A/C Performance

[NeedMo$]

We are gonna have the answer for the Ram HVAC engineers soon! If you are correct with the blend doors, which i believe you are, how does it get cold on the highway if the blend door is staying opened?

From what I am experiencing, I can be maintaining a constant speed anywhere from 40 - 70 mph and the air will cycle between cool and warm humid. So speed and motion make no difference in my issue. And as I said, this is with fan on for air circulation and A/C is turned off when air temperature is cooler outside. But same thing occurs when A/C is on.

 

[davel]

Hey RBRK,

We don't want you to think we haven't made the appropriate teams aware of this. We've seen conversation and have asked customers to send us their VIN to get this formally documented. You can definitely send us a direct message as well. Very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and hope to hear from you soon

Jasmine
Ram Social Care Specialist

I was just about ready to buy a Ram Limited and some of the issues on this forum made me think twice. I can deal with the other issues such as th 12" info screens and thumping noices because I know they can be fixed but I live in the Phoenix area of AZ and I cannot have a truck with AC issues. I have had three other trucks since living here and no AC issues at all. Put me on the no buy list as I am going to look at other brands soon if this issue is no resolved. I do love the looks of the Ram over the all other brands but I need good AC .

 

[356]

I was just about ready to buy a Ram Limited and some of the issues on this forum made me think twice. I can deal with the other issues such as th 12" info screens and thumping noices because I know they can be fixed but I live in the Phoenix area of AZ and I cannot have a truck with AC issues. I have had three other trucks since living here and no AC issues at all. Put me on the no buy list as I am going to look at other brands soon if this issue is no resolved. I do love the looks of the Ram over the all other brands but I need good AC .

My AC is great, as are most members. Go test drive one and see for yourself.

 

[mikemcfarland]

My AC is great, as are most members. Go test drive one and see for yourself.

being able to test drive a vehicle before buying does have a lot of advantages. this is one of them. shouldn't be to hard to start the truck wait 5mins and see. fwiw ((i believe) there has been no one that has started out with great a.c. and then there was a decline. it should be lacking right off the get go.

 

[RT70808]

I was just about ready to buy a Ram Limited and some of the issues on this forum made me think twice. I can deal with the other issues such as th 12" info screens and thumping noices because I know they can be fixed but I live in the Phoenix area of AZ and I cannot have a truck with AC issues. I have had three other trucks since living here and no AC issues at all. Put me on the no buy list as I am going to look at other brands soon if this issue is no resolved. I do love the looks of the Ram over the all other brands but I need good AC .

I would agree with some of the other members, just test drive your actual vehicle and make sure the ac is up to par.

 

[go-ram]

Last week I had the opportunity to try out the AC on a handful of new Rams on the lot at my dealer. A buddy of mine was keeping the sales guy busy with the 3500 he is looking to buy, so I went along with him to the dealer and I walked all around the lot by myself, trying the AC on a total of five of the 2019 (DT) 1500s, two of the 2018s (one a 1500, one the 3500 my buddy test drove), and finally compared AC performance of those seven new Rams to my buddy's existing 2006 Ram. The five 2019 5th-gen (DT) trucks I tried had build dates 4-18, 6-18, 7-18, 8-18, 9-18, and I made sure none of them had the panorama roof, just solid steel roofs, and I made sure every one of the trucks had its AC controls set to Max AC, set to the coolest temperature setting on both driver and passenger sides, and fan on its highest setting. I didn't write down the build dates of the two brand-new 2018s (DS - 4th gen). It was sunny, outdoor temperature was 75 °F [24 °C], relative humidity around 40%. I didn't have a thermometer with me, but I didn't really need one, because I was just looking to find out qualitatively how quickly the five 2019 DT trucks began to blow cool air, and how they compared to the two 2018s and the one 2006. Here's what I found:

All five of the 2019 (DT) 5th-gen trucks had what I would call very poor AC performance. They all took much longer to begin blowing cool air, and none of them got the air very cold, just what I would call relatively cool...not acceptable for a 75 °F, 40% relative humidity day. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being worst cooling performance and 5 being excellent cooling performance, I'd rate all five of the 5th-gen 2019 DT trucks a 3. I'd rate the two 4th-gen 2018 DS trucks a 4, and I'd rate my buddy's 2006 a 4.5. I will say that the air distribution throughout the cabin on the 2019s was noticeably better than the 2018s, and on two of the five the 2019s I noticed that the air blowing from passenger side face-level vent felt slightly cooler than the air on the driver side vent (i.e. the two vents immediately on either side of the screen in the center of the dash).

I know someone will say "but it's a bigger cab now, of course it takes awhile to cool down", but that is not the point at all - I wasn't timing how long the entire cab took to cool down to a comfortable level, I was comparing how long each truck took before it began blowing truly cool air out of the face-level dash vents. And someone will say "but it's the new refrigerant that the government has mandated, it's not as efficient as the old refrigerant", but that is also irrelevant because (a) Ram has been using the new refrigerant across the board since around 2014, and (b) Ram supposedly increased the capacity of the 2019 DT truck AC system by 25% to account for the 5-10% reduction in efficiency of the new refrigerant and the larger cab. If they had truly increased capacity of the 2019 DT's AC capacity, then they should begin blowing cool air even more quickly than the outgoing 2018s.

I'm not trying to bad-mouth Ram, and I'm not trying to convince anyone to not buy a 2019 DT Ram. I'm just sharing my practical, real-world results, for whatever it's worth to any given individual. If you don't like what I've said here, I strongly encourage you to do your own real-world testing and draw your own conclusions.

Again, from my point of view, this has nothing to do with how long it takes to make the cabin as a whole feel comfortably cool. It's a matter of (a) how long it takes to begin blowing decently cool air from the vents, and (b) how cool that air ultimately becomes. In my little bit of testing, there is no doubt that all five of the 5th-gen (DT) 2019 1500s were noticeably poor performing AC-wise compared to roughly equivalent 2018s, my buddy's 2006, and my family's 2013 Mini and 2005 Prius. The new 2019 5th-gen Rams, at least so far, suffer from fair-to-poor AC performance, which is not at all what one has the right to expect from the most advanced half-ton pickup truck ever designed or built. Sorry this is such a long post, but I had a fair amount of info to cover.

UPDATE Nov. 02, 2018: Test drove a Laramie Longhorn today, build date 10/18, just arrived at the dealer yesterday afternoon (11-01-2018), happy to report that the air-conditioning worked beautifully in that one truck.

 

[chemist2000]

Last week I had the opportunity to try out the AC on a handful of new Rams on the lot at my dealer. A buddy of mine was keeping the sales guy busy with the 3500 he is looking to buy, so I went along with him to the dealer and I walked all around the lot by myself, trying the AC on a total of five of the 2019 (DT) 1500s, two of the 2018s (one a 1500, one the 3500 my buddy test drove), and finally compared AC performance of those seven new Rams to my buddy's existing 2006 Ram. The five 2019 5th-gen (DT) trucks I tried had build dates 4-18, 6-18, 7-18, 8-18, 9-18, and I made sure none of them had the panorama roof, just solid steel roofs, and I made sure every one of the trucks had its AC controls set to Max AC, set to the coolest temperature setting on both driver and passenger sides, and fan on its highest setting. I didn't write down the build dates of the two brand-new 2018s (DS - 4th gen). It was sunny, outdoor temperature was 75 °F [24 °C], relative humidity around 40%. I didn't have a thermometer with me, but I didn't really need one, because I was just looking to find out qualitatively how quickly the five 2019 DT trucks began to blow cool air, and how they compared to the two 2018s and the one 2006. Here's what I found:

All five of the 2019 (DT) 5th-gen trucks had what I would call very poor AC performance. They all took much longer to begin blowing cool air, and none of them got the air very cold, just what I would call relatively cool...not acceptable for a 75 °F, 40% relative humidity day. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being worst cooling performance and 5 being excellent cooling performance, I'd rate all five of the 5th-gen 2019 DT trucks a 3. I'd rate the two 4th-gen 2018 DS trucks a 4, and I'd rate my buddy's 2006 a 4.5. I will say that the air distribution throughout the cabin on the 2019s was noticeably better than the 2018s, and on two of the five the 2019s I noticed that the air blowing from passenger side face-level vent felt slightly cooler than the air on the driver side vent (i.e. the two vents immediately on either side of the screen in the center of the dash).

I know someone will say "but it's a bigger cab now, of course it takes awhile to cool down", but that is not the point at all - I wasn't timing how long the entire cab took to cool down to a comfortable level, I was comparing how long each truck took before it began blowing truly cool air out of the face-level dash vents. And someone will say "but it's the new refrigerant that the government has mandated, it's not as efficient as the old refrigerant", but that is also irrelevant because (a) Ram has been using the new refrigerant across the board since around 2014, and (b) Ram supposedly increased the capacity of the 2019 DT truck AC system by 25% to account for the 5-10% reduction in efficiency of the new refrigerant and the larger cab. If they had truly increased capacity of the 2019 DT's AC capacity, then they should begin blowing cool air even more quickly than the outgoing 2018s.

I'm not trying to bad-mouth Ram, and I'm not trying to convince anyone to not buy a 2019 DT Ram. I'm just sharing my practical, real-world results, for whatever it's worth to any given individual. If you don't like what I've said here, I strongly encourage you to do your own real-world testing and draw your own conclusions.

Again, from my point of view, this has nothing to do with how long it takes to make the cabin as a whole feel comfortably cool. It's a matter of (a) how long it takes to begin blowing decently cool air from the vents, and (b) how cool that air ultimately becomes. In my little bit of testing, there is no doubt that all five of the 5th-gen (DT) 2019 1500s were noticeably poor performing AC-wise compared to roughly equivalent 2018s, my buddy's 2006, and my family's 2013 Mini and 2005 Prius. The new 2019 5th-gen Rams, at least so far, suffer from fair-to-poor AC performance, which is not at all what one has the right to expect from the most advanced half-ton pickup truck ever designed or built. Sorry this is such a long post, but I had a fair amount of info to cover.

Good research and effort! I hope they release a TSB before next summer!

 

[Jus Cruisin]

I don't get this " put it on Max a/c, lowest temp setting" . I never put my vehicles on Max (RECIRC) a/c and I never set them at the lowest temp. I put my a/c at my comfortable temp (for me - 74) not recirculating and let the system do it's thing. It gets to 74 just as fast set at 74 as it would set at 65. No different than your house. If for some reading you had you a. /c off and the house was 82 regardless of setting the a/c thermostat at 65 or 75, the house will get to 75 at the same time.

You all bellyaching about performance would have been bellyaching about the 2014 Ram Limited and the 2016 F150 King Ranch I had. They cooled the interiors about the same. No faster or slower, better or worse.

I have no interest in freezing or making my vehicles as cold as a meat locker.

I was at the dealership yesterday getting the crash avoidance software update done and I asked my service writer if they are getting any complaints about a/c. He was aware of one. It's not a widespread issue.

 

[chemist2000]

I don't get this " put it on Max a/c, lowest temp setting" . I never put my vehicles on Max (RECIRC) a/c and I never set them at the lowest temp. I put my a/c at my comfortable temp (for me - 74) not recirculating and let the system do it's thing. It gets to 74 just as fast set at 74 as it would set at 65. No different than your house. If for some reading you had you a. /c off and the house was 82 regardless of setting the a/c thermostat at 65 or 75, the house will get to 75 at the same time.

You all bellyaching about performance would have been bellyaching about the 2014 Ram Limited and the 2016 F150 King Ranch I had. They cooled the interiors about the same. No faster or slower, better or worse.

I have no interest in freezing or making my vehicles as cold as a meat locker.

I was at the dealership yesterday getting the crash avoidance software update done and I asked my service writer if they are getting any complaints about a/c. He was aware of one. It's not a widespread issue.

Well then you are not like the rest of us who like the a/c to perform like other cars, COLD!

 

[go-ram]

I don't get this " put it on Max a/c, lowest temp setting" . I never put my vehicles on Max (RECIRC) a/c and I never set them at the lowest temp. I put my a/c at my comfortable temp (for me - 74) not recirculating and let the system do it's thing. It gets to 74 just as fast set at 74 as it would set at 65. No different than your house. If for some reading you had you a. /c off and the house was 82 regardless of setting the a/c thermostat at 65 or 75, the house will get to 75 at the same time.

You all bellyaching about performance would have been bellyaching about the 2014 Ram Limited and the 2016 F150 King Ranch I had. They cooled the interiors about the same. No faster or slower, better or worse.

I have no interest in freezing or making my vehicles as cold as a meat locker.

I was at the dealership yesterday getting the crash avoidance software update done and I asked my service writer if they are getting any complaints about a/c. He was aware of one. It's not a widespread issue.

Many of us live in climates where the AC is always set to Max AC and coldest temperature setting, and adjust fan speed downward if it begins to get too cold. In very hot climates, that's the most comfortable way to survive. IF it's not a terribly hot day, we just leave climate-control off until it becomes necessary to turn it on. If someone wants to use the Auto mode and control to a setpoint, of course that's fine.

Also, it is perfectly valid to compare one's new $60,000 truck to their previous vehicle, and if that new $60,000 vehicle has air conditioning that performs significantly worse than their old vehicle or another vehicle in their family, it makes sense to ask questions and find out why the latest and greatest, most expensive vehicle they have ever bought, can't produce cool air as quickly, nor as cold, as older/cheaper vehicles.

 

[chemist2000]

Many of us live in climates where the AC is always set to Max AC and coldest temperature setting, and adjust fan speed downward if it begins to get too cold. In very hot climates, that's the most comfortable way to survive. IF it's not a terribly hot day, we just leave climate-control off until it becomes necessary to turn it on. If someone wants to use the Auto mode and control to a setpoint, of course that's fine.

Also, it is perfectly valid to compare one's new $60,000 truck to their previous vehicle, and if that new $60,000 vehicle has air conditioning that performs significantly worse than their old vehicle or another vehicle in their family, it makes sense to ask questions and find out why the latest and greatest, most expensive vehicle they have ever bought, can't produce cool air as quickly, nor as cold, as older/cheaper vehicles.

VERY WELL SAID

 

[Jus Cruisin]

Many of us live in climates where the AC is always set to Max AC and coldest temperature setting, and adjust fan speed downward if it begins to get too cold. In very hot climates, that's the most comfortable way to survive. IF it's not a terribly hot day, we just leave climate-control off until it becomes necessary to turn it on. If someone wants to use the Auto mode and control to a setpoint, of course that's fine.

Also, it is perfectly valid to compare one's new $60,000 truck to their previous vehicle, and if that new $60,000 vehicle has air conditioning that performs significantly worse than their old vehicle or another vehicle in their family, it makes sense to ask questions and find out why the latest and greatest, most expensive vehicle they have ever bought, can't produce cool air as quickly, nor as cold, as older/cheaper vehicles.

I live in Central Florida. We've had 118 days that hit or exceeded 90° this year with tropical humidity not desert dryness. In the summer you can walk outside and in minutes be profusely sweating without doing anything.

My second paragraph of the post you quoted compared my current 2019 Limited to a 2014 Ram Limited and a 2016 F150 King Ranch. All over $60,000 and all were owned in Central Florida. They all performed similarly.

So...........

 

[DIRTRIDER]

There are several threads on different forums complaining about poor A/C performance, there has to be some merit to a problem with the 19’s A/C. The A/C in my $30,000 ‘14 Express performed way better than my $60,000 ‘19 Rebel. You can confirm if your system is performing to FACTORY spec by taking center vent temps with a gauge. Everybody interprets hot and cold by feel differently. A temp gauge would confirm.

 

[Ramjack]

I was at the dealership yesterday getting the crash avoidance software update done and I asked my service writer if they are getting any complaints about a/c. He was aware of one. It's not a widespread issue.

I would not expect a service writer at the dealer to be forthright about this.

 

[Ramjack]

Last week I had the opportunity to try out the AC on a handful of new Rams on the lot at my dealer. A buddy of mine was keeping the sales guy busy with the 3500 he is looking to buy, so I went along with him to the dealer and I walked all around the lot by myself, trying the AC on a total of five of the 2019 (DT) 1500s, two of the 2018s (one a 1500, one the 3500 my buddy test drove), and finally compared AC performance of those seven new Rams to my buddy's existing 2006 Ram. The five 2019 5th-gen (DT) trucks I tried had build dates 4-18, 6-18, 7-18, 8-18, 9-18, and I made sure none of them had the panorama roof, just solid steel roofs, and I made sure every one of the trucks had its AC controls set to Max AC, set to the coolest temperature setting on both driver and passenger sides, and fan on its highest setting. I didn't write down the build dates of the two brand-new 2018s (DS - 4th gen). It was sunny, outdoor temperature was 75 °F [24 °C], relative humidity around 40%. I didn't have a thermometer with me, but I didn't really need one, because I was just looking to find out qualitatively how quickly the five 2019 DT trucks began to blow cool air, and how they compared to the two 2018s and the one 2006. Here's what I found:

All five of the 2019 (DT) 5th-gen trucks had what I would call very poor AC performance. They all took much longer to begin blowing cool air, and none of them got the air very cold, just what I would call relatively cool...not acceptable for a 75 °F, 40% relative humidity day. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being worst cooling performance and 5 being excellent cooling performance, I'd rate all five of the 5th-gen 2019 DT trucks a 3. I'd rate the two 4th-gen 2018 DS trucks a 4, and I'd rate my buddy's 2006 a 4.5. I will say that the air distribution throughout the cabin on the 2019s was noticeably better than the 2018s, and on two of the five the 2019s I noticed that the air blowing from passenger side face-level vent felt slightly cooler than the air on the driver side vent (i.e. the two vents immediately on either side of the screen in the center of the dash).

I know someone will say "but it's a bigger cab now, of course it takes awhile to cool down", but that is not the point at all - I wasn't timing how long the entire cab took to cool down to a comfortable level, I was comparing how long each truck took before it began blowing truly cool air out of the face-level dash vents. And someone will say "but it's the new refrigerant that the government has mandated, it's not as efficient as the old refrigerant", but that is also irrelevant because (a) Ram has been using the new refrigerant across the board since around 2014, and (b) Ram supposedly increased the capacity of the 2019 DT truck AC system by 25% to account for the 5-10% reduction in efficiency of the new refrigerant and the larger cab. If they had truly increased capacity of the 2019 DT's AC capacity, then they should begin blowing cool air even more quickly than the outgoing 2018s.

I'm not trying to bad-mouth Ram, and I'm not trying to convince anyone to not buy a 2019 DT Ram. I'm just sharing my practical, real-world results, for whatever it's worth to any given individual. If you don't like what I've said here, I strongly encourage you to do your own real-world testing and draw your own conclusions.

Again, from my point of view, this has nothing to do with how long it takes to make the cabin as a whole feel comfortably cool. It's a matter of (a) how long it takes to begin blowing decently cool air from the vents, and (b) how cool that air ultimately becomes. In my little bit of testing, there is no doubt that all five of the 5th-gen (DT) 2019 1500s were noticeably poor performing AC-wise compared to roughly equivalent 2018s, my buddy's 2006, and my family's 2013 Mini and 2005 Prius. The new 2019 5th-gen Rams, at least so far, suffer from fair-to-poor AC performance, which is not at all what one has the right to expect from the most advanced half-ton pickup truck ever designed or built. Sorry this is such a long post, but I had a fair amount of info to cover.

For a 75 degree day, this is awful performance.

 

[Jus Cruisin]

I would not expect a service writer at the dealer to be forthright about this.

I wouldn't expect a prejudiced forum blogger to spew anything else.....



That service writer is a friend. I've worked with him for 3 years now and his fiancee works at Pet Paradise and personally boards my dog when I'm away.

Y'all have a good one......

 

[SpeedyV]

If someone wants to use the Auto mode and control to a setpoint, of course that's fine.

That’s my approach. After all, any automatic system will go to “max”, you know, automatically when needed

 

[SMS Limited]

My ac works really good, I live in Southern California and i got the truck in the middle of the summer and used it for many days that were 100 degrees and up, it blows really cold and on longer drives I turn the fan blower speed down to half to maintain a comfortable temp,

 

[scottahaire]

There has to be a fix. I picked up my truck last week and it blows ice cold

 

[Neurobit]

I just got my truck back from the dealer on Monday after spending five days there for brake squeal, center dash lid swap (squeak), LED glovebox replacement, and AC cooling not optimal.

Everything fixed so very happy so far.

Regarding AC, freon was low from the factory. Seems to be cooler but of course the weather has turned and we've been having a cold spell in Houston for the last few days. I will post back once it warms back up to confirm fix.