 72F when I need heat
My son likes to set his side at 78F LOL
I have put an HVAC thermometer in the vent, this morning it read 100F so it works good, havent found a heat button yet LOL I just figure it does it based on outside temp?
AC works good too I just leave the thing stuck in the vent

 

[Jason B]

My experience in my Lariat is that the Auto setting will engage the heat pump reverse mode of the AC very quickly to blow warm air. That said once everything is up to temp I am setting the desired temp warmer, 80 to stay warm, than would seem normal. I have also been forced to go off Auto, set the air to the lower ducts, and increase the fan speed to get my feet warm/ dry on a longish trip.
In the summer I quickly have the temp at 78 so the AC doesn't freeze me.
Reading the later posts, I do need to pull the cabin filter and check/clean that as standard year inspection.

Seriously doubt that any car has a heat pump when it has many joules/btu's of heat available from the engine. If it did, it would have to constantly shift from cool to heat modes.

I think auto mode turns off recirculation mode or at least only lets you use it for a short period of time. Will give that a try though. Hadn't checked the cabin air filter recently, but with only 20 k miles it should be relatively clean. The blend door could be a possibility. Thought Ford had fixed that issue by the 21 model year, but anything is possible.

I don't use the 'auto' mode. I just set the fan to 3 or 4, temp to 72.
As Ron Popeil said "Set it and forget it". My understanding was that auto just adjust fan speeds, but I'm not sure.

 

[FunInTheSun]

My wife insists on turning heat/cool on maximum as soon as she starts her car...I gave up explaining that turning the temp to MAX COOL does not cool faster to 70F than setting it on auto 70F...same goes for heating...

MIne does the same thing. And turns down the fan after a few minutes when she starts getting cold. I have explained like she's five, ten, twelve, and I also tried some elementary control theory in sheer desperation.

She learned how to deal with AC when SHE was the thermostat. And no dice so far on learning a new strategy for the car having an actual thermostat for the HVAC system...

Whattaya gonna do?

And Now, to get back to the actual topic of the thread. ...

I don't know where the temp sensor for the cabin is, but this may be the OPs problem. If it's on the dashboard, it could be heated by the sun, which would definitely bias it to thinking the cabin is warmer than his personal sensor array is telling him.

 

[mtbikernate]

I don't know where the temp sensor for the cabin is, but this may be the OPs problem. If it's on the dashboard, it could be heated by the sun, which would definitely bias it to thinking the cabin is warmer than his personal sensor array is telling him.

I suspect that this is probably the case. I use auto pretty much exclusively because you can't see the manual dash controls when wearing sunglasses and switching to the sync climate settings is annoying. I very much set and forget my hvac controls.

When outside temp is above 50 or so (the cutoff may even be lower than that), I don't really notice the fan kick on high to blow warm air to get the cabin up to the set temp. the differential seems too close. and if the sensor is indeed on the dash, on a sunny day, it definitely seems like the climate system is even less prone to get to temp quickly. I know that when it's in that temp range and the sun is shining on me through the windows, it absolutely feels much warmer than if I'm in the shadows.

this irritates my wife, who also goes nuts with the temp settings for her side. In her subaru which has old school climate controls, I'm either sweating my balls off or I'm freezing (regardless of whether I'm driver or passenger, she takes over the climate controls). there is no comfortable setting.

in my Ranger, in these shoulder seasons where it's starting to cool off and the auto climate setting doesn't get too aggressive in heating things up, I use the seat heaters to make up the difference. seat heaters are one of those features that I've decided are basically essential anymore.

 

[Dr_Strangelove]

In my case I felt the same way as you last winter @JasonTremor. I changed from Auto to manual climate for a few months until I saw a post on here that made me want to try Auto again - and I noticed something. When my truck is in Auto AC mode - it blows full blast out of the dash vents. When my truck is in Auto heat mode - it blasts medium speed out of the defrost vents. It was the instant satisfaction of hot air on my face that made my brain satisfied that the heat was working properly when in fact it had been heating the whole time - just not in heavy metal mode as I'm accustomed to.

 

[JasonTremor]

In my case I felt the same way as you last winter @JasonTremor. I changed from Auto to manual climate for a few months until I saw a post on here that made me want to try Auto again - and I noticed something. When my truck is in Auto AC mode - it blows full blast out of the dash vents. When my truck is in Auto heat mode - it blasts medium speed out of the defrost vents. It was the instant satisfaction of hot air on my face that made my brain satisfied that the heat was working properly when in fact it had been heating the whole time - just not in heavy metal mode as I'm accustomed to.

I will check that out. Mostly I've been used to the GMC Canyon we have and it just automatically does heat and air perfectly to me. For air, it is the same as the Ranger, but for heat the Canyon pushes hot air to the floor primarily with a little to the defrost vents.

 

[mtbikernate]

In my case I felt the same way as you last winter @JasonTremor. I changed from Auto to manual climate for a few months until I saw a post on here that made me want to try Auto again - and I noticed something. When my truck is in Auto AC mode - it blows full blast out of the dash vents. When my truck is in Auto heat mode - it blasts medium speed out of the defrost vents. It was the instant satisfaction of hot air on my face that made my brain satisfied that the heat was working properly when in fact it had been heating the whole time - just not in heavy metal mode as I'm accustomed to.

Dunno about you, but in cooler temps in my area, windshield fogging is a MUCH bigger concern as compared to warmer months, and the Ranger does a pretty good job of directing air to the windshield to defog (or prevent fogging) as needed. When defogging is not needed, it'll direct air elsewhere. But it definitely doesn't push the air to the same place all the time in auto mode.

 

[Dr_Strangelove]

@mtbikernate - that's a good point. I often forget that I don't encounter a lot of the climate related issues that you guys are running into.

 

[mtbikernate]

@mtbikernate - that's a good point. I often forget that I don't encounter a lot of the climate related issues that you guys are running into.

yeah, before getting the Ranger with its auto climate, I pretty much ran the A/C year-round in my vehicles because of its ability to cut into humidity. The Ranger's auto climate disables it sometimes now, but it still runs most of the time, even in subfreezing temps.

I'm leaning towards there being something wrong with the climate system if warm air isn't coming out in the conditions posted, though. I was actively thinking about this when I did a beer run yesterday when the temps were even a little warmer than posted, and even though the fan wasn't blowing hard, warm air was definitely coming out of the vents. And I have my temps set around 70F. The difference between the set temp and the outside air temp was maybe 10F at most.

 

[JasonTremor]

I haven't had a chance to make any trips with similar outside temps this week as we are in the phase where it is cool one day and spring like the next few. I didn't find my hvac thermometer, but do have an instant read cooking thermometer which should work. Part of it seems to be the fan speed ramp up isn't as aggressive in the Ranger as it is in our Canyon. The other part was the perceived vent air temperature. Will have to see if that was actual issue or just my aging bones skewing my personal thermometer. Appreciate all the input/feedback from everyone!

 

[Dgc333]

I have had (5) Fords and (2) Mopars with auto climate control and dual zones. I never used auto in any of them, do not like the fan blasting when you first start up the vehicle.

With the Fords I have the fan speed on two or three and the temp set to LO in the summer and 68 in the winter. The blend door is set to windshield and panel vents in the summer and windshield and floor in the winter. My wife may turn the temp up on her side a bit but usually not

The Dodge she had required the temp to be set about 78 to be comfortable in the winter but the AC would still be set to low in the summer. The fan speed would be two or three and The blend doors would be the same as the Fords. The Jeep she currently has has a more accurate temp control like the Fords and otherwise is set the same.

 

[Cyclereckr]

The thermostat needs to open before you get any heat. How long was it running when it started blowing warm?

The OP stated 20 min

 

[Grandaccess]

the right picture when the heater was on.... WTF you could cook an egg in whats coming out of the vent!

 

[Dgc333]

The thermostat needs to open before you get any heat. How long was it running when it started blowing warm?

I have never owned a vehicle that required the thermostat to be open to get heat. When the thermostat is closed water does not circulate through the radiator but is still circulating through the block and heater core.

All of my vehicles you start to get heat as soon as the temperature gauge starts to move. Certainly don't get full heat until the engine is up to operating temp and the thermostat is open but there is still air blowing that is warmer than ambient.

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