pras

Doesn't using the A/C compressor also use more gas and affect mileage? Maybe it's a miniscule change, not sure.

Also, interesting that some ES's have the A/C hard-button and others do not.
- Mine has the Nav and ML, and no A/C button on the dash.
- I had a loaner NX (with Nav), which has the A/C button.
- My wife's 2015 RX (Nav, no ML) does not have an A/C button.
- The 2016 RX I looked at also did not have an A/C button (Nav, no ML).

Mike728

Chrome has a Chinese market ES without nav. That could be the reason he has the button.

chromedome

Mine's a left-hand-drive global export model, it has English/Chinese/Arabic text on all the stickers. I think mine has the AC button because it came with only the black and white display, no Display Audio or Nav. I sat in a few 2016 ES with Display Audio and none of them had the AC button. The whole control layout mess seems so arbitrary when Lexus/Toyota could have used one climate control stack for all variants.

bc6152

Using the A/C along with heated air serves two purposes; first, for those of us in cold weather states, when the temp gets below say, 30 F., you don't require A/C until such time that your body, breath, and heat create humidity inside the car which fogs the windscreens front and back. The A/C eliminates this condition. When the imbalance - cold glass and warm interior - dissipates, the A/C is no longer needed. The auto setting provides dehumidified warm air when calling for heat which = no window fogging... Like Mike I leave my settings on "auto" believing that Lexus engineers are usually smarter than me...

pras

That would certainly do the trick. If there is some air quality/smell issue and I need to recirculate the air, I just hit "auto" on the smog sensor button and it takes care of it just as bc6152 said above.

My personal preference is to always use outside air and A/C OFF in the winter. I do this because of the following:

1. You are utilizing the engine heat and can heat the car faster with outside air
2. You are bringing in dry air from the outside, which has always eliminated any humidity concerns for me (at least in this part of the country). I typically have a car full, and never see any fogging issues.
3. It's not recommended to use A/C compressors in temps below 40F (at least for central air, home compressors).

See the last sentence here from the manual:

Fogging up of the windows
●The windows will easily fog up when the humidity in the vehicle is high. Selecting
on will dehumidify the air from the outlets and defog the windshield effectively.
●If you turn off, the windows may fog up more easily.
●The windows may fog up if the recirculated air mode is used.

The car has a nice warm engine in the engine bay, so you really shouldn't have problems running the A/C in the winter, and point 3 above is probably irrelevant. Still, just my preference.

virtual

I wouldn't want to criticize too much, but I am not in a cold climate.

Also - the temperature adjustment doesn't work correctly when the AC is OFF, for for instance - today I had 56F outside, the AC was OFF and the temperature set to 76 and the vents blew hot air. I had to keep going down until LO - to make that stop.

This car is either undeveloped or is lacking adjustment precision or is full of engineering shortcuts. Or broken.

NickTee

Or, you know, there are limitations to what outside air is going to do.

jollick

virtual

Or, you know, there are limitations to what the temperature control can do.
Obviously the control is incapable of handling that outside air.

Must be too warm at 56F

NickTee

How do you think the system works?

AdamKralic

Turn on the heat in the seats. Heck the seats rule...I used them in the summer as AC...and now that fall is upon us...they are my heater.

AdamKralic

There than the seats bit...I leave the temp at 70 on both sides.

Lexi66

Glad I'm not the only one that thinks these Manuals suck!