Question about climate control on Hondas

My wife drives a '99 Accord and we noticed soon after we bought it
that even when we have the climate controls set to only blow air at
our feet, the vent to the left of the steering wheel still blows air
out. I thought something was not working right, but now I notice the
exact same thing with my '04 Civic. Anybody know why that one top
vent continues to blow out air when the controls are set to blow air
out only at your feet? Thank you.

 

It's covered in my 04CRV manual. A little air is always directed at the
upper side vents, to assist in keeping them fog-free. If it bothers you,
you can close the vent manually.
a

 

I don't see that in my manual for my '04 Civic. It just says that at
the floor setting: "Air flows from the floor vents. When you select
<picture of arrow pointing to feet> the system automatically switches
to Fresh Air mode." I've been closing it manually, but was just
wondering why it did that. Seems like it would also do that out of
the passenger side vent if it was to de-fog the side windows but it
doesn't on our Accord or my Civic.

 

"Travis" wrote

It's not in my '04 Accord manual, either. If I wanted hot air coming through
the side vents as well as the floor vents, I'd push the button that
indicates as such. Yes, we can manually close the driver's vent. But since
I'm not an orangutan, I can't reach over to the passenger vent to close
*it*. BTW, my '97 Civic did the same thing.

Howard

 

Same thing happens to my new Element. It must be to keep the view
clear on the left side mirror, you think?