I bought a 2019 Niro EV a couple weeks ago. I've noticed that after I turn the heat on to warm the car up, then turn the climate system completely OFF, I can feel cold air coming through the dashboard vents and floor vents. I have to physically close the dash vents, and then i can feel the air a little stronger at the floor vents. I've only noticed this once or twice, because I've only used the car at night when it was cold enough to use the heat once or twice. So I haven't really had enough chances to try to troubleshoot it while its happening. I don't think I've ever noticed it happen other times, when I haven't activated the climate system at all. The climate here is mild so I usually don't run it. Any one have any ideas?
Press the recirculate button to stop this. It will go off after some time. But it is pretty long before it does that.
5 minutes. I finally RTFM and found the arcane instructions to turn off this feature on pages 5-113 to 5-114. You are not going to believe the sequence.
Even if I never use the climate controls at all (both AC, Heat, and fan are always off), I notice a lot of cold outside air blowing into the car and on my hands - especially noticeable driving in the cold night. Only way to stop it was to manually close the vents. Have not tried recirculate button to see if it makes any difference even with everything off.
I followed the instructions and turned off the auto circulate today. Thank you for finding the option. Glad the Kia engineers programmed the option to control the auto circulation.
I tried this and it worked. Although it seems backwards to me. If the recirculate button light is off, that is when I feel the air coming through. If I push the recirculate button and the light comes on, then the air stops moving through the vent. I may try the instructions posted by David T in Silicon Valley to see how that works out.
All cars are like this. With recirculate off (and the fan off) the motion of the car through the air creates some ram pressure at the intake to the air system and there is a slight draft. With recirculate turned on, the air system is sealed off from the outside world. Auto circulation means it automatically opens to the outside air when it is cold to help dehumidify the interior. The assumption (correctly) is that this will reduce misting inside the windshield when it is cold outside and a human is in the car humidifying the air with its damp lung tissue. THIS silly human will put up with a little misting to avoid cold air coming in so he wants to be able to keep the vent to the outside closed until he is good and ready to open it.