I’ve always heard that you should do this to cool down the vehicle prior to getting in it-presumably to let out hot air? Does this work or is it a bit of “common knowledge” that’s untrue or misunderstood?
Of course it works… Have you ever tried it?
The interior of a car parked in a sunny spot can get much hotter than the outside temperature, due to a greenhouse effect. Rolling down the windows, or opening a door, and waiting a bit lets the temperature equalize.
Air confined in a sun-baked car can get very hot. I’ve watched the ripples of hot air exiting my car when I open the door on a hot day. Observation tells me that yes, opening the windows/doors will allow the interior of the car to cool a bit. The windows should also be down when you start the A/C. It gives the hot air someplace to go, since the cold air will tend to drop, forcing the hotter air out through the windows. Personally, I toggle the sun roof to get the hot air out of my car.
If it’s hotter in the car than outside the car, of course allowing the two sets of air to exchange will cool down the car and (very slightly) heat up the air.
Former desert dweller here. Open the windows, get in, drive a minute or two to really get the super-heated air exchanged with outdoor ambient air, then close up. It’s assumed the AC was set to full blast when you bought the car and it has not been reset since.
I have tried it but I guess I just wasn’t able to notice the difference.
Opening the windows, waiting 15 seconds then getting in is virtually useless. Opening the windows, waiting a couple minutes if there’s a good breeze or 10 minutes if there’s not is more useful. Driving a mile with windows down is even more useful than hoping you’ve got a breeze.
Lastly, what kind of temps are we talking about? If it’s 80F outside and 83F inside the car that’s sat for 15 minutes in partial shade that’s a very different situation from when it’s 90F outside, 125F inside, and the car has sat in the clear direct sun for 4 hours.
Where do you live? There’s hot weather and then there’s hot weather. Even here in Cleveland where I live, if it’s 80 degrees out and my car has been sitting in the sun, it’s going to easily be 110+ in the car. Rolling the windows down even for a few seconds will dump that superheated air out quickly. You’d definitely notice the difference vs if you just opened the door and hopped in.
A lot depends on how still the air is. If the air is fairly still then the air that has been heated inside the car won’t easily exchange with the cooler air outside the car. On the other hand, it doesn’t take too much wind to get a good exchange of air.
When I park my car at work, the inside of the car is significantly cooler if I leave the windows cracked.
There is also this. How hot the inside of the car is matters. If you open the windows, even if there is a good breeze to help exchange the hot air inside the car with the cool air outside, the seats, dash, etc. are all still going to be hot. Not only will the car still feel hot, but all of that heat is going to transfer from the hot parts of the interior into that cooler air that you just let in.
Texas resident here. Open up doors on both sides of the car. This draft lets the hot air inside escape much faster.
The converse is true in serious winter.
Don’t open both doors at once and let an icy blast instantly blow all the warm air out. Have each person get in or out in turn, especially if it’s windy. The extra few seconds somebody is waiting outside in the cold for the other person to finish is nothing compared to the benefit of keeping much more of the warm air inside the car.
86 degrees as of now, central PA, the car’s in the middle of a parking lot with no shade.
The trick I learned was to open a passenger side window, then open and close the drivers side door a few times to pump out the bad air and let in the good air.
I don’t really use it, but I heard about it.
Leaving the windows open while you drive and wait for the AC to start blowing lots of cold air, that’s a big yes.
Former Albuquerque dweller here.
You should open all the doors not just the windows, and let the car air out for a few minutes before closing them (except driver’s door obviously) and climbing in. Then open all the windows and drive around that way for the first five minutes. Run the A/C on after ~ 3 minutes while the windows are still down.
You must have heard all the stories of kids and pets dying inside hot cars when the windows are closed yes?? Obviously it can get way hotter inside then the temperature outside.
Of course I have heard of them. I just wondered if it was correct. I’ve also been told you can inoculate yourself against poison ivy by brushing it on your arm a few times. We’ve all got odd bits of advice floating around in our heads, I guess.
Current Albuquerque resident here: opening all the doors for a few minutes before getting in helps, but the seats, steering wheel, and shifter will still be approximately a million degrees. We have an ongoing low-level controversy in our household about leaving the windows cracked an inch or two when the car is parked. Mr. Legend feels it helps keep the car a little cooler (a thousand degrees instead of a million), but I think the raised odds that the car will simply be missing when you get back is not worth it.
Obviously parking in shade will help.
You can tell you live in a hot mostly cloudless climate when an empty parking lot fills up not from the spaces closest to the building to farthest, but rather from the most shady to least shady.
For those with no desert living experience, I’m not in any sense kidding.
I usually assume it melted if it’s missing.