Modern vehicles are packed with countless features and controls, making it difficult to grasp what they all do. One button in particular shows a curved arrow, almost completing a full circle, inside the outline of a car. What it does isn't immediately clear, and one online guide claims "99% of people get it wrong." Social media discussions are packed with drivers asking, "What is this button in my car?" and "When should I use it?" One motorist said: "It has to do with AC, I know that, and the car gets colder when I press it, but I don't know what it's called."
What the Button Does
Thankfully, there are just as many people online explaining what the button does and when and why motorists should press it. There are also times when it won't work. The button being discussed is the air re-circulation control. It links to your vehicle's air conditioning system. When pressed, you're instructing your car's climate control to recirculate the air already inside your vehicle, rather than pulling in fresh air from outside to heat or cool, reports the Express.
When to Use the Recirculation Button
It's especially useful, for example, if you want to keep out external pollutants like smoke from a fire, dust from a building site, or exhaust fumes from other vehicles when you're caught in a traffic jam or a tunnel. It's also helpful on particularly hot days - when activated, your car will recirculate the cooler air already inside your vehicle instead of continuously pulling in warmer air from outside and working harder to cool it down.
The Capturing Cars YouTube account, which boasts 10,500 subscribers, claims "99% of people use this button all wrong" and explains how to use it properly: "It is a recirculation button. Essentially, it shuts off the vents to the outside of the car, trapping the air that's in it. So, when should you use it? On a very hot day, or very cold day, that is when you will first want to use this button.
"Let's assume it's really hot outside, so you've turned your air conditioning to cold... what you will want to do is press this button. That will then trap the air inside the car, and it will get colder on each pass, or hotter if you've got the heating turned on. If you don't have it turned on, you are bringing in boiling hot air from outside and trying to make it cold, and it takes a bit longer. Turning that button on will accelerate the process of cooling down the car."
Another driver commented: "Speaking from personal experience, I drive by a rock quarry every day on my way to work, and I make sure the recirculation button is turned on because I do not want my car sucking in all that dirty outside air and pumping it into the cab."
When to Turn the Button Off
The Capturing Cars YouTube account explains: "Let's say you're in the car, you've got wet clothing because you've been caught out in the rain - if your car is fogging up, which, let's face it, we've all experienced, that is when you'll want to turn this off [because] you are trapping humidity inside the car." He continued by noting that if you set your airflow to focus on the windscreen to de-fog it, the air recirculation button would no longer work.
Scrap merchants Ace Car Breakers also caution that prolonged use is best avoided. They said: "It's important not to rely on it all the time. As us humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, it's crucial that we let the fresh air in too - fresh air is vital for preventing the air inside from becoming stale and ensuring there's adequate oxygen levels and the CO2 is vented. You should therefore make a point of switching back to fresh air mode regularly."
