Help me understand the vent / recirc operation

[ack154]

My main question: does this car actually allow fresh air into the car when the recirc and HVAC are OFF?

If not... how the hell do I get it to do that? Every other car I've ever had has allowed fresh air into the cabin when recirc is off and the HVAC system is also off. The Mach-E doesn't seem to do this - at least not that I can detect. What am I missing? I just want some air to flow into the cabin when the HVAC is off.

I've tried to search for this but seem to get a ton of complaints about the recirc automatically turning off - and I don't really care about that.

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[Mach-Lee]

For fresh air only, set the temp to LO, turn off A/C, and set fan speed to desired level (1 or higher).

HVAC off will close the fresh air door so no outside air enters.

 

[ack154]

For fresh air only, set the temp to LO, turn off A/C, and set fan speed to desired level.

HVAC off will close the fresh air door so no outside air enters.

That is super weird. Or maybe it's just a Ford thing? I'll try it out and see what happens. Though it still seems a little strange that the fan has to be on at all - that's part of what I'm trying to avoid in terms of efficiency (though yes, a fan on super low will be super low power consumption). But at least the heating or cooling wouldn't be on.

Thanks for the insight.

 

[azerik]

The air intake for the fresh air isn't in a place it gets direct air flow to push air in. It's actually under the hood, under the plastic cowl. That's why you need the fan to actually suck the air in. If anything there'd be a slight vacuum pulling air out of the car if you didn't have the cabin filter in place. It'd act like a 'cowl induction hood'.

 

[ack154]

The air intake for the fresh air isn't in a place it gets direct air flow to push air in. It's actually under the hood, under the plastic cowl. That's why you need the fan to actually suck the air in. If anything there'd be a slight vacuum pulling air out of the car if you didn't have the cabin filter in place. It'd act like a 'cowl induction hood'.

Guess that makes some sense as far as having to run the motor.

Tested this morning and it seems to behave as described (and I saw 0% climate usage confirming there was no actual heating/cooling activity happening).

I assume if I kept the fan on OFF and maybe cracked a rear window, I should expect that to pull some air through, no? I doubt that would be preferable to just using the fan on low/1... but still (not to mention the noise from the open window would be far more annoying).

Is any of this outlined in the owner's manual? I read through the HVAC sections of the 2023 manual and didn't appear to catch any of this detail.

 

[RickMachE]

No, fan off is no air.

 

[eBullitt]

Is any of this outlined in the owner's manual?

I'm very thankful for this forum! I will also give this suggestion a try because I had the same question on the flow of fresh air with the HVAC off. I personally couldn't find the answer in the owner's manual. I also tried Ford text support and their response didn't work.... giving them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the way i asked the question wasn't clear

 

[Jack Roberts]

I'm very thankful for this forum! I will also give this suggestion a try because I had the same question on the flow of fresh air with the HVAC off. I personally couldn't find the answer in the owner's manual. I also tried Ford text support and their response didn't work.... giving them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the way i asked the question wasn't clear

Where do you go to find fresh air?

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