[JesseE1981]

Maybe I'm just not used to a compact car yet, but does anyone else find the air conditioner to be lacking in this car? The car doesn't seem to cool down all that much unless it's on Max AC, blowing full blast. The speed of the fan also seems to vary with the speed of the motor, often blowing harder and faster at certain times, and slower at other times. Is anyone else noticing this? Is this normal for a compact car? My Escape had great air conditioning and would cool the cabin down very quickly and get very cold.

 

[DougC]

My AC works perfectly. No issues here....

 

[JesseE1981]

does the fan vary with engine speed though?

 

[Skippy905]

I remember my Civic used to not be very cold AC when I was at idle, but once you started moving, it was cold.

 

[Craig9080]

My Escape had great air conditioning and would cool the cabin down very quickly and get very cold.

Your escape had rear vents if im not mistaken, thus the whole cabin was being ventilated with cool air, not just being blown in from the front as we have with the Focus. Additionally when the engine is not at high RPM and thier is no airflow in the engine compartment, most A/C compressors wont be working at 100% efficiency, my old cobalt was the worse at this; my Focus is much better.

 

[PratoN]

Your escape had rear vents if im not mistaken, thus the whole cabin was being ventilated with cool air, not just being blown in from the front as we have with the Focus.

I agree - I've had no issues with AC, I drive with it between 68-74 degrees and the fan on 1-2. However, if I have passengers in the rear, they complain it's warm until I put the temperature at Lo and the fans blasting usually past 1/2 way.

 

[DougC]

does the fan vary with engine speed though?

Can't say that I have noticed any variation.

 

[CharlieRose]

I've noticed that the a/c is weak at best, especially when the car isn't moving. Once underway, it gets much better. I was disappointed because my 13 year old Nissan truck puts out freezing cold air compared to the Focus...seems like a/c technology's taken a step back since the '90s.

 

[Elizabeth]

Two issues: YESSair conditioning HAS taken a giant step backwards with the banning of Freon.
The current approved refrigerant is puke compared to the good old Freon, and even the first substitutes.. the stuff they allow now is totally lame.
Secondly, yeah you have a tiny engine, designed for fuel saving. the air is not gonna be what you had in a big old engined car.
And YES the engine speed does impact the ability of the air conditioning to work well.
It certainly will blow colder with the engine turning more RPMS. It may seem to blow harder?
I am satisfied with what is available. It does not impact the engine power too much. Which would be the alternative: if you had a killer air conditioner, it would drag way too much on the engine. And yes it haas to be full on to really pump in the cold air at first. Soon enough I can turn it way down.
The Focus is a good compromise.
If you really want more air, maybe an oversize pully is available? to spin the compressor faster.

 

[PratoN]

If you really want more air, maybe an oversize pully is available? to spin the compressor faster.

Or should it be undersized? 0.o

And hey, if you really want cold air and don't care about gas mileage, maybe you can drive in sport mode and keep those RPMs up.

 

[Elizabeth]

Or should it be undersized? 0.o

And hey, if you really want cold air and don't care about gas mileage, maybe you can drive in sport mode and keep those RPMs up.

sorry yeah, undersized... spin it faster...
This is like righty tighty, and lefty loosey..

 

[Fine Focus]

Maybe I'm just not used to a compact car yet, but does anyone else find the air conditioner to be lacking in this car? The car doesn't seem to cool down all that much unless it's on Max AC, blowing full blast. The speed of the fan also seems to vary with the speed of the motor, often blowing harder and faster at certain times, and slower at other times. Is anyone else noticing this? Is this normal for a compact car? My Escape had great air conditioning and would cool the cabin down very quickly and get very cold.

I have a car with similar specs and have not noticed any weakness with the AC system in terms of cooling down the interior or fluctuation of fan speed. I have noticed some slight vibration when the compressor is on which I am keeping an eye on. I have owned several cars with R-134a refrigerant and have not experienced any problems.

One other posssible issue is when modulating fresh air through the vents with the AC shut off, is that the fresh air seems to be giving off engine heat even though temp is dialed down as much as possible (SE manual system) , again I am keeping an eye on this.

 

[hotleadsingerguy]

Don't have any of the problems people are having here.

I set my climate control to 72...and it runs anytime the windows aren't down. Cools down the cabin very quickly (on the days it was around 100 here in Cleveland it was nice and cool in under 10 minutes basically sitting still in the parking lot) and the fan speed only varies when it needs to. That's the purpose of the Auto setting.

 

[JesseE1981]

Well I drive in "D", and I've noticed that as I take my foot of the gas to coast to a stop, and as the car is downshifting on its own, that right before I come to a complete stop that the fans kick in faster, and the air is blowing harder. It dies back down as I come to a complete stop (meaning it returns to "normal"), and then blows a little harder again as I start to move. It's very noticeable in that you can actually hear the difference in the fan speed, not just feel the air speed difference.

I did have this happen previously in a 2001 Sport Trac that I owned, and the alternator turned out to be the issue in that, but the entire electrical system was also affected, something that doesn't seem to be an issue here in this car.

Unfortunately I just have the SE, so I don't have an interior temperature gauge, I just know over the weekend, as I was driving down the highway, I was thinking "Why am I sitting here feeling hot when I have the air on full blast?" It's not blowing out hot air, it just doesn't seem like it's blowing out air that's as cold as what it should be, based on my experience with my previous vehicles. That's why I was wondering if compact cars are different.

 

[Blizzard35]

Your escape had rear vents if im not mistaken, thus the whole cabin was being ventilated with cool air, not just being blown in from the front as we have with the Focus. Additionally when the engine is not at high RPM and thier is no airflow in the engine compartment, most A/C compressors wont be working at 100% efficiency, my old cobalt was the worse at this; my Focus is much better.

My focus has rear heating/cooling ducts that are located under the 2 front seats.....I've had passengers in the back on very hot days and no one has complained that it was too warm.

 

[Dgc333]

The AC I'm my 12 works very well. The automatic climate control will vary the fan speed based on the measured air temp and the temperature set point. Bigger the difference the faster the fan blows.

The only thing I have noticed is when you first start the car it blows air that feels warmer than the ambient in the car but the car is cooling down nicely before I am out of the drive way.

 

[Targon]

Maybe I'm just not used to a compact car yet, but does anyone else find the air conditioner to be lacking in this car? The car doesn't seem to cool down all that much unless it's on Max AC, blowing full blast. The speed of the fan also seems to vary with the speed of the motor, often blowing harder and faster at certain times, and slower at other times. Is anyone else noticing this? Is this normal for a compact car? My Escape had great air conditioning and would cool the cabin down very quickly and get very cold.

The A/C will not start to really crank until the system has "warmed up". So it starts off not blowing fully when you first turn it on, then after a while it starts to blow fully. It isn't about the speed of the car as much as how long it has been running/blowing. If the air that comes out of the system does not seem cold, then you should bring it in to be checked/fixed.

 

[csvt2060]

Here is what I posted in another thread about how my A/C has been working:

Driving an hour this morning in 81 degrees and humid. ATC set on 70 degrees. A/C works until I start slowing down and stopped at red lights. Also, sometimes when driving highway speeds and there isn't much demand on the system. System starts putting out humid air for minutes at a time, then goes back to normal. The condenser has to be freezing up or something.

 

[pra2veen]

Maybe I'm just not used to a compact car yet, but does anyone else find the air conditioner to be lacking in this car? The car doesn't seem to cool down all that much unless it's on Max AC, blowing full blast. The speed of the fan also seems to vary with the speed of the motor, often blowing harder and faster at certain times, and slower at other times. Is anyone else noticing this? Is this normal for a compact car? My Escape had great air conditioning and would cool the cabin down very quickly and get very cold.

I've noticed this on my 2012 SE too and it's quite annoying. I don't think it's normal for compact cars because I've driven a few other compact cars and I've never noticed anything of this sort. The difference in air speed on the focus is very noticeable and it's almost like putting the fan speed on max at times.
The A/C is quite bad IMO. It does cool well when it's on max but cuts off too often and the air gets humid even when it is set to 'circulation'

 

[Binyana2011]

Two issues: YESSair conditioning HAS taken a giant step backwards with the banning of Freon.
The current approved refrigerant is puke compared to the good old Freon, and even the first substitutes.. the stuff they allow now is totally lame.
Secondly, yeah you have a tiny engine, designed for fuel saving. the air is not gonna be what you had in a big old engined car.
And YES the engine speed does impact the ability of the air conditioning to work well.
It certainly will blow colder with the engine turning more RPMS. It may seem to blow harder?
I am satisfied with what is available. It does not impact the engine power too much. Which would be the alternative: if you had a killer air conditioner, it would drag way too much on the engine. And yes it haas to be full on to really pump in the cold air at first. Soon enough I can turn it way down.
The Focus is a good compromise.
If you really want more air, maybe an oversize pully is available? to spin the compressor faster.

Really the only issues with R-134a were when it was retrofitted into R12 systems. R-12 systems were designed for the thermodynamics of R-12 so the condenser and evaporator were sized accordingly. When R-134a was put into these systems using a "kit", the kit did not change these two key components, thus making for the R-134a to be noticeably less efficient in cooling in retrofitted systems.

Today's R-134a systems are designed for the thermodynamics of R-134a so the condenser and evaporator are sized accordingly (the condenser and evaporator are larger). The real world cooling efficiency between the two are quite similar, giving a slight edge to R-12 at lower speed operation.

If someone is experiencing poor cooling in today's modern automobile, it is highly unlikely to be because the refrigerant is R-134a. The problem is somewhere else in the system or how it was designed.

As a side note, please explain why you think this would be: "Secondly, yeah you have a tiny engine, designed for fuel saving. the air is not gonna be what you had in a big old engined car."