Climate Control Recirc Button Woes - 2015 Kia K900 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Climate Control Recirc Button Woes - 2015 Kia K900 Long-Term Road Test

The Recirc button in our 2015 Kia K900 didn't always isolate the cabin from offensive smells, and oftentimes it didn't go into Recirc at all.

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grijon

Serious question (not snark): is there no odor-neutralizing cabin air filter? Having never owned a modern luxury car, I guess I've just been assuming that such vehicles don't have this issue.

cgrocho47

Methane is odorless.

gslippy

I think you turned recirc on too late, and then the odor was trapped in the car, simply recirculating around.

You're better off just leaving it on fresh air, and then the cabin will flush when you're past the problem.

zimtheinvader

I agree, if you don't hit the recirc button before you smell it then you are just trapping the smell inside the car and recirculating it.

But I also agree that I don't like being overridden in my heater control options. Sometimes when it is cold I like to have heat come out the floor at at the windshield and I don't like how all modern cars automatically turn on the A/C and block out recirc then either. I don't need the air dried out and if I do I am capable of turning the A/C back on but at least give me the option of shutting it off.

Sadly, that is just another manifestation of idiot proofing because if they let you manually override these things people would be complaining that they weren't working properly after overriding them.

misterfusion

Dan: My car (2013 Dodge) refuses to engage recirc if only the floor vents are active. In other words (assuming Defrost is off), if either floor/face or face-only mode is active, then I can engage recirc. But not in floor-only mode, and regardless of whether A/C is on or off. It's really annoying, and I wonder if there is some particular safety-nanny thinking behind it.

yellowbal

I still prefer the straightforward manual settings, but then again I also prefer manual transmissions so maybe I'm just weird.

fordson1

You're not weird - people with auto climate control invariably spend lots of time and energy trying to override them.

misterfusion

Just to qualify, my reference above is when using manual controls. (My car has auto climate control, but I never use it, can't stand it.) Even in fully manual control, the system does not allow recirc when in floor-only mode.

tubbahzaki

I've found in Hyundai/Kia's auto climate control vehicles, you'll have to shut it off or increase/decrease fan speed to be able to set recirc on or off.

ebeaudoin

I despise Automatic climate control. I can't understand why manual climate is seen as inferior.

benson2175

I love the auto climate control in my s-class. In fact I could never go back to manual control. It does let me recirc when I want to and it has 2 charcoal filters for the cabin; a passive filter that filters the incoming air as well as an "activated" charcoal filter that you activate with the push of a button that removes odors. If it senses a lot of pollution it will turn on the "activated" filter on it's own. Only happened once driving through fog. Usually I just set the temperature I want and forget it. Sometimes after a run or if I'm particularly heated up I'll order up some cold air blown on my face; It's just an easy button away. Since the KIA isn't a "real" luxury car but a Korean knock off I would expect the details is where the ball is dropped.

misterfusion

I dunno, the long-term Nissan Quest minivan from a couple years ago had a similar automatic "air cleaner" filter system, and they reported that it worked well -- and it was tested in the same location (infamous to Californians) as described in this post.