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Anemic A/C - is this the norm?

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jbrichgels

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I am disappointed in the anemic A/C. We live in DC and it is now in the 90s and hot in the car. The fan has such little force to it. When it is on auto at any temp, I can’t feel the fan past the turn signal and wiper stalk. I can’t feel any fan force further away than that. Right now I have the temp down to 62 and fan at its highest level and it is barely getting cool in the car. And that makes for a loud car ride. Every other vehicle we own or have owned operates at a comfortable temp when it is set to auto of low 70s. Is it a design flaw or is there a problem with our climate control? Also, the cooled seat is barely noticeable.
 
There is something wrong with your AC, perhaps the sliders as @illopp00 suggested to look at. I live in Phoenix and it will be 106 here today and I find the AC to be great. Definitely not anemic.
 
Adnillien said:
There is something wrong with your AC, perhaps the sliders as @illopp00 suggested to look at. I live in Phoenix and it will be 106 here today and I find the AC to be great. Definitely not anemic.
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Big difference in humidity between Phoenix and Washington DC in the summer. I also find the A/C to be subpar. The cold air is fine, but when you turn the fan up high in order to get enough air blowing on you, the fan noise is way too loud and is very annoying.
 
Up here in NH I've only ever had the AC struggle when the temp was > 100F, and the dewpoints were high (high humidity). This week we've been in the high 80's and low 90's and my AC gets too cold. In fact I was tempted to write a "bug" here, because I have the feeling the AC initially goes in to high cool mode, but never comes out of it, where the fan drops but the air coming out is ice cold. Switching the AC of and On again seems to make the cooling come out of that mode and the air coming out seems to regulate. So the opposite problem to this thread.
 
WildRide47 said:
Big difference in humidity between Phoenix and Washington DC in the summer. I also find the A/C to be subpar. The cold air is fine, but when you turn the fan up high in order to get enough air blowing on you, the fan noise is way too loud and is very annoying.
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Same experience for me. It does work but have to turn the fun speed way up, making it very noisy. Might be because of the glass roof and how hot the car gets inside
 
My AC works fine in the hot weather and humidity of Houston.
 
In Houston here also and find that the AC is somewhat underwhelming. If car has been left outside on hot (above 90) day, the system when set to AUTO and 70 degrees, the temp of air coming out of vents is cool but not cold. The blower also only goes to about level 6 or 7 when trying to cool off hot car. I am used to most cars on hot days, going into max at startup and stay there until internal temp is reduced to set temp. On an 85 degree day and pulling out of garage, AC is fine but takes serious time to cool off hot car.
 
A/C is not great. It's fine at speed (plenty of air blowing across the coil) but struggles in traffic, and it takes a good 20 minutes to bring the cabin temp down if the car's been in the sun. I try to deploy the built-in shades and also remember the windshield shade whenever possible, and pre-cool the cabin for about 20-30 minutes before I get in. I'm also planning on getting the windows tinted in the next few weeks. All of this makes it tolerable, but I'd say the overall lack of performance here is not really defensible in a car in this market segment (same gripe about the windshield wipers).
 
I also live in the DC area and haven’t had any problems with the AC. Running it around 1 or 2 fan speed works fine for me.

That being said, I tinted the inside of the glass with a ceramic tint that rejects infrared: 90% transparency on the first row and windshield (product name: Air Blue from LLumar), 70% on the rest (Evolve from Suntek). I got it installed at The Tint Shop in Rockville MD. $1,775 total. The install was professional and well explained. Post-install I noticed that the glass no longer scorches to the touch on a hot day; the glass can still get hot but not unbearable.
 
borski said:
Turn on “Max A/C”. It should get hella loud and cold and hit you with air.

If it doesn’t, there’s something wrong with your AC.
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Most cars I have driven, if you get into it with internal temp 95+ and your set temp is 70, auto system will engage Max A/C automatically until internal temps are down into the 70s. My Gravity just bumps the fan speed up a couple notches. Maybe after everyone complaining about the Arctic Blast back 6 months ago, Lucid over compensated.

I just find that I have to do a lot of fiddling with the AC controls to keep comfortable in the Gravity. In my Mercedes, I just set auto temp to 72 and leave it alone.
 
My AC is freezing! Even when I direct the vents to not blow on my arms, I can feel the cold air on me unless when on maybe 1. Wish I could direct the air flow more. High in the low 90's today in central VA. Temp set at 67 and fan speed on 3 to 5 works good. However, I do have low body fat and am used to exercising in the heat.
 
illopp00 said:
Have you ensured the vent sliders are all the way open? You can feel if you slide them to the right they click and that means closed.
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They are all open. I fiddle with them a lot to try to find a position where can feel the fan. I am able to tell when I close them.
 
tsg101 said:
I also live in the DC area and haven’t had any problems with the AC. Running it around 1 or 2 fan speed works fine for me.

That being said, I tinted the inside of the glass with a ceramic tint that rejects infrared: 90% transparency on the first row and windshield (product name: Air Blue from LLumar), 70% on the rest (Evolve from Suntek). I got it installed at The Tint Shop in Rockville MD. $1,775 total. The install was professional and well explained. Post-install I noticed that the glass no longer scorches to the touch on a hot day; the glass can still get hot but not unbearable.
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This is a great idea and thanks for the specificity on where to have it installed. That’s a reasonable price.
 
borski said:
Turn on “Max A/C”. It should get hella loud and cold and hit you with air.

If it doesn’t, there’s something wrong with your AC.
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I haven’t tried that setting. I have turned temp down to its lowest level and slid fan up to 10. It is plenty loud but temp does not seem cold enough/fan not strong enough for those settings. I would expect to be really cold at 59 degrees. Is max a/c even stronger than that?
 
jbrichgels said:
I haven’t tried that setting. I have turned temp down to its lowest level and slid fan up to 10. It is plenty loud but temp does not seem cold enough/fan not strong enough for those settings. I would expect to be really cold at 59 degrees. Is max a/c even stronger than that?
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Max A/C opens all vents and sets them all to 59 and sets all the speeds to 10. When you tap it again, it resets it back to what it was before you hit Max A/C

Max A/C also turns on and runs the rear A/C, which makes a huge difference in how quickly the car cools down.

If you have an IR thermometer, temp the air coming out of the vents; if it's warm, your A/C is broken.
 
Also in the area and can confirm it’s not great (especially yesterday). One suggestion - make sure to toggle to the Rear panel and ensure the climate control is on. It always defaults to OFF even with rear passengers.

I think part of the problem is the glass roof and preset to maximize battery life so HVAC is compromised
 
jbrichgels said:
I am disappointed in the anemic A/C. We live in DC and it is now in the 90s and hot in the car. The fan has such little force to it. When it is on auto at any temp, I can’t feel the fan past the turn signal and wiper stalk. I can’t feel any fan force further away than that. Right now I have the temp down to 62 and fan at its highest level and it is barely getting cool in the car. And that makes for a loud car ride. Every other vehicle we own or have owned operates at a comfortable temp when it is set to auto of low 70s. Is it a design flaw or is there a problem with our climate control? Also, the cooled seat is barely noticeable.
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I am in New Orleans and have had my AT for 3 1/2 years and I'm heading into the dreaded why do I still have this car season. The A/C is underpowered and multiple mobile techs have admitted this to me when they checked it and said everything is working correctly. It's something about the compressor also being used to cool the battery so it has to deal with two thermal loads (the hot battery in 90+ NOLA, and the cabin). Of course I asked if a software update could fix this and alas no it's a hardware limitation they said. If I forget to turn on the A/C 10 minutes in advance in July I'm uncomfortable for 10-15 min or so until it catches up-and by then I'm probably already where I'm going🫠. I forgot to add I had top-of-the-line tint/UV heat blocker film added on every window and the already heavily tinted glass roof.
 
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