So yes, maximum cooling and blue setting will give you better cooling as the circuit remains closed and you are getting air directly from the efforts of the air conditioner. Having the dial at neutral or red means an external circuit is involved and you are introducing "unprocessed" air thus if ambient temperatures are higher than your desired temps then you will not get the maximum cooling effect. Eg aircon in your home on max cooling but someone has left a door or window open.

x5mad,

When you say the system mixes in "external" air (two posts up), do you mean outside air, or air recirculating from the inside the vehicle?

Outside air ingress is controlled by the recirculating button (either on, or automatic) and not by the dash temperature adjustment control.

x5mad is correct when he refers to it as having a mixing valve, but it is mixing heated or unheated air, or cooled and uncooled air, not inside and outside air.

The problem is the bars go red/blue but not for each vent (top or middle or bottom). It's one setting for all 3 it seems. I can't set for individual vents. I can set for driver vs. passenger, soft vs. medium vs. intensive, but not top/middle/bottom vents.

The red/blue setting applies only to the vents on the dashboard facing the occupants.

I'm glad to see all the effort that has gone into explaining the
blue/red setting and how this is suppose to work this way
and that way. But that fact that it requires all this explanation
proves my point that indeed the system is confusing.

In my opinion there is no need for this to be difficult
but apparently for some it clearly is........:confused:

Lol.

Not sure I got you right but am I confused or your agreeing that it IS confusing?

That's the thanks BMW gets for giving people the option of customizing the system more precisely.

If you want it to be fully automatic like some other vehicles, all you have to do is press the "AUTO" button and adjust the temperature with the knob. You then have a system that works like most other luxury cars.

Well I don't know if you're KORNFUZED or not.
But I do agree it can be confusing.....:rofl:

You guys :banghead: :D