My A/C system has been working every single drive for 150,000 miles and 16 years. No problems. I would agree with the suggestion of letting them run.

 

See?..........a little preventive action goes a long way.

 

I didn't use the Auto setting when they first appeared in cars. I was used to fiddling around with the settings and saw no need to change. Once I did though I haven't looked back.

 

defrosting in the winter months already accomplishes the occasional running of the compressor to keep things in check. Unless you live in an low humidty desert I assume everyones fine.

Theres nothing you need to touch or do separately. The engineers already accounted for the compressors needs lol

 

I just always keep the car in auto which is what engineers intended. IDC if the a/c compressor runs until the cows come home.

The whole “leave it in auto” debate I won’t touch. I’ll just say I live in a house where one half does, and the other doesn’t. Our next vehicle will have a real, legit 4-zone climate control with almost 30 vents and spouse still won’t hit auto. Drives me nuts. Won’t let spouse drive it lol.

 

I almost always set the system at 68* winter or summer. Although BMW's system also has a max fan speed setting as part of the Auto system, so I'm more likely to adjust that than the temp.

 

I hated that part of my BMW ownership, as I equated the auto button to clicking the toga button on a jet/GE90 lol

 

I usually leave my cars on auto at about 70.

 

I do exactly the same, in all three of my cars. 68-70 all year long.

 

Good practice for the home A/C as well.

 

Lol 70 is too hot inside the house.

 

Like oil changes every 3000 miles, today's modern systems do not need to be run during the winter to maintain longevity. This is basically something for older cars back in the day.

 

Incorrect. This is a relatively recent article, dated 2016.

http://aacare.net/running-air-conditioning-winter/

 

I've read the article, but there is no evidence not running A/C leads to more failures later down the road.

 

With any mechanical system, like our bodies, they need exercise! Any mechanical system that doesn't run regularly can benefit from it. For instance, emergency generators, emergency pumps, emergency vehicles all benefit from routine running.

I've adopted this practice to my 4x4 Tundra. I try to run it in 4x4 mode once a month during any time of the year when I'm not using the 4x4 option.

For the most part, I run the defroster enough in the winter to keep the AC exercised. If I didn't, I would take M&M's advice!