Anemic A/C - is this the norm?

[joec]

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.

This. Mac AC is loud, but within five minutes, if even the hottest interior isn’t getting pretty cool, something is wrong with your specific car.

I find after sitting in the sun for a bit, Max AC for a few minutes gets me where I want it. Then I back it down to normal fan speeds.

 

[Adnillien]

This is a Gravity thread, not an Air thread but I have seen comments about both in this thread. The Gravity AC is much more powerful and colder than the Air. My Air AC works OK here in Phoenix but it is definitely not as strong as other cars that I have owned. Gravity on the other hand has excellent AC. Gravity is as good as any car that I have owned on the Arizona heat.

 

[Hammerthyme]

I wish this was a joke, but just randomly switching on/off or high/low seems to like "wake" the AC up for me.

I've seen that with other switches in settings that seem to display one way, while the backend is set differently. When in doubt, I toggle th switch off then on or on then off to make sure the backend reflects what's on the screen. I need to catch it doing this and document it. A code reveiw to make sure all the displayed settings are correct might be in order.

 

[dbsb3233]

Mine works pretty well, although it doesn't seem to have the best balance. And doesn't come on as forceful as I'd expect when getting into the car when it's hot.

MAX kicks in huge, but I'm not fond of using it because it doesn't set everything back the way it was when turning it off. It turns the driver seat ventilation up to 3 (but doesn't change the passenger side at all), then leaves it on 3 when I turn MAX off.

One thing that's a little deceiving is that the two inner vents on the dash only blow half as hard as the two outer vents. When I feel for it, I'm usually checking the vent with my my right hand (inner driver vent). It doesn't feel that strong. But then when I check the outer one it is strong like I'd expect.

 

[dbsb3233]

This. Mac AC is loud, but within five minutes, if even the hottest interior isn’t getting pretty cool, something is wrong with your specific car.

I find after sitting in the sun for a bit, Max AC for a few minutes gets me where I want it. Then I back it down to normal fan speeds.

First few times I used MAX, to end it I just manually moved the front speeds and temp to where I wanted. But it would still be really loud. Turned out the rear was still blowing hard, and for the rear to blow hard it's quite loud inside the dash. I have to remember to exit MAX by actually turning the MAX button off first, then adjust any specific zone settings where I want them.

And I still do a double-take on the Gravity's on/off icons that screw me up. On is black, off is white(ish). Just seems intuitively backwards.

 

[borski]

MAX kicks in huge, but I'm not fond of using it because it doesn't set everything back the way it was when turning it off. It turns the driver seat ventilation up to 3 (but doesn't change the passenger side at all), then leaves it on 3 when I turn MAX off.

It should be turning it back to precisely what it was before you hit Max A/C to turn it on. The only time this fails, in my experience, is when someone hits the fan buttons or temp buttons rather than hitting Max A/C to turn it off.

It used to be more broken, but I haven't seen it fail in a couple months.

 

[dbsb3233]

It should be turning it back to precisely what it was before you hit Max A/C to turn it on. The only time this fails, in my experience, is when someone hits the fan buttons or temp buttons rather than hitting Max A/C to turn it off.

It used to be more broken, but I haven't seen it fail in a couple months.

It does seem to properly set the temp and fan speeds back where they were now (better than before). Doesn't set the seat ventilation back though. At least on mine, MAX turns the driver seat ventilation to 3 (and oddly nothing for the passenger, at least when it's empty - I haven't tested it with a passenger sitting in it), then leaves it on 3 when turning MAX off.

 

[Bdr100]

Yeah, something is definitely wrong with my AC. Just checked with AC at MAX, ambient temp is 85. With IR Thermometer, driver side vents are 62 and passenger side temps are 73. Just realized that this may be due to no one being in passenger seat when checking. But with AC at MAX it is just barely keeping temp OK on 85 degree day.

Now if I can just get a service appointment. Rear door handle not working was something I was working around but AC issues is going to escalate this to management if I can’t get appointment soon.

 

[eelpout]

Turn on “Max A/C”. It should get hella loud and cold and hit you with air.

This is the way.

also, if no one is in the rear of the car, after hitting "Max" go into climate and turn off the rear HVAC, that will increase flow to the front. hitting Max apparently just turns it up to 11 everywhere.

my wife absolutely hates the HVAC in the Gravity and the limited dash vent flow, but after discovering the Max feature she's calmed down a bit about it.

 

[PGT]

Not to be snarky, but, Max A/C has been a thing in cars for decades.

 

[Bdr100]

Not to be snarky, but, Max A/C has been a thing in cars for decades.

Yes but in my past cars I have rarely needed it, even here in Houston, as most proper systems ramp up on their own if needed.

 

[borski]

It does seem to properly set the temp and fan speeds back where they were now (better than before). Doesn't set the seat ventilation back though. At least on mine, MAX turns the driver seat ventilation to 3 (and oddly nothing for the passenger, at least when it's empty - I haven't tested it with a passenger sitting in it), then leaves it on 3 when turning MAX off.

Interesting! I've literally never paid attention to that because I nearly always have my seat ventilation set to 3!

Definitely report that to the [email protected] email

 

[borski]

also, if no one is in the rear of the car, after hitting "Max" go into climate and turn off the rear HVAC, that will increase flow to the front. hitting Max apparently just turns it up to 11 everywhere.

Test it empirically for your use case, of course, but this might actually make it take longer to cool down. I have tested it and at least in my experience, having rear air on cools down the whole car much faster, including, surprisingly, the front.

And, as a reminder, A/C is not the fastest way to cool down a hot vehicle. The fastest way is manual: https://lucidowners.com/threads/1-of-4-hvac-vents-not-blowing-air.15919/post-349561

 

[DrZorro]

I'm about to hit my 1 year anniversary with my Gravity DE and I've never had any issues with the A/C being anemic--and I live in Dallas where it's often over 100 degrees. The A/C is comparable (or even better) than my recent previous cars which have been included Audi, BMW, Infiniti, etc...So if your A/C is weak, there's either an issue with the software settings, vent positioning, or there's a hardware issue that needs service. The only "negative" about the A/C is that it's a little more difficult to point a focused beam of air directly at my face when compared to some of my other cars...but it really hasn't been an issue.

 

[borski]

The only "negative" about the A/C is that it's a little more difficult to point a focused beam of air directly at my face when compared to some of my other cars...but it really hasn't been an issue.

This is my biggest complaint about both the Air and Gravity.

(which says something, I think)

My wife actually prefers it because she hates air directly on her face but I'm the complete opposite. I want to feel wind

 

[MGRMLN]

This is my biggest complaint about both the Air and Gravity.

(which says something, I think)

My wife actually prefers it because she hates air directly on her face but I'm the complete opposite. I want to feel wind

Same with me. I immediately like to aim a center and drivers side vents at my face.
I like to have air blowing on me and that is one thing that is difficult to do in my Air, ironically.

 

[dbsb3233]

One of the nice advantages of an EV is being able to remote start the climate control from anywhere on those really hot (or cold) days so that it doesn't need those first 3-4 minutes of loud MAX air blowing when first getting in the car. The problem is remembering to do it. I intend to pull my phone out and start it before we leave a restaurant or a store, but I rarely remember.

Another option is using Pet Mode just to keep it on when exiting the car (for shorter stops).

 

[jedwin]

Is there something about the HVAC design that works dramatically better when the car’s in motion than when it’s sitting? Or, I wonder if something’s funky with the heat pump’s intake fan in my car…(‘25 AT)

When I try to pre-cool the car in my garage (which was it about 75°), the air coming out of the vents even in Max setting is quite tepid… Yesterday after coming out at around 69° for a while it gradually was coming out warmer and warmer, eventually close to the ambient temp of the garage). I also had a couple occasions recently when using “keep“ mode while parked for a while somewhere seem to fail to keep the car cool; one time it was truly toasty in there when I returned after an hour or so. (I only used it a couple times last summer, but was impressed when I did—and it’s quite stunning how little battery uses.)

But driving down the road at anything above 40 miles an hour, and the AC seems to work quite well, including having air coming out of the vents at something close to the temperature that it’s set at. Though again, yesterday, I noticed that the AC seem to be perfectly functioning when the exterior temperature is 80 or below, but by the time the exterior temperature hit 85 it was somewhat struggling.

It’s very interesting seeing the range of reports here, it seems there may be some underlying glitch for some cars that isn’t quite being diagnosed. Whether it has to do with the heat pump circulation, or a reduced level of Freon or whatever alternative cooling medium is being used….?

 

[socktucker]

This is my biggest complaint about both the Air and Gravity.

(which says something, I think)

My wife actually prefers it because she hates air directly on her face but I'm the complete opposite. I want to feel wind

I wanna feel like a dog out the window

 

[VeryPowerful]

I'm pretty sure this is not the issue here, but sharing a mistake I made in the past. Last year there were rumors that heating worked better with AC turned off. So I had AC disabled all winter. When warm days came I noticed that AC is not cooling the air properly. I took me a few extra days to discover that my AC (switch) is still turned off. Once turned on it had 0 issues cooling the cabin.