Your air conditioner (A/C) or Heater, Ventilation, and Air Conditioner (HVAC) system and blower requires the blower switch knob. This switch or knob assists your blower in regulating your car's interior temperature, whether you want it cold during a hot summer day or warn during frosty mornings.
The knob controls your blower, turning it on and off or switching it at the correct strength. It even serves as your thermostat control by enabling you to select your desired temperature. Then, when your car is hot or cold enough for your taste, you can turn the blower off with the same switch.
Purchasing Considerations
When considering buying a blower switch knob replacement, you need to remember the following things.
- The Impact of Busted Blowers: When your blower's knob is busted, your vehicle's HVAC blower ends up out of your control. You can't keep cool or warm in light of the weather outside or how it affects the temperature of your car from within the driver's seat. Your A/C needs blower control because without it, it won't be able to spread the coolness all over your car. If your blower is in full blast, a broken switch won't allow you to turn it down, so it might impact your battery power or coolant level.
- Repair versus Replacement: Sometimes, your busted blower only requires a bit of tweaking in order for you to fix it. Maybe it's dirty and you only need your mechanic to remove it, clean it up and its contact to the rest of the switch assembly, and put some spray-on lubricant on it in order to make it run as good as new. There are also times when the blower knob is irreparably broken or twisted, necessitating replacement. It might also be a connection or cable problem, so you might need to replace something other than the blower.
- Options Available and Price: You have many options available for blower switches, but they're in a way limited by what type of blower you're replacing. There are many blower knob types only because there are many HVAC or A/C types as well that makes use of blower control. You can get a control knob for your blower for as little as $30 or as much as $220 depending on whether you're using a cheap aftermarket replacement or an OEM knob. You also have the choice of going the refurbished route so that it can achieve compatibility despite being used already.
- Kits versus Standalone and Compatibility: As usual, check your vehicle type, make, model, and year in order to ensure that you've narrowed down your blower options to only compatible ones to your HVAC or A/C system of choice. The knob should at the very least work in harmony with the rest of your heater, ventilation, or A/C components. There are certain blower switches that don't control the blower independent of the A/C, for example.