Hi to all:

Just wondering what type of experiences people have had with the climate control? Specifically, when using it on the "dual" setting, is anyone actually noticing a difference?

My girlfriend is always freezing while I am boiling hot, so I will normally set my side at 68 while she keeps hers at around 72. All I know is that my side is still hotter than hell, I notice no difference at all. When I am alone and set the entire car to 68, it feels great.

Maybe the two temp. settings are too close to really see the difference in the dual climate performance, i.e. would a bigger gap help?

Anyone else having the same issue or played around with different settings?

Thanks.

 

My opinion is dual climate control in a car the size of the TSX is 100% gimic. If it was an option I would not have paid for it

So in essence, I agree with you ... no real way to make it work as advertised IMHO.

 

"Dual" -- GREAT, no problems.
Gotta disagree with you, Prov. It definitely makes a difference for us, and it's very useful.

But what isn't always so great is that with the A/C system in general, you don't seem to necessarily get the temp that you set. And it seems to vary. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes, in cold weather, it seems you have to set the temp lower than what you really want (like 63 or 64), or else you get hot air blowing at you. And I don't mean just at first, when the system is trying to get it up from freezing. And it's not remediable by adjusting the fan.

 

just as a question. Any guy around who is always cold when his girlfriend/wife is hot? (in the temperature sense)

from what I can hear (and my experience) the woman always seems to be colder than the guy.

 

girls are always colder!

 

I don't have a need for the dual-zone climate control in my car. I just leave both temperatures the same, unless someone on the passenger side wants to change the temps. That is fine with me.

 

I think it works great! I use the dual mode all the time.

 

I love it - the ACC is one of my favorite features of the car. It's better than in some V6-equipped cars.

 

Works great! I set mine at 69... ...all the time...

 

Here! Isn't that wierd?

OFC: With a dual climate control (and as Provench mentions, especially in a car this small), you have to realize that there's no thermal barrier in between the driver and passenger zones. That is, her hot air will always tend to heat up your cold air because the two zones are physically in contact with one another.

The only thing you control with the numbers on the dash is the temperature of the air that actually blows out of the vents. Once it gets out, only thermodynamics will dictate what temperature you actually feel.

 

Wow that sounds dirty!

 

I find the dual climate to be a no-win situation in the TSX. As the story goes, my girl friend says she's cold, so I point at the temperature controls on her side.

She bumps hers up from my normal 70 degress to 74. Fan kicks on a bit higher speed and now I have a rush of warmer air coming out my vent. Now I get too warm (and frustrated) so, I bump the control down from 70 to 67.

Now the fan speed is up a bit more and it feels like the dual climate is fighting itself. We end up being no better than leaving it at 70 degrees.

I've given up on the dual climate...

 

It probably works a lot better when there's only a few degrees of difference. If you're hoping for like, 6-8 degrees, give up and get a bag of ice or a hot water compress.

I've found that too, but it probably also has to do with how you're dressed given the weather outside. When I picked up my TSX in August, I found myself setting CC to 72. Now it's 66, or sometimes 64 if I'm wearing a sweater and a wool coat. (I'm from the SF Bay Area, so even night time temps don't usually fall below, say, 45 F. It's usually around 50 F when I leave for work.)

 

You just have to work a little harder at adjusting it, and really it's not that hard, or at least I don't see that it should be. You might have to wind up with a pretty large differential between the two sides, with neither number bearing much resemblance to what temperature each of you wants, but you ought to be able to make it work.

I know that the numbers that Handruin gave were just examples, but.... I imagine they're just about what he was working with, and he thought 67/74 was about as much of a differential as should be reasonably considered. Well, over here, we've sometimes had larger differentials. It's no big deal.

My suggestion: Don't fiddle around very long before just taking it to sort of an extreme, then readjusting both numbers back toward the center, if for no other reason than to prove to yourself that it can work. 67/74 doesn't do it after a couple of minutes? OK, make it 60/84. I'm serious -- that oughta do it, and fast. And then bring the numbers back toward each other -- a little bit, maybe more than a little bit. Pretty soon you'll get the hang of how far you have to take it under different conditions; I don't think it'll be a struggle.

The Dual is a great system. I believe that if you've given up on it, you just haven't yet hit on how to make it work for you.

 

works fine for us ...

I like cold air and she wants warm so i set at 19 (celsius) and she'll go for 23 or so.

In our previous car she'd always complain and now she doesn't so it works !

Ernie

 

my dual control seems to work well. this is a blessing considering my gf comes from a place where it is 100F+ all-year round... and to her living in los angeles is like living in the tundra.

 

dual zone works fine for me too...when my gf is in the car i usually set my side around 60 and my gf is 70...if i stick my arm onto her side and back to mine i can feel the diff in temp

 

never had a problem in the mornings ill set my side on high with the heated seat on high and my girl friends the same. after the seat warms up i set it to low and turn my heater down to 77....its around 30 deg F where im at right now btw. and she will leave hers at about 84. we will crack the sunroof to allow fresh air in cuz it does get stuffy. But she stays warm and i dont get to hot. maybe crackin the roof is what helps try it. hot air rises...

 

Thanks to all for your thoughts on this 'heated' issue.

I am going to start trying a wider gap in the temperatures to see if it makes a difference. Worst case, I will just crack my window a bit, asking the lady to dress more warmly is an invitation to an empty bed.

Is this really a 'dual' system in the sense that the fans will adjust for each side as well? It would not be so bad if the air coming out of my side were not so forceful. I would guess that there is only a single fan so at some point, either the driver or the passenger will not be totally comfortable.

While we're on the subject of the CC: how about the hot air coming out of the top vents? My BMW did it right, heat only coming from the floor vent and the defroster, cooler air only in the top vents...something about warming the lower extremities while keeping the driver alert with cooler air. In any case, it was great.
I find myself having to turn off the top vents because they are always pumping out hot air.

That said, I love this car. My girlfriend thinks I love it, more than her. I just smile.

 

I wonder about this as well. It seems like there is one fan, and the air is directed more to one side or the other. I've noticed when my fiancee (who also prefers it warmer than I) decides that she's too warm/cool and changes the temp, I can hear the fan increase in speed but I don't feel any increased airflow.

I think very little (but some) warm air comes out of the vents when it's heating in 'auto' mode. When it first blasts that hot air once the car has warmed up, it sends the air to the windshield... probably the feet too, but I haven't noticed. So, I think the TSX gets it right.

 

something that always happens with me and is dumb. when its cold, i crank the heat, set to "hi" and full fans. but for some reason the passenger ALWAYS presses up heat on their side like they are making a difference. then the Dual light is on, and we are the same temp.
dumb people... hah

 

It would be interesting to take a little thermometer and put it on either side of the car and see the difference huh?

 

AGREEEEEEEEEE TO THE FULLEST!!!!

 

Dual zone is great as a placebo for the Wife. Its really the heated seats that have turned out as the saviour. Of course there is the new game of setting the other person's seat to high without them knowing.

 

We all know the internal temp sensor is on the dash behind the steering wheel, so is there a corresponding sensor on the passenger side? If not, how does the ACC adjust each side? Is it solely based on the differential setting? Maybe since the sensor is relatively central, it directs warm air to one side and targets the avg. temp between the two settings.

 

And here's why: http://www.s-t.com/daily/03-96/03-04-96/2cold.htm

What I can't figure out about the internet is that no matter how strange the topic there is always someone that has enough time to write a website about it. Do a Google on "women colder than men" and you'll end up with 183,000 results! That's crazy!

 

My wife ALWAYS has the temperature set at 6 degrees higher than mine. I love the dual zones! I do have a beef with the climate control though. It's January in Minnesota, and it's been below zero (Fahrenheit) this past week. When I come in to the car I am dressed for the outdoors, and I don't want the interior temperature to be above about 50 degrees. I can't set my thermostat low enough!

 

Well duh ... just set it to the lowest setting and roll down the windows

 

ROFL ha ha ha ha

yes this is a great source of amusement for my woman as well

 

i think it's been answered but, if the difference between the drivers and passenger side is below 8, you can hardly feel any difference. aim for a margin of 8 or higher.

 

I started playing around with the differential in degrees, using 6 to 8 to test it out. I can say that with the drivers side this much lower than the passenger I do feel a difference - granted not that much.

I think the mixing of the air will always be a factor, as will sunroof open, etc.

Unless my climate control is defective, the drivers side vent to the side of the steering wheel pumps out hot air continuosly. I now have it pointing straight down to get some relief.

Overall, a small price to pay for a great car.

 

Har-de-har-har. No seriously, you can't set the temp for 50. Once you get to 58 or so the next step down is Lo, which turns the heat off. If it's -10 degrees Fahrenheit outside, I want SOME heat but not "full blast until it gets to 58".

In a car, manual controls work better than thermostats when it's really cold out.

 

My gf always says that when I start talking about science.

....and that's a whole 'nother topic! I wonder how many of us have THIS problem!

 

I hope nobody has the impression that there are actually two zones of temperature in the car. All the dual-zone climate adds is control over the direction and amount of warm/cool air that goes through a particular vent. For me, that's enough.

When I was a kid we had a Suburban, and I used to sit in the back row. Above my head was a separate AC with its own controls - now that thing could create a truly freezing backseat while leaving the front seats alone (largely). You could also set it to 'max cool' or 'high' or something like that and it would quickly cool down the whole truck, a necessity for that monstrous vehicle. My parents still miss that truck, even with its 37 gallon fuel tank