Car Expert Shares How to Quickly Cool Down Your Vehicle On Hot Summer Day—All it Takes Is 1 Button

Motor 1

5 days ago

A self-proclaimed car expert is turning heads on TikTok after sharing a surprisingly simple trick to cool down your car faster in the summer heat.
Cole (@6spd.e38), who describes himself as 'a car guy trying to make it online,' recently posted what he called a 'summer tip' for anyone roasting in a parked car. The video, seemingly aimed at drivers without garage parking, had pulled in more than 54,100 views as of this writing.
So, What's the Hack?
When you climb into a scorching car, your first instinct might be to blast the A/C or roll the windows down, but Cole said not so fast.
Instead, he advised rolling the windows down first to vent the hot air. Then, flip the A/C on—but make sure the air recirculation setting is off. (That's the button with a U-turn arrow inside a car icon, usually near the A/C controls.)
'This button, when it's lit up, means it's recirculating the air from inside the vehicle … through the air conditioning,' he explained.
By leaving recirculation off at first, you let the system flush out the hot air. After a few minutes, roll the windows back up, turn recirculation on, and the cabin should cool down much faster.
'Works way better than just cranking the A/C to max and leaving the windows shut,' he added.
Experts Say the Hack Holds Up
Motor1
hasn't tested the tip firsthand, but several car experts say the logic tracks. One YouTuber
backed the idea
, recommending drivers switch off air recirculation on hot days to cool their car faster.
Recirculation mode has its benefits—but not when your car's been sitting in the sun. With it on, the A/C just recycles the already-hot cabin air, forcing the system to work overtime. Turning it off allows the system to pull in outside air, which—even on a sweltering day—is often cooler than what's inside.
As one
Quora
user put it, letting in that fresh air can make a noticeable difference during the first few minutes of cooling.
Of course, recirculation isn't all bad. It's great for blocking out odors or keeping things cool once the cabin's already at a comfortable temp. In winter, though, the strategy changes: Keeping recirculation off helps prevent foggy windows caused by trapped moisture.
In a statement to
Motor1
, Cole explained that the tip is grounded in basic HVAC principles.
'It's simple,' he said. 'The hotter the air is going through the A/C system (of a house or a car), the longer it's going to take to cool it down. Letting out the extremely hot air from inside your car and letting it get to ambient temperature, even if that's 95 degrees outside, is going to speed up cooling down the air inside the car no matter what.'
He added: 'So open the windows or doors, let that super hot air out, pull in air from outside by turning off the recirculation function, and then after a [few] minutes the air inside the car will be the same temperature as outside—as opposed to 120+ degrees like it was when you got into the car, and then you circulate the air inside the car and the A/C works a lot quicker that way.'
Viewers Applaud the Expert for Sharing the Tip
Plenty of drivers were grateful for the easy summer A/C hack, saying they had no idea a simple adjustment could cool their car so quickly.
'Great advice!' one user wrote.
'Omg I never knew this,' another added.
'I love a good tip,' said a third. 'Thanks, man.'
Not everyone was sold, though. A few viewers pointed out limitations, most tied to specific car setups.
'I don't have windows,' one joked.
'Mine won't turn off without also turning off the air conditioning,' another said.
'Wrong! Read your owner's manual,' a third chimed in.
But Cole pushed back: 'I'm literally an HVAC tech, that's how it works best, trust me.'
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