Does the car have a hater or an AC?

All of my life, a car has a heater, and might also have AC, but this guy thinks the car has AC, that maybe has a heater in it:

"I'm not a huge user of the car's A/C system but during winter time I have no choice. Is the fact that the blowing of hot/cold air from the vents towards the phone implies that the phone might be impaired or slowly deteriorate? I have no idea if an iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter can be sensitive to heat and cooling."

First line talks about having to use the AC in the winter, no choice.

And does the heater hurt the phone if it's clipped in front of the vent?

Reply to
micky
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On new cars the AC is seldom off. That is what defrosts the windshield. Flowing the air through the AC coils, then heating it drops the humidity to a very low number.

Reply to
gfretwell

My windshield has fog or frost less than 10% of the time. Is there a way to set the default AC setting to Off?

Reply to
micky

Usually it only goes on when the defrost goes on, not during regular heating cycles. That has been common practice for at least 40+ years. There is no valid reason to change it. In the life of your car it probably burns an extra gallon of gas. Makes safer driving by clearing the windshield fast too.

My first car with AC was a '68 Olds. When the compressor kicked in you could feel the load on the engine. Those days have long been changed with efficient rotary compressors. My car even turns the defroster on if is starts to fog.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

micky posted for all of us...

What is the value of the phone? If it's a burner who cares? If it's a high end then you decide. I would not do it. If you have a crash that will become another flying object. I don't know the listed temperature range of your phone. I imagine the range would be going from a hot car when one first gets in to an air conditioned grocery store. Inverse in the winter...

Reply to
Tekkie®

Disconnect the AC clutch

Reply to
clare

I'd NEVER clip a phone, or even a GPS, to the vent. Most vents are too fragile to start with, and I keep my phone in it's holster and use a bluetooth remote on the visor. Illegal to touch the phone on the road anyway.

Reply to
clare

A long time ago that was part of my winter prep routine. I never needed the a/c running in the wintertime, but I used defrost mode all winter. Another thing I did was to shut off all heat and open a window the last mile or so before reaching home or work when it was snowing. Kept ice from forming on the glass.

Reply to
Vic Smith

My late nineties vehicle has the "AC for defrost" feature, so I disconnect the low-pressure sender so it doesn't turn on in the winter.

On my car, having the AC on makes a noticeable difference in my fuel economy, and performance. A friend of mine has a newer has a newer car (

Reply to
Jon Danniken

The *Hater* is the guy behind the steering wheel.....

Reply to
noneofyourbizness

Two factors. By the late 90's the compressor on most cars were fairly efficient but perhaps not all.

The other factor is engine size. If you have a small econo-box with a

1.2 liter engine it is taking a larger percentage of power than a similar compressor on the twin turbo V-8.

My '68 Olds had a V8 but if I wanted to quickly pass someone I'd flip the AC off to get the extra power. The AC compressor was a real power hog. Recent cars I never notice a difference, even when I had a '91 Regal.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I'm not sure, but I think I stopped disconnecting the power to the A/C clutch in winter when my cars were newer than 1978. Post A6 compressor. That would have been when I got my '88 Celebrity. It had the V5 compressor. Some compressors are more efficient, but I'd prefer if GM made that "AC for defrost" switchable. I seldom find it useful, and it ALWAYS steals gas and power. In my climate cold and dry go together.

Reply to
Vic Smith

A lot of vehicles had a feature that killed the AC under full load.

Reply to
clare

I have full manual AC on my Ranger (I installed it myself) and I occaisionally turn on the AC and heat to dry the truck out (snow melted on the floor - which sublimates onto the inside of the windshield as HARD frost).. On the Taurus it is fully automatic

Reply to
clare

In the old day I would have gotten a spare set of vent vanes at a junk yard before I risked breaking what I have, but that was when I drove a popular car, Pontiac, Buick, or a LeBaron. Wnen I got this Solara I went looking in junkyards for a car like mine and couldn't come close.

So you leave your phone in it's holster and use a remote, but what do you do with a GPS? I've been using the phone with a compass app, so putting it in my pocket won't work. Maybe the visor like you say, with rubber bands.

Reply to
micky

Does a burner cost money? If the answer is yes, I don't want to ruin it.

But even you can see that if I ruin it when I'm planning to use it, that will be bad for me, no matter how cheap the phone was. I can buy another one. Maybe I can even find a store immediately, but the new one won't have my contact list or my added apps. So that's 3 reasons not to ruin it.

Yeah, you're right, but that would be just as true for a holder that's attached to the dash or the windshield, and it's more true for the current system, sitting on the seat next to me or sitting loose in a cup or miscellaneous holder.

There are devices, not especially telephones, that are rated from 10F to

95F and I've thought about that on days that are over 95, but so far I haven't owned anything that has broken from heat, and I can say that because almost nothing I've had has broken.

What I should do is get a thermometer and see how hot the air gets. Sometimes when it's cold out and I have the top down, I put it on as hot as possible and turn the fan on to high, so if anyone could over heat the phone it would be me. I think the indicator goes to 85 and the maximum setting is "hot", but that supposedly means the final temperature of the passenger compartment. The air could be hotter.

If I remember to measure the temp, I'll post about it in AHR.

Reply to
micky

Suction cup mount on windshield or beanbag mount on dash. Now I have it buil in with a big screen.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

On the visor with a proper visor clip, or here in Ontario, suction cup mounted to the windshield (legal here) or a dash mount.

Reply to
clare

My Toyota Solara lets me turn off the AC, but because it's a momentary pushbutton and not an on/off switch, only after it's started, which bothers me a little. So when I put on the defroster, the AC goes on and at least in the winter, the recirculate goes to outside air. Both of these changes annoy me. And this is when the unit is set to manual. If it's on automatic, it does more things I dont' want.

I don't want outside air becuase in the last couple years it's been hard to breathe. There is some small leak that lands on some hot spot and the smell of burning oil comes into the car. I didn't notice it until a young friend was helping me and he pointed it out. But the leak is not very accessible and it's a small leak because I never need oil between changes.

Reply to
micky

Would using the damage free picture hangers work? Something like the Command hangers? Velcro? There are also rugged smart phones. I haven't investigated those so I don't know exactly what the term rugged means.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

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