I Like Manual Heat

My Civic has two settings burn you the hell out and not working...

In my e30 I pretty much leave the temperature knob at 100% all winter, and regulate heat in the cabin by cracking the window as needed. I just got back from a 170 mile round trip to visit a client; it was -12F when I left and -4F when I got back.

I like my Prizm's HVAC, 3 knobs, recirc lever, AC button. Adequate heater. The 98-02 Prizms had GM air con rather than denso, when it works, it will bring the cabin down to 50 degrees or so on a 80 degree day.

Did I mention how much I hate being hot?

motomoron wrote: e39s were available w/ 2 different HVAC systems: - IHKR which used knobs and cables. You choose the proportion of floor/dash, floor/defrost or dash /defrost, how blue or red you'd like to be (which has temp numbers in degrees F which are accurate) and how blowey you're feeling. On/off switches for recirc/AC compressor. The dash vents have their own 3/2/1 blue dots - 1/2/3 red dots wheel for dash vent temp. - IHKA which is impenetrably complex and has all manner of zones. I recall reading that the heater box on an IHKA-equipped car has 9 stepper motors controlling various baffles, flaps and plenums. You'd get IHKA by ticking the "Convenience Group" option, so pretty much all the cars that weren't special orders had it. The wonderfully enigmatic woman who ordered my car originally did NOT want to be convenienced, and I thank her every day that it's not 67 degrees and sunny. I've had to pop the control panel out to reconnect the floor flapper cable twice, and blow out the drains. Otherwise it works like aspirin. Wanna see some crazy E36 M3 about early 2000s German HVAC? Page 13-17

Funny you should mention that, I have a new stepper motor to put in the E39. Although you can choose what zone you want to feed and there's a separate temp control for the dash vents, so it's as manual as you want it to be.

The Vanagon controls win, though. Takes a bit of careful study to figure it all out.

(from Vanagon.com)

Vanagon.com said: The four levers from top to bottom are: The windscreen air flow. Left is closed, right is open. (There's a little windshield symbol attempting to depict this.) The air temperature. Left is no heat, right is maximum heat. The footwell air flow. Left is open, right is closed. (There's a little arrow pointing down, implying air down there) The rear ceiling air flow. Left is open, right is closed. Rear ceiling air is not heated. (Again, there's a little picture trying to convey this.) The dash air flow is controlled directly on each dash vent. Up is closed, down is open. Dash air is NOT heated in '87 & older vans. Dash air can be heated (via the 2nd lever) on '88 & newer vans. (Some late 87 vans had the dash heat.) The door 'vents' are air exit vents that allow air to exit the van when opened. Forward is open, rearward position is closed. (This applies only to '87 & older vans. '88 & newer have air exits at the back end of the rear-side windows that are always open) Colors are used in the vent symbols as follows: Blue is cold. Red is hot. White is variable from cold to hot. Thus the rear ceiling vent symbol is blue, depicting that only cold air is available there. All of these air vent controls operate independently except that closing one air outlet will naturally cause more air to flow from the open vents. Note that none of the levers control as an 'OR' function like: left for dash air -OR- right for foot air. They are all just simple open & close of one device only. There are no 'recirculate' controls. If you want air flow, it must come in from outside the van. If you want NO air flow, just close each vent independently.

The best part is the outside dash vents. Lets me cool myself as I keep the heat cranked for Janel.

The HVAC system in e28 5 series BMWs can be confusing to people not familiar with them - they are designed so you can get hot air out of the floor or defroster vents, but only cold outside air will come out of the dash vents.

I just hate that on almost everything now if you turn on the defroster it runs the air conditioner. In the old days I left the HVAC set to defrost+floor heat, temp max, then adjusted as necessary with the fan. Now I have to monkey around with turning it to defrost once in a while, then back to something else to turn off the AC, then changing temperature settings, and on and on.

In reply to oldopelguy:

If it has a physical button you can usually just pull one of the wires out of the connector to disable that feature. Did it in my J body for more gas mileage, took like half an hour to pull the panel, probe wires and pull the defrost signal wire out and tape it to the harness.

oldopelguy wrote: I just hate that on almost everything now if you turn on the defroster it runs the air conditioner. In the old days I left the HVAC set to defrost+floor heat, temp max, then adjusted as necessary with the fan. Now I have to monkey around with turning it to defrost once in a while, then back to something else to turn off the AC, then changing temperature settings, and on and on.

The AC runs to dehumidify the air coming out the vents which leads to faster defrost.

Ranger50 wrote: The AC runs to dehumidify the air coming out the vents which leads to faster defrost.

^This

Not a whole lot of moisture in the air when it is -18 out, and at that temp my fuel economy is bad enough without trying to wear out my AC compressor.

In reply to oldopelguy:

Its actually a good idea to spin the compressor occasionally in winter, keep the oil circulating and whatnot.

I like my car's dual climate control: dash and windows. Cool outside? Windows open and heat . Warm summer evening? Windows open and a/c.

While probably not a "feature," I like that I can keep the fan off and still fine-tune the temperature with the dash knob, using just the air leaking through the vents.

Ranger50 wrote:

oldopelguy wrote: I just hate that on almost everything now if you turn on the defroster it runs the air conditioner. In the old days I left the HVAC set to defrost+floor heat, temp max, then adjusted as necessary with the fan. Now I have to monkey around with turning it to defrost once in a while, then back to something else to turn off the AC, then changing temperature settings, and on and on.

The AC runs to dehumidify the air coming out the vents which leads to faster defrost.

which is one of the reasons I like my Honda's so much … I can run the defroster with or without AC … I can run AC through any of the selections on the HAVC control panel … on my feet , in my face, on the windshield …..or not

The 964 has climate control sort of but only the temperature part, I think. One knob does fan speed, that part is manual. Then there is the temperature knob, in celcius which in theory decides what temperature air you get but I can't think in C. Then there are the two unlabeled sliders which control something to do with the vents but since only some of the stepper motors work I haven't been able to figure out what. I jut set it to max heat or max cold and cycle it on or off as needed. The fact that it makes heat AND cold and I have access to both of those temperatures makes me really happy. Someday I'm going to have to start replacing stepper motors and I'm not looking forward to that.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Yup. Give me manual heat and a real day/night mirror, not one of those awful auto dimmers.

Datsun1500 wrote: Sir mix a lot likes big butts. To each his own

I believe you've misspelled "Sir poopsalot."

In reply to oldopelguy:

I disabled that on my WRX. My preferred setting is usually splitting the air flow between the floor and the windshield. I can't stand to have the air blowing toward my eyes.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to N Sperlo: My wife has that. Drives me crazy.

Wow my old lady does too, thought that was supposed to be a rare disease.

oldopelguy wrote: I just hate that on almost everything now if you turn on the defroster it runs the air conditioner. In the old days I left the HVAC set to defrost+floor heat, temp max, then adjusted as necessary with the fan. Now I have to monkey around with turning it to defrost once in a while, then back to something else to turn off the AC, then changing temperature settings, and on and on.

The real trick to fix that problem is just to pull out all the AC stuff and chuck it in the dumpster

I just bought a 2005 Chrysler, and I think the auto system works great... You turn it on, and it has a delay before it will kick on. This morning it delayed for 2 minutes and 30 seconds or so.

If you don't like it, just override it by manually adjusting the position or fan speed knobs, and it s will yield to you.

Since the auto HVAC controls on my BMW max out at 85degrees, what do you do if it's 90+degrees out and the engine starts running hot? Is the computer smart enough to run the heat full blast to keep the engine cooler?

Give me manual HVAC anytime. I will say I like the dual zones so that my wife can be warmer and I don't have to sweat to death.

PDoane wrote: Since the auto HVAC controls on my BMW max out at 85degrees, what do you do if it's 90+degrees out and the engine starts running hot? Is the computer smart enough to run the heat full blast to keep the engine cooler?

You take the hint and fix your cooling system, that's what you do.

I was initially skeptical about seat heaters, but they make for a very happy SWMBO. I'm tempted to retrofit them to a few other cars.

Keith Tanner wrote:

PDoane wrote: Since the auto HVAC controls on my BMW max out at 85degrees, what do you do if it's 90+degrees out and the engine starts running hot? Is the computer smart enough to run the heat full blast to keep the engine cooler?

You take the hint and fix your cooling system, that's what you do. I was initially skeptical about seat heaters, but they make for a very happy SWMBO. I'm tempted to retrofit them to a few other cars.

that, and turn the heater off, and perhaps turn the car off??

As for the manual controls- since most auto systems have manual controls in them, well.... use manual. problem solved.

alfadriver wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote:

PDoane wrote: Since the auto HVAC controls on my BMW max out at 85degrees, what do you do if it's 90+degrees out and the engine starts running hot? Is the computer smart enough to run the heat full blast to keep the engine cooler?

You take the hint and fix your cooling system, that's what you do. I was initially skeptical about seat heaters, but they make for a very happy SWMBO. I'm tempted to retrofit them to a few other cars.

that, and turn the heater off, and perhaps turn the car off?? As for the manual controls- since most auto systems have manual controls in them, well.... use manual. problem solved.

But this is GRM! If you're hot you're supposed to kick your windshield out! It's just useless weight anyhow!

The auto systems on both of our Fords work flawlessly. Leave it on 70 degrees, never touch it.

Back when I was shopping for my old 07 WRX the main reason I got a TR was it had manual HVAC controls compared to the normal WRX.