I Finally Learned What This Button In Your Car Does And When to Use It

I've had two cars in the almost 40 years that I have been driving that had a button on them that I have never understood what it was for and I swear that I can't be the only one who doesn't know what happens when you push it.

You'll likely see this button on your instrument cluster, but it's just a symbol with no explanation of what it does. It was never in cars that I can remember until the last decade or so. It looks like this:

I've pressed it before, but never really noticed what happens. The light comes on to let you know it's activated, but it beats me what it does.

Now don't be all mean in the comments saying "How could you not know what that does?" Or worse, "Read your manual!" Just move along to another one of our fine articles.

But if you're like I was and don't know what this does or when to use it here's what I found.

According to Mental Floss, this is the air recirculation button and, you guessed it, it recirculates the air in the car. But when should you use it?

The best use is on a really hot day when you're running your air conditioner. If you don't have it on, it just pulls hot air into the car making the air conditioner work that much harder to cool down the interior.

They also recommend you not use it in the winter since it will fog up your windows in no time with all that moist recirculating air.

I'm waiting for that really hot day to give this a try. If you just learned what this button is by reading this, my job is done here.