hey, what does the ECONO button do on our heater controls??

 

It bypasses the A/C. In the AUTO mode, the system will pick floor or vent and fan speed as needed. It does this based on sensors such as the ambient temp sensor, the sunload sensor, and the in cabin sensor (plus some others I can't recall) It will ALWAYS run the A/C compressor, unless the outside temperature is too cold, in which case it will not run the A/C so that the evaporator won't freeze up. Without getting into a detailed discussion on how your A/C works, I can tell you that the evaporator is in the dash near the heater core and is responsible for removing heat from your passenger compartment when the A/C is running. It does this by tranferring the heat of the passenger compartment to the R12 or R134 refrigerant circulating through your evaporator. The refrigerant then heads to the compressor, then the condensor (in front of the rad) where the heat is transferred to the air passing over the condensor fins. If it's too cold out and the A/C is running you can actually get ice forming on the evaporator. DEF mode is the same, except the system pics the defroster vents, and your recirculation button won't work (the button with the pic of a car and a circular arrow - stops outside are from entering the car). The ECON mode works just like AUTO in the sense that it will pick fan speed and floor or vent as needed, but it will NOT run the A/C ever.

Just as an aside for those who live in cold climates where the A/C is not run regularly due to the cold weather - you should run the A/C for about 10 minutes once a week or so to circulate the refirgerant. The refrigerant contains lubricating oil which keeps the seals in the A/C system from drying out, and also lubricates the pistons in the compressor. Running it now and again keeps the lube lubricating, seals sealing, and the pistons.....pistoning????

 

basically, econ is using heat from our engine to heat the air which it then sends through to you. I never uses the a\c. A\c heat creates warm air and then sends it through and will make cold air too if it gets too hot. Econ saves gas

 

In a nutshell, ECON makes sure the A/C never runs, and the climate control tries its best to regulate the interior temperature without the help of A/C. As you can imagine, it's not going to do so well if you try to cool off the interior in the Arizona desert in summer...