In winter, should the heater be set to recirculate or fresh air mode?
2 Answers
In winter, whether to use recirculation or fresh air mode for the car heater depends on the actual situation. The details are as follows: 1. If you want to quickly heat up the car interior in winter, you can first start the engine, drive normally for a while to warm up, wait until the temperature gauge pointer reaches the middle position, then turn on the heater in recirculation mode. Using recirculation mode allows the air conditioning to quickly cool down or heat up the car interior; this not only quickly warms up the car but also does not burden the engine and is more fuel-efficient. 2. However, although continuous recirculation keeps the car warm, the interior forms a relatively sealed environment where people can easily become oxygen-deprived over time. Therefore, it is best to switch to fresh air mode every hour to draw in fresh air from outside, which then passes through the air conditioning evaporator or heater core to blow cold or warm air respectively.
As a young person who frequently drives to work, I initially choose the recirculation mode when turning on the heater in winter because it warms up the cabin faster, especially when it's freezing cold right after getting in the car. The recirculation mode cycles the warm air repeatedly, speeding up the heating process significantly. However, I can't keep the recirculation mode on for too long, as the air inside the car becomes stuffy and humid over time, particularly causing the windows to fog up and blur visibility, which is extremely dangerous. So, after a few minutes when it's warm enough, I switch to the fresh air mode, allowing cold air from outside to gradually come in and be reheated by the heater. This maintains the temperature while circulating air, effectively preventing fogging. On snowy or rainy days, I'm especially careful not to use the recirculation mode for too long. Some cars come with automatic climate control settings, and the one I use switches modes automatically, making it much more convenient. After forming this habit, winter driving has become much more comfortable and even more fuel-efficient.
