The Secret Button That Cools Your Car Quickly

Sometimes you have no choice but to park your car in direct sunlight on a hot summer’s day. In those situations, it doesn’t take long for temperatures inside the vehicle to skyrocket to 140 degrees or higher. When you hop back in, your first instinct may be to crank the AC as high as it goes to get the temperature back down to a comfortable level — but AC alone is not the most efficient method for cooling your car. There’s actually a “secret” button that helps the interior cool down fast. Here’s what you need to know about this solution that’s hiding in plain sight.

The Air Recirculation Button

It’s likely that you don’t know exactly what every button  on your car’s dashboard actually does. But if there’s one potentially unfamiliar feature that you should know about, it’s the air recirculation button, which is typically located near the AC controls. It depicts the silhouette of a car with a U-turn-shaped arrow inside, and it’s the key to cooling down your vehicle as efficiently as possible. (If you don’t see this button on your dash, it could be because some modern vehicles no longer have a physical button and rely on sensors to monitor the temperature and humidity inside the car instead.)

The air recirculation button prevents warm outside air from being sucked into the car and instead recirculates air that’s already inside the cabin. That means once you turn on the AC, wait for it to get cold, and press that button, it will push the cooler air around the interior of the car, lowering the temperature quickly and efficiently. 

The logic here is simple: It takes far less time to recirculate cold air than it does to repeatedly cool down hot air pulled in from the outside. By blocking new air from being sucked into the car, you’re speeding up the cooling process while using the least amount of energy possible, and your car will get cooler the longer you have that button on. As an added benefit, using the button will keep things like traffic exhaust and pollen from getting into your car.

There are times, however, when it’s not ideal to rely on the air recirculation button. It’s less helpful during the winter, as it can recirculate moist air inside the cabin and lead to foggier windows. Also, running the air recirculation button for too long at any time of year increases carbon dioxide levels inside your car, so turn it off as soon as the vehicle is adequately cool.

Other Tips for Cooling Your Car

One of the surest ways to keep your car cool is some simple planning ahead. Try parking in a shady location if possible, or covering your windshield with a reflective sun shade. If you’re forced to park in direct sunlight for any reason, try turning your wheel 180 degrees. That way, when you get back inside, the part of the wheel that you’re more likely to touch will have been in the shade the whole time, and won’t be nearly as hot as the part that was turned toward the sun — so your hands will feel that heat only as long as it takes you to turn the wheel.

Another great tip comes from mathematician Hannah Fry, who advises using fluid dynamics to cool down any car. While you’re still parked, roll down the rear passenger-side window, then rapidly open and shut the driver’s door five to 10 times. This creates a vacuum that sucks hot air out through the open door and draws in more temperate air through the open window. According to Southern Living, your next step should be to hop in the car, roll down all the windows, and blast the AC to push the rest of the warm air out. The car should cool down far quicker thanks to all the warm air you forced out initially.

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