Gladiator Heat

[Anodyne01]

I am a bit annoyed with heat on "Auto" setting. When auto is on the heat only come out of the side vent that shoot into the side of the doors and on top of the dash (defrost vents). If I put the heat on high it takes a while to heat up and doesn't blow at max. The cold air, on the other hand.. when on low and auto, air blows at full out of the dashboard vents. I took it to Jeep and they said it works as expected.

Am I missing something?

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[jwilson2899]

Usually on most auto systems, and older cars that had dedicated settings for AC, vent, heat, etc., the warm air usually comes out of the floor vents and defroster vents (including side windows), and the cool air comes out of the dash vents. Even on my older LJ, I always set it to floor in winter, and as the warm air rises it gets nice an warm in the truck. Seems to work that way for my JT on auto mode, and I haven't had any problem with being warm in it yet.

 

[WXman]

I use the Auto setting exclusively, unless the windshield is heavily frosted. What I've found is that rarely will air ever come out of the dash vents. It's always the floor and a little bit of the defrost vents.

Also, there are vids on YouTube but I've done testing on a JL and a JT using an Oregon Scientific digital thermometer, and the automatic temperature setting will NOT be achieved inside the cabin at the front seats. In fact, after a half hour of driving I still see a variance of up to 20°F between the cabin temperature and the auto climate control setting. It's a pathetic system...worst I've ever had.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Mine is actually pretty good. I had my Silverado 9 years, set the control to auto when I bought it and changed it only when I needed defrost.
Drove my wife nuts as she likes to crank the heat and fan on high - all that does is blow cold air, the heater core will heat when it heats, you can't rush it. My chevy would change fan speed when the heater core warmed up and reduce it when it was warm enough inside.
My JT does similar - again, driving my wife nuts as she believes that running the fan on max on a cold vehicle (15 degrees outside) will warm things up faster. No, it won't. It just makes me COLD. I think mine does a decent job - not nearly as good as the Chevy did but then it was a very sealed vehicle designed for creature comforts.

As far as older cars - no, the heater and AC air went through the same ducts and exited the same vents. I have the heater boxes and pictures of my last two heater core replacements to prove it. Going back to the 1980s, AC and heat exited the same vents because the air went through the same places. Some shut off flow to the heater core when AC was on, others simply moved a door and blocked air flow through the heater core when AC was on. I could get AC or heat out of dash or floor outlets. Many systems did that because they used the AC for defrost mode as well. That dehumidified the air and defogged in warmer weather and helped defrost as well.
The technical diagrams and flow maps generally show them kicking in the AC compressor when you choose defrost.
The JT, I don't know how they handle it, but the vehicles I've worked with AC and heat use the same exits and AC as well as heat is used for defrost mode.

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