Air conditioning performance

[RBRK]

The sunroof is a huge reason you cant get cooled down, if you have one you need to get it tinted with ceramic tint, i went 50% its barely darker than stock which is what I wanted. I was ready to get rid of the truck before, if the sun shade is closed or not, its still hot without the tint. The A/C is different between the drivers and passenger side for sure 6 or so degrees, it does cool down and the pass side blows low 40's once cooled off, but it really takes a while to get there.

 

[TalibanHater]

The sunroof is a huge reason you cant get cooled down, if you have one you need to get it tinted with ceramic tint, i went 50% its barely darker than stock which is what I wanted. I was ready to get rid of the truck before, if the sun shade is closed or not, its still hot without the tint. The A/C is different between the drivers and passenger side for sure 6 or so degrees, it does cool down and the pass side blows low 40's once cooled off, but it really takes a while to get there.

Ceramic tint is amazing. Got it on our highlander when we moved to Phoenix. Makes a huge difference. I'll get ceramic for the Ram when i finally pull the trigger.

 

[19RamLimited]

I was really thinking there was an issue. I got the windows tinted. That helped tremendously. I also paid closer attention and it seems on auto it works but at a lower speed because id say after 10 min the blower seems to come alive and really starts to cool off. I don know if its by design or what. Because it still splits to my feet and vents at first start unless I manually override it but if I leave on auto what I described happens. Either way it seems to be working ok now. I don't know If im used to it now or its improving. The temps here have gone down a bit and believe it or not there is a tremendous difference from 110 and above to 97-100.

Either way I have to have an HVAC system that performs well Im a wuss in the heat. Ill keep an eye on the performance and these forums to see if anyone comes across any further info on the HVAC system.

 

[392DCGC]

The sunroof is a huge reason you cant get cooled down, if you have one you need to get it tinted with ceramic tint, i went 50% its barely darker than stock which is what I wanted. I was ready to get rid of the truck before, if the sun shade is closed or not, its still hot without the tint. The A/C is different between the drivers and passenger side for sure 6 or so degrees, it does cool down and the pass side blows low 40's once cooled off, but it really takes a while to get there.

I find that hard to believe. The 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit we traded in for the RAM also had a pano sunroof. As long as the shade was closed, it was fine. My Tesla even has a FULL glass roof... it has great heat rejection properties (about 1% VLT, and IR & UV coated), but it doesn't matter after it's been sitting in the sun for several hours. The roof is basically black from how dark it's tinted - it gets hot enough to burn the crap out of your skin if you touch it (from the inside). That heat radiates into the cabin until you get moving at speed to cool it down, or let the AC run for a bit.

The problem is the air temperature coming from the vents just isn't low enough. I haven't measured numbers yet, but the passenger side vents are definitely colder than driver side. My blower is pushing plenty of air.

I took a long drive yesterday. It's about 100 degrees here on average by the middle of the day. After about 15 minutes of driving on the highway, the truck is comfortable and I found myself setting the temp at 72, which maintained the cabin just fine. Maybe sitting at idle doesn't produce cold enough air. Remote starting the truck is nearly useless. It can sit there for 10 minutes and it's still warm when I get inside. The air directly at the vent is cool, but not cold... once the air reaches my face, it's not cool enough whatsoever.

 

[jschneider910]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't auto climate control revert to recirculate when on high (i.e., getting in the vehicle after a day in the sun)? The delta T between the interior temp (110* +) and the recirculated air can only be so much. In other words, if its 100 out it's not going to spit out air that's 60 degrees cooler.

 

[RBRK]

I find that hard to believe. The 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit we traded in for the RAM also had a pano sunroof. As long as the shade was closed, it was fine. My Tesla even has a FULL glass roof... it has great heat rejection properties (about 1% VLT, and IR & UV coated), but it doesn't matter after it's been sitting in the sun for several hours. The roof is basically black from how dark it's tinted - it gets hot enough to burn the crap out of your skin if you touch it (from the inside). That heat radiates into the cabin until you get moving at speed to cool it down, or let the AC run for a bit.

The problem is the air temperature coming from the vents just isn't low enough. I haven't measured numbers yet, but the passenger side vents are definitely colder than driver side. My blower is pushing plenty of air.

I took a long drive yesterday. It's about 100 degrees here on average by the middle of the day. After about 15 minutes of driving on the highway, the truck is comfortable and I found myself setting the temp at 72, which maintained the cabin just fine. Maybe sitting at idle doesn't produce cold enough air. Remote starting the truck is nearly useless. It can sit there for 10 minutes and it's still warm when I get inside. The air directly at the vent is cool, but not cold... once the air reaches my face, it's not cool enough whatsoever.

Do you have the sunroof on your Ram? You can feel the heat radiating from the roof even with the shade closed after sitting in the sun. . With the tint it’s reduced a lot doesn’t even seem hot at all. It makes a difference I did the ft windows first that was noticeable then I could feel the heat from the closed sunroof shade. The passenger vent blows low to mid 40s I’ve never seen under 50 on the drivers which is either a design problem, a door sync or software issue or it’s low on refrigerant. Most cars that have low refrigerant have a difference between passenger and drivers side vent temps.

 

[go-ram]

"An improved HVAC system generates 25% more airflow at lower noise levels while also giving rear passengers 50% more airflow than current models." That quote is from an article I wrote January 15th. FCA says this is an all new HVAC system and flows more air than the 4th gen trucks.

Thank you for that. It's exactly what one would expect from an all-new vehicle that is as important to FCA's future as the Ram is, and costs as much as these vehicles cost.

Ram goes on and on about the premium cabin, and it is, but all of the woodgrain & fancy leather stitching and 12" screens in the world won't help them overcome a significant performance problem like the AC system of many of these initial production models. If they don't fess-up and get out in front of this issue, they're really going to tarnish the brand, and their reputations as engineers.

Every single case of corporate goodwill & public perception ever studied has proven that a company with a problem like this needs to fess-up and face the issue head-on, and with full disclosure and integrity. My wallet is staying closed until Ram/FCA proves it has that level of integrity. Ram would do well to remember that the 2019 Silverados are now shipping to dealers.

 

[go-ram]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't auto climate control revert to recirculate when on high (i.e., getting in the vehicle after a day in the sun)? The delta T between the interior temp (110* +) and the recirculated air can only be so much. In other words, if its 100 out it's not going to spit out air that's 60 degrees cooler.

Yes, the delta-T makes a difference of course (i.e. the AC system can only cool so many degrees below the ambient air outside). But I and many other people here have posted that the air coming out of the vents of their 2019 Ram 1500 never got anywhere near as cold as the air coming out of the vents in their older vehicle right next to it, despite the fact that the 2019 Ram's AC ran for a much longer time.

 

[BostonBlueRam]

Do you have the sunroof on your Ram? You can feel the heat radiating from the roof even with the shade closed after sitting in the sun. . With the tint it’s reduced a lot doesn’t even seem hot at all. It makes a difference I did the ft windows first that was noticeable then I could feel the heat from the closed sunroof shade. The passenger vent blows low to mid 40s I’ve never seen under 50 on the drivers which is either a design problem, a door sync or software issue or it’s low on refrigerant. Most cars that have low refrigerant have a difference between passenger and drivers side vent temps.

Does the sunroof come with tined out of the factory? Or is it just not that tinted and thats why you guys use ceramic tint?

 

[Jared B]

Thank you for that. It's exactly what one would expect from an all-new vehicle that is as important to FCA's future as the Ram is, and costs as much as these vehicles cost.

Ram goes on and on about the premium cabin, and it is, but all of the woodgrain & fancy leather stitching and 12" screens in the world won't help them overcome a significant performance problem like the AC system of many of these initial production models. If they don't fess-up and get out in front of this issue, they're really going to tarnish the brand, and their reputations as engineers.

Every single case of corporate goodwill & public perception ever studied has proven that a company with a problem like this needs to fess-up and face the issue head-on, and with full disclosure and integrity. My wallet is staying closed until Ram/FCA proves it has that level of integrity. Ram would do well to remember that the 2019 Silverados are now shipping to dealers.

I agree with you 100%. RAMCARES is asking a bunch of people in the AC threads that are having problems for their VINS to compile, it looks like they are proactively trying to do something about it at least.

 

[392DCGC]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't auto climate control revert to recirculate when on high (i.e., getting in the vehicle after a day in the sun)? The delta T between the interior temp (110* +) and the recirculated air can only be so much. In other words, if its 100 out it's not going to spit out air that's 60 degrees cooler.

Fan speed, temperature, and recirculate are all different options. Automatic mode determines what to use, but you can set recirculate independently of auto mode. You could easily design the software to turn off recirculate if the interior temperature is higher than the exterior temperature. Once they swap, you could turn recirculate back on. This would probably be the most efficient way to cool the cabin down. I don’t know for sure if that is what RAM is doing, but I do know that I had recirculate turned on in my truck yesterday when I drove it, but today when I remote started it out in the sun and got inside, recirculate was turned off. So, that means they either are intelligently deciding whether or not to keep recirculate turned on during a remote start, or it was just a software glitch and didn’t remember my previous settings - there have been plenty of times I've gotten into the truck and recirculate was kept on as I previously set it.

Do you have the sunroof on your Ram? You can feel the heat radiating from the roof even with the shade closed after sitting in the sun. . With the tint it’s reduced a lot doesn’t even seem hot at all. It makes a difference I did the ft windows first that was noticeable then I could feel the heat from the closed sunroof shade. The passenger vent blows low to mid 40s I’ve never seen under 50 on the drivers which is either a design problem, a door sync or software issue or it’s low on refrigerant. Most cars that have low refrigerant have a difference between passenger and drivers side vent temps.

Yes, I have the panoramic sunroof. And like I mentioned, I’ve had panoramic, and even a full glass roof on several other vehicles and never had any issues like this. The sunroof is not the problem. It’s the poor performance of the air conditioning.

Ram would do well to remember that the 2019 Silverados are now shipping to dealers.

I’m pretty sure if there’s an identifiable issue, a TSB will come out addressing it. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that this issue has come up, and they didn’t catch it in testing, and that buyers have to deal with it until it's fixed. I don’t think there’s much competition with the new Silverado’s though. Their interior is hilariously bad compared to the new RAM.

Does the sunroof come with tined out of the factory? Or is it just not that tinted and thats why you guys use ceramic tint?

It does come tinted from the factory, just not to an extreme level. I think this is good because you have the sunshade there as well if you want darkness, but if you actually want some light to enter the cabin without opening the sunroof, you have that option as well. I find it hard to believe that the sunroof wouldn’t come with some pretty decent heat rejection properties from the factory, but augmenting it with aftermarket window tint should certainly make some difference.

 

[Boatjockey]

Fan speed, temperature, and recirculate are all different options. Automatic mode determines what to use, but you can set recirculate independently of auto mode. You could easily design the software to turn off recirculate if the interior temperature is higher than the exterior temperature. Once they swap, you could turn recirculate back on. This would probably be the most efficient way to cool the cabin down. I don’t know for sure if that is what RAM is doing, but I do know that I had recirculate turned on in my truck yesterday when I drove it, but today when I remote started it out in the sun and got inside, recirculate was turned off. So, that means they either are intelligently deciding whether or not to keep recirculate turned on during a remote start, or it was just a software glitch and didn’t remember my previous settings - there have been plenty of times I've gotten into the truck and recirculate was kept on as I previously set it.


Yes, I have the panoramic sunroof. And like I mentioned, I’ve had panoramic, and even a full glass roof on several other vehicles and never had any issues like this. The sunroof is not the problem. It’s the poor performance of the air conditioning.


I’m pretty sure if there’s an identifiable issue, a TSB will come out addressing it. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that this issue has come up, and they didn’t catch it in testing, and that buyers have to deal with it until it's fixed. I don’t think there’s much competition with the new Silverado’s though. Their interior is hilariously bad compared to the new RAM.


It does come tinted from the factory, just not to an extreme level. I think this is good because you have the sunshade there as well if you want darkness, but if you actually want some light to enter the cabin without opening the sunroof, you have that option as well. I find it hard to believe that the sunroof wouldn’t come with some pretty decent heat rejection properties from the factory, but augmenting it with aftermarket window tint should certainly make some difference.

Checked with my very well qualified tint installer regarding tinting the pano roof. His shop does work for several local dealerships so he has a ton of experience. He advised against tinting the pano glass. There is a pretty good potential that if the glass got hot enough it could shatter. The way I understand it is that the roof panel is designed to let a certain amount of heat through the glass. The tint would reflect the heat back into the glass and cause it to shatter under certain conditions. He will not tint the roof panels unless the customer signs a liability waiver. Here in Texas when the temps reach well over a 100 degrees that potential is much higher that in colder climates. He advised that there is plenty of evidence of this issue online if anyone cares to verify it.

 

[Blazn]

The tint would reflect the heat back into the glass and cause it to shatter under certain conditions. He will not tint the roof panels unless the customer signs a liability waiver. Here in Texas when the temps reach well over a 100 degrees that potential is much higher that in colder climates. He advised that there is plenty of evidence of this issue online if anyone cares to verify it.

I've had no problems with any of the ceramic tint panos I've had in the last 4 years in the middle of TX (knock on wood)

I don't see how that would be any different than any other window in a vehicle being tinted, logically...I've had vehicles in much hotter climates in the sandbox with limo tint without problems.

But you got my curiosity peaked...if my truck has glass all over the cabin you best believe I'll be back here posting

 

[TalibanHater]

Sounds like nonsense. A local, reputable

Checked with my very well qualified tint installer regarding tinting the pano roof. His shop does work for several local dealerships so he has a ton of experience. He advised against tinting the pano glass. There is a pretty good potential that if the glass got hot enough it could shatter. The way I understand it is that the roof panel is designed to let a certain amount of heat through the glass. The tint would reflect the heat back into the glass and cause it to shatter under certain conditions. He will not tint the roof panels unless the customer signs a liability waiver. Here in Texas when the temps reach well over a 100 degrees that potential is much higher that in colder climates. He advised that there is plenty of evidence of this issue online if anyone cares to verify it.

A local, reputable tint installer that tints lambos, McLaren's etc has zero issues tinting roof glass.

 

[I Love Grits]

I think the pano roof shattering due to tint is an urban myth. I did quite a bit of reading around before tinting mine due to the number of postings claiming problems, but could never find anyone that actually had a problem. It was all hearsay.

 

[RBRK]

Ya, I’ve read that too, that’s why I held off. Then I asked around and locals here said it’s a urban myth. Who knows but I couldn’t stand the heat any more and figured what the hell and did it. Best money spent for me. If it shatters I will drive to the dealer after replacement and and trade it in. That roof isnt worth the heat to me without the tint.

 

[Blazn]

I feel like it's one of those things that tint shops dont like to do because it's awkward...and some might try saying that to squeeze out more dineros.

I just scoured a tint forumn and even the installers are saying they heard that but have not experience any problems in the last decade with that

 

[Jus Cruisin]

Checked with my very well qualified tint installer regarding tinting the pano roof. His shop does work for several local dealerships so he has a ton of experience. He advised against tinting the pano glass. There is a pretty good potential that if the glass got hot enough it could shatter. The way I understand it is that the roof panel is designed to let a certain amount of heat through the glass. The tint would reflect the heat back into the glass and cause it to shatter under certain conditions. He will not tint the roof panels unless the customer signs a liability waiver. Here in Texas when the temps reach well over a 100 degrees that potential is much higher that in colder climates. He advised that there is plenty of evidence of this issue online if anyone cares to verify it.

When Ford brought out the pano-glass in the F150 I checked with my tinter and got the same answer. This was 2016 for me. Now a lot of F150 owners have claimed to do it and I don't recall any of them complaining about busted glass.
I don't think the roof glass needs to meet all of the requirements that the side, windshield and rear glass need to meet.
Once I get back to Florida I'm going to check again and see if he's changed his mind.

 

[Blazn]

When Ford brought out the pano-glass in the F150 I checked with my tinter and got the same answer. This was 2016 for me. Now a lot of F150 owners have claimed to do it and I don't recall any of them complaining about busted glass.
I don't think the roof glass needs to meet all of the requirements that the side, windshield and rear glass need to meet.
Once I get back to Florida I'm going to check again and see if he's changed his mind.

If anything I feel the glass should have more requirements as it's above your head. I've been through several hail storms here and had no chips or cracks and I would imagine the front windshield is the only glass that would suffer more abuse

 

[alow]

I'd hope the pano roof is closer to front windshield toughness compared to the other windows which arent that tough. Knock wood, my AC blew cold enough to get me feeling like turning it down and its 97 degrees outside.