AC - does anyone have a truck that blows ice cold?

[Rototerrier]

I've been following all the AC posts because a good working AC system is a must in TX. I've had no complaints with how mine has operated but today I broke out the infrared thermometer to check the vent temps after it had cooled off. With fan on low, temp lo, and recirc on it was only making 63 on the driver's center stack and 53 on the passenger's. Looks like I'm right in line with the others. I guess I just don't park in places where the truck gets heat soaked.

I am looking for a cooler air fix though. Heck's it's just barely June.

Heat soaking is really the big issue. If i've had it sitting in the shade or in a garage, it is almost good enough. But if it's been out in the blazing sun, there's just no hope. Gotta keep the fan wide open and it just can't cool everything off.

With the hose clamped and the vent temps in the low 40's, it gets the job done. I've taken my clamp off while I wait for the valve parts to arrive. I drove it in yesterday afternoon's heat and to lunch today in the mid 90's and it just sucks. Now that I know it can blow cold air, going back to warmer air is noticeable.

I'm actually ok with just closing off that heater line. Probably won't need to be that way but 4 months out of the year. Open it back up toward the end of summer. Obviously not optimal, but it isn't that bad.

 

[CCryder500]

No issues with the A/C in mine so far. Blows cold and works as expected.

 

[Billy James]

Mine will freeze you out. I live in Florida and it was high 90's the past two weeks....no problems. Normally I operate on Auto mode. If its really hot outside I will set Auto temperatures setting to around 70 degrees. Once the truck is cool I adjust it to 72-74 degrees. I think the fan is key. When I first turn it on when its hot out, I crank the fan all the way up with the recirculate set to open. Once it begins to cool off I close the recirculate and set the fan to a comfortable level. If I am in the truck for a long period (1 hour or more) I have to keep turning the fan down and the temp up to keep from freezing. I do have the door windows tinted and I think that makes a HUGE difference...with these big windows on this truck its like a greenhouse. I also keep a windshield shade in when its parked.

 

[RedRocketZ28]

Had the opportunity to drive my truck for 12 hours this past weekend. Temps were in the low 80's and ran the AC the entire time. It cooled sufficiently but it's far from the best AC I've felt. My wife's 2017 Hyundai Tucson blows considerably cooler.

One thing I did notice with the Ram as well, is that it sounds like the blend door hangs up for whatever reason and the AC gets warmer, then goes back to being cool again. It sounds like air rushing around near the glove box when this happens, then it gets quieter. Almost like the fan speed increases (but it really doesn't) and then it slows back down. This happened every 20-30 minutes or so it seemed.

I had the dealer look at my blend door a couple of months ago because when it's on the "Floor" setting it still blows air out of the defrost as much as it would if it were selected for defrost/floor or defrost only. They claimed that they tested brand new trucks on the lot and they did the same thing.

I think there is definitely something wrong with it but as long as the AC works sufficiently when the temps increase then I will let it be.​

 

[Rototerrier]

Post some actual temps. I'd be curious what "freeze you out" and "blows cold" equates to in facts.

My wife thinks 80 degrees is cold...it's all subjective.

Your idea of cold and freeze might be 55 or 60 out of the vents. If you post that you are getting 40 out of your vents...that's a different story entirely and would be nice to know.

 

[Rampat]

Had the opportunity to drive my truck for 12 hours this past weekend. Temps were in the low 80's and ran the AC the entire time. It cooled sufficiently but it's far from the best AC I've felt. My wife's 2017 Hyundai Tucson blows considerably cooler.

One thing I did notice with the Ram as well, is that it sounds like the blend door hangs up for whatever reason and the AC gets warmer, then goes back to being cool again. It sounds like air rushing around near the glove box when this happens, then it gets quieter. Almost like the fan speed increases (but it really doesn't) and then it slows back down. This happened every 20-30 minutes or so it seemed.

I had the dealer look at my blend door a couple of months ago because when it's on the "Floor" setting it still blows air out of the defrost as much as it would if it were selected for defrost/floor or defrost only. They claimed that they tested brand new trucks on the lot and they did the same thing.

I think there is definitely something wrong with it but as long as the AC works sufficiently when the temps increase then I will let it be.​

What you’re describing to me sounds like the Auto setting cycling between recirculate on and off. That will cause that sound without increasing fan speed.

 

[RedRocketZ28]

What you’re describing to me sounds like the Auto setting cycling between recirculate on and off. That will cause that sound without increasing fan speed.

I don't use the auto setting and rarely use recirculate. I didn't touch the recirculate button all weekend. I wish it was something that simple though! Ha.

 

[RPeezy]

It was 96 here in deep south Alabama yesterday, and my truck sits out in an asphalt parking lot all day. I have about a 25 minute commute, and with the A/C as low as it will go, it never got comfortable on my drive home. The air coming out of the vents never felt cold. I am extremely unhappy about this. I haven't put a thermometer on it yet, but I'm sure its about the same as everyone else is reporting. Most of the people saying they haven't had any problems are at much higher latitudes (i.e. cooler air temperatures and lower infrared radiation).

 

[Billy James]

Post some actual temps. I'd be curious what "freeze you out" and "blows cold" equates to in facts.

My wife thinks 80 degrees is cold...it's all subjective.

Your idea of cold and freeze might be 55 or 60 out of the vents. If you post that you are getting 40 out of your vents...that's a different story entirely and would be nice to know.

I guess that would make your impression of comfort subjective as well. So, what temperature does Fiat Chrysler claim this system was designed to deliver? Temperature readings are a moot point if we don't know the design intent.

 

[Rampat]

It was 96 here in deep south Alabama yesterday, and my truck sits out in an asphalt parking lot all day. I have about a 25 minute commute, and with the A/C as low as it will go, it never got comfortable on my drive home. The air coming out of the vents never felt cold. I am extremely unhappy about this. I haven't put a thermometer on it yet, but I'm sure its about the same as everyone else is reporting. Most of the people saying they haven't had any problems are at much higher latitudes (i.e. cooler air temperatures and lower infrared radiation).

I’m 45 mins north of Miami and have no issues.

 

[Billy James]

Ok, so just to be fair here I decided to do a little experimenting. Keep in mind that I am using a surface probe for temperatures (because I don't have anything else). In addition, I only operated a total of about 3 minutes. So, the outside air temperature was reading 84.5 degrees (very cool for Florida...it just rained). It was about 95 degrees earlier today. All measurements are in Fahrenheit.

• The truck had been off and sitting outside for at least two hours.
• The driver's A/C duct measured about the same as the outside temperature before I started (84.5).
• The surface temperature of the dashboard above the gauges measured 97.5 degrees before I started.
• I started the truck and selected AUTO and 70 degrees. Within 30 seconds, the duct temperature measured 63.5 degrees.
• I turned the AUTO temperature to 65 degrees and the duct temperature dropped to 62.7 in just a few seconds.
• I then went to LO and the duct temperature went to 60.2 degrees.
• The most significant change I saw was that in the time it took the Radio to play "Beer Never Broke My Heart" by Luke Combs (about 3 minutes and 6 seconds), the dash surface temperature dropped from 97.5 to 78.7 degrees.

So, the question of whether or not the A/C cools the truck rapidly was proved in my opinion. Due to the equipment that I have, surface temperature is the most accurate gauge, and mine dropped 18.8 degrees in about 3 minutes. I think that if I ran this longer with the correct thermometer for the ducts; then the duct temp would probably be much lower.
My guess is that the system is designed to prevent cold soaking/condensation. If the engineers let the duct temp drop to 30 or 40 degrees immediately; then your ducts would be full of condensation and or ice. Our airplane automatic systems kind of work the same way; you can't get full cold right away. If we go to manual in the aircraft and go full cold right away, we get condensation and icing in the ducts. Ice and water in the ducts is not good; especially in these trucks...anyone who has replaced blend doors knows what I'm talking about.
Maybe on my next road trip I'll stick a thermometer in the duct and see where it goes after an hour or so. All I know is that when I leave work in 90 plus degree temperatures; my truck is comfortable by the time I hit the first light (about 1.5 miles and 3 or 4 minutes). I have noticed that the cooled seats appear to make it cooler quicker. So, from my subjective view, the system works adequately. And yes, even though my surface probe only read a low of 60.2 degrees from the duct; it felt cold to me...….so I ended the test.

 

[Rampat]

Ok, so just to be fair here I decided to do a little experimenting. Keep in mind that I am using a surface probe for temperatures (because I don't have anything else). In addition, I only operated a total of about 3 minutes. So, the outside air temperature was reading 84.5 degrees (very cool for Florida...it just rained). It was about 95 degrees earlier today. All measurements are in Fahrenheit.

• The truck had been off and sitting outside for at least two hours.
• The driver's A/C duct measured about the same as the outside temperature before I started (84.5).
• The surface temperature of the dashboard above the gauges measured 97.5 degrees before I started.
• I started the truck and selected AUTO and 70 degrees. Within 30 seconds, the duct temperature measured 63.5 degrees.
• I turned the AUTO temperature to 65 degrees and the duct temperature dropped to 62.7 in just a few seconds.
• I then went to LO and the duct temperature went to 60.2 degrees.
• The most significant change I saw was that in the time it took the Radio to play "Beer Never Broke My Heart" by Luke Combs (about 3 minutes and 6 seconds), the dash surface temperature dropped from 97.5 to 78.7 degrees.

So, the question of whether or not the A/C cools the truck rapidly was proved in my opinion. Due to the equipment that I have, surface temperature is the most accurate gauge, and mine dropped 18.8 degrees in about 3 minutes. I think that if I ran this longer with the correct thermometer for the ducts; then the duct temp would probably be much lower.
My guess is that the system is designed to prevent cold soaking/condensation. If the engineers let the duct temp drop to 30 or 40 degrees immediately; then your ducts would be full of condensation and or ice. Our airplane automatic systems kind of work the same way; you can't get full cold right away. If we go to manual in the aircraft and go full cold right away, we get condensation and icing in the ducts. Ice and water in the ducts is not good; especially in these trucks...anyone who has replaced blend doors knows what I'm talking about.
Maybe on my next road trip I'll stick a thermometer in the duct and see where it goes after an hour or so. All I know is that when I leave work in 90 plus degree temperatures; my truck is comfortable by the time I hit the first light (about 1.5 miles and 3 or 4 minutes). I have noticed that the cooled seats appear to make it cooler quicker. So, from my subjective view, the system works adequately. And yes, even tough my surface probe only read a low of 60.2 degrees from the duct; it felt cold to me...….so I ended the test.

I feel the exact same way, might even cool quicker than that or at least it feels that way.

Quick question....what is a blend door? I keep hearing this term but don’t know what it refers to.

 

[RPeezy]

I’m 45 mins north of Miami and have no issues.

On average, it's hotter here than Miami during the summer. It was cooling a lot better at 88 degrees than it is now in the mid 90s.

 

[Rampat]

On average, it's hotter here than Miami during the summer. It was cooling a lot better at 88 degrees than it is now in the mid 90s.

It was a record high 95 yesterday. 92 today

 

[Edwards]

I feel the exact same way, might even cool quicker than that or at least it feels that way.

Quick question....what is a blend door? I keep hearing this term but don’t know what it refers to.

Inside your dash you have your heater core making heat and your condenser making cold (when AC is running). Air can move between both so the blend door "blends" the air so you can regulate the temp you desire. If it doesn't shut off the heater core, that heat makes its way into the cabin making the AC's job that much harder - and less effective.

 

[Billy James]

I feel the exact same way, might even cool quicker than that or at least it feels that way.

Quick question....what is a blend door? I keep hearing this term but don’t know what it refers to.

There is a box under your dashboard that has flaps (blend doors) that direct the flow of air. This is how you get floor, upper, defrost, zone selection etc. In addition to the flow doors; there is a blend door that separates your heater core from the air conditioning evaporator. There is also a blend door for recirculate that allows outside air in or moves to just recirculate the air inside the truck. In the older RAMS, the blend doors were plastic and would break with age. To fix them you either had to hack the air box and tape it up when you were done or tear out the entire dashboard. I elected to tear out the dash on which was probably easier in the long run because access was better. If your air conditioning ducts were to go full cold to 30 or 40 degrees; then condensation would build in the ducts. Not to mention your evaporator would probably freeze, the moisture in the ducts could possibly freeze (along with possible duct expansion) and as a result cause the blend doors to break and freeze . I would expect the engineers to design the system to prevent damage; which means only allowing gradual cooling rather than instant cooling.

 

[parnine]

... Temperature readings are a moot point if we don't know the design intent...

See post on page 2 of this thread (or the other threads on same subject - search is your friend LOL)

 

[Billy James]

See post on page 2 of this thread (or the other threads on same subject - search is your friend LOL)

Thanks, missed that. I'm not sure search looks in attachments. But anyway, 55 degrees seems to be the expected outlet for the temperatures I experience here. Based upon my very short test today; I would say that my systems is putting out exactly as expected (since I hit around 60 in three minutes without doing all the warm up steps). It looks like the lowest temperature should be 45 degrees when the ambient temperature is around 70 degrees. I think there is an unrealistic expectation from some people here. If someone thinks they are going to get 40 degrees out of this system....its just not gonna happen. I know I'm a Floridian; but 45 to 64 degrees is pretty cold air. I think that maybe some of these comparisons are not taking into consideration the sheer volume of air that has to be displaced in these trucks to cool them off; not to mention all the big windows.

 

[dstwyatt]

I have had my truck in 3x for the a/c. For me, the a/c works, but just not good enough. I keep a hvac thermometer in it, and have routinely checked it against my 2014 toyota venza, 2008 toyota rav4, 2017 f250, and a friends 2018 gmc 1500. the Ram blows a full 10deg warmer than ALL of those vehicles. The best mine will do is 50deg....and not even that if it is over 90 outside. I have a ramcares case open, however, they have instructed the dealer to NOT attempt anymore repairs as it is working "to specification". I am very frustrated that a 50k vehicle will not blow cold enough to be comfortable when it is really hot outside....especially when all my other vehicles do just fine. I'm going to start gathering comparable "data" from other vehicles and turn the heat up on Ram!!!!

 

[RPeezy]

It was a record high 95 yesterday. 92 today

Ah, didn't see the location in your profile. So about like us then.