Does your car blow hot air?

[Incontro]

So here is the situation with my car - I am not sure if it is normal or not, so wondering what other people experience. 

On a cold day (< 10C outside temperature), if I am driving in my car with the recirculation ON, and the temperature dial set to the coldest, and the fan ON (but A/C switched OFF), it begins blow warm/hot air within 10 minutes or less (although it initially starts blowing cold air).

If I then turn the temperature dial to the middle, it makes no difference to the temperature of the air being blown out of the vents.

Anyone know why this is the case?? 

[jmurray01]

Does it blow cold with the AC turned on?  If so then I don't think there is an issue, as a car without AC will only blow cold air at high speeds once the engine is warmed up - or at least that's how I've experienced it.

[TomsFocus]

The manual temp control in the Focus is terrible.  Its either freezing or burning with nothing between!  Dial doesn't seem at all accurate.

Why do you have the recirc on though?  Unless you put the AC on as well you're just recirculating your own hot air...  Having recirc off on a cool day will allow cool air in...

[jmurray01]

18 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

The manual temp control in the Focus is terrible.  Its either freezing or burning with nothing between!  Dial doesn't seem at all accurate.

Why do you have the recirc on though?  Unless you put the AC on as well you're just recirculating your own hot air...  Having recirc off on a cool day will allow cool air in...

That's what I was trying to say, but didn't quite put it as well as you!  Admittedly I'm running on less than two hours sleep.

[Incontro]

20 hours ago, jmurray01 said:

Does it blow cold with the AC turned on?  If so then I don't think there is an issue, as a car without AC will only blow cold air at high speeds once the engine is warmed up - or at least that's how I've experienced it.

Yes, when A/C is turned on, air temp is pretty cold. 

20 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

The manual temp control in the Focus is terrible.  Its either freezing or burning with nothing between!  Dial doesn't seem at all accurate.

Why do you have the recirc on though?  Unless you put the AC on as well you're just recirculating your own hot air...  Having recirc off on a cool day will allow cool air in...

Exactly! The temperature dial behaves like a binary switch (when the A/C is OFF) - it's either lukewarm, or boiling hot!

I drive in a lot of start/stop traffic, so don't want to breathe in the outside exhaust fumes. That's why I have recirc on 90% of the time.

I simply want < 20C temperature air blowing out of my vents with recirc ON (and A/C off)! Even if the outside temperature is <10 C, apparently it is a big ask for the Focus!

Thanks guys.

[Ryan_Tango]

I put my dial just over half way and it's perfect.

[TomsFocus]

Yeah that's not really how recirc works, its literally for 5 mins speed cooling/heating or avoiding smelly bin trucks. If you want clean cool air in traffic you'll have to use the AC I'm afraid.

[jmurray01]

22 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Yeah that's not really how recirc works, its literally for 5 mins speed cooling/heating or avoiding smelly bin trucks. If you want clean cool air in traffic you'll have to use the AC I'm afraid.

Indeed!  That's what it is there for - conditioning the air...  It does impact the MPG, but that's the cost of such a luxury.