sdraza1

I turn on the ac when it is hot but turn it off when it starts becoming too cold and keep on doing that during my traveling. Is it harmful for the ac or car in some way? thanks

ezone

It was designed to be turned on and off manually...... You aren't doing anything it was not designed to do. I don't see any harm in it.
But you might wear the letters off the AC button

I tend to do the same thing though.



When you get too cold, you could adjust the temperature control just a wee bit higher too.

sdraza1

Perhaps you mean turn the circular **** (which we use to switch between hot and cold air) clockwise, will it set the thermostat to a lower level? I used to think that when ac is on, turning it clockwise will mix the hot air from engine with cold air of ac and will just waste the work done by ac.

ezone

Your thinking is exactly correct.....(and I'm pretty sure I think the same way as you. I'd prefer to alter the AC temps than mix in heated air.)

The AC system tries to keep the evaporator core at around 37-40*F by cycling the compressor off and on at those temps....regulated by the AC thermostat. We have no provisions to change that.
Some of Hondas Hybrids had an AC control that said ECON that did just this.

Sometimes I wish Honda had given all their cars the ECON setting for the AC, that raised the evap core thermostat operating temp range by several (maybe 10?) degrees F.

Mazda had this feature on old 626/MX6 for several years. Biggest problem I saw was people didn't know what it did..."I pushed ALL the buttons and it's STILL not very cold!"
LOL

Your personal comfort temperature is adjusted with the dial, that blends in hot air from the heater core as you described in the latter part of the reply.
You know the compressor runs automatically when the front defrogger is selected, right?




Job #1 of any AC system is to dry the air.

HTH