The moist air freezes to the coils of the ac unit, which is than heated by air and drips out of the vehicle through a condensate drain.
How do you not understand that basics of an air conditioner? It doesn’t just cool, it conditions the air.
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ceenote@lemmy.world 23 hours agoAir conditioners pull moisture out of the air by making it colder, reducing the amount of moisture the air can hold. Its not doing anything if the air is already colder than the air conditioner can go. The air conditioner will only help if it’s 55F/13C or more, where it will only fog up if you live somewhere very humid.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
I’ve never found a more confidently incorrect bunch than HVAC people. I’ve never understood what it is about that profession specifically that causes people to just turn their brains off. See also: the absolute disdain for heat pumps and the absolute insistence on massively over sizing furnaces everywhere by HVAC technicians.
ceenote@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
That doesn’t even make any sense. Is it cold air depositing frost onto the coil, or hot air melting the frost? It can’t be both. You know that frost building up on coils is a huge problem that breaks air conditioners, right? Frost clogs the air stream, and creates a feedback loop where the coil gets way colder than it’s designed to because air can’t pass through.
I could have been more specific: the air conditioner can be useful in rainy or foggy warm conditions where the air conditioner can still cool the air further, and a car air conditioner goes colder than a home air conditioner does, around 38-45F (3-7C). It can also help if something in the car is adding moisture to the air, like if the occupants are sweating. However, when it’s just a cold day fogging the windows, the air conditioner does not help. It does not have a mechanism to dehumidify the air other than to cool it.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Uhhh… why do you think they have defrost cycles?
If you turn off the ac for a short period of time, you run heat over the coils to remove all the accumulated frost, snd switch over again. This just used air instead of heating the coils with a reverse loop.
You say others are just using Google and ai, but clearly you’re the one using those tools and have no experience.
ceenote@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Car defrost cycles are explicitly for the windows, not the coils. You still haven’t explained the magic mechanism by which an air conditioner dehumidifies air that’s colder than the coils, just pointed to the existence of condensate like that makes your point somehow. I already covered that the air conditioner can dehumidify air cycling through the car if humidity is building up from something inside it.
The coils are not designed to freeze. Ever. Having to manually defrost the coils by turning off the A/C (you have to do it manually because no system is designed to work this way, because that would be a stupid design) and run warm air through it means your system is malfunctioning.
Take the last word, if you want. Arguing on the internet is pointless.
Cort@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to pass the cold dry air back over the hot side heat exchanger to increase its moisture caring capacity before blowing it at the glass?
You know like a dehumidifier?
CADmonkey@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Probably, but the hot side of the car’s AC is outside of the car typically in front of the radiator.
LilB0kChoy@reddthat.com 19 hours ago
I don’t have a side in this but both my ‘93 Ford Escort and my ‘01 Ford Crown Victoria would turn on the A/C compressor if you hit the Defrost button for the windshield.