Random AC question

[Ottoman]

Owned many cars in my life but my Rivian is the first to do this.. I dunno if its a bug or a feature/side effect but:

In my cars when it's not hot enough to use A/C I usually like to turn the re-circ off and turn the fan on to lowest speed (1 below off) to just kind of circulate air in the cab when it's too fast to drive with window open due to wind noise and this works great.

in 20 or so cars I've owned in my life (including an other EV).

Fan speed and A/C compressor are not tied together and cycling the compressor makes no different to blower speed.

in my Rivian however:

FAN ON A/C OFF RECIRC OFF : quiet low fan speed on Speed 1

FAN ON A/C ON RECIRC ON : it feels like the minimum speed kicks up to somewhere between Speed 2-3 and I can't get the blower to turn slower.


is there anyway to have A/C ON but at the same lowest fan speed as when the compressor is off?


TLDR: Why is my minimum blower speed Higher when A/C is ON vs OFF?

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[SwampNut]

Why not just use auto and forget it? But to answer your question, there's a minimum air speed required to prevent ice on the evaporative coils. The Rivian already has sort of low airflow, they probably calculated that the lowest speed isn't going to prevent freezing. Also it has a humidity sensor, so this may vary by humidity.

If the evap coil ices, airflow stops, and you lose all AC until it thaws...without air flowing.