Alright, I took one for the team this morning. Read on:
Conditions: 30 degrees F and Cloudy.
Time: 6:50 AM EST
Location: Driveway where test vehicle had set all night.
Equipment: 2015 Toyota 4Runner SR5, DMM, Old Fluke Temp Probe, Casio G-Shock Watch With Stopwatch, Pad and Pencil, Me.
Set Up:
1. Seat Heater "OFF",
2. Used small piece of folded paper to wedge probe approx. 1/2" into the left center upper vent. Probe not touching anything.
3. Temperature set on "HIGH," all vents including rears left fully open.
4. Left outside vent, left center vent and right center vent pointed at my face.
5. Started truck and let idle at around 1200 rpm. Did not ever hit accelerator.
6. Climbed in to test.
7. Wearing only jeans and sweatshirt so no heavy jacket or gloves.
The Test:
1st Number=Time (minutes) 2nd Number=Temp (degrees F rounded to whole number)
0- 30
1- 31
2- 45
3- 51
4- 73
5- 80
Now this is the temperature on the probe inside of the vent. By around 4:00 I could "feel" the temperature start to rise around me. I removed the probe after the 5:00 mark because I had now measured and documented the temperature rise. I then decided to measure the air temperature around my head so at the 6:30 mark around 6" from my head the air temperature was 72 degrees F. At the 9:15 mark I needed to turn the temperature on the control down because it was getting uncomfortable.
What does this mean? Well, it means nothing really except one person has documented a changing condition instead of just getting on a message board saying "It's too HOT" or "It's too COLD" or "It takes too LONG" or "It's too HEAVY" or "It's too SLOW."
What is comfortable to me might be cold or hot to you guys. If you are like my wife then there is no correct temperature ever.
Anyway, it's documented now. To summarize after 5:00 minutes it's pretty comfortable in the cabin at idle and 30 degrees F ambient.
If you don't believe me fine. You go out in your driveway and go through a test similar to mine and we can compare notes. If you don't want to do that? Then I will call BS.