I'm curious too. My '13 is definitely loud when the compressor gets up to full load, and with the current heat wave, it's very noticeably. Especially when it starts drawing 6Kw on my DIC sitting at an "idle".
Noisy A/C
Here in Salt Lake the temps have been near 100 and over. I've noticed that when I turn on the car after work, the air conditioner runs full blast and it is extremely loud. At least as loud as the ICE itself. Day before yesterday it was over 100 and both the A/C and ICE came on and it was really a racket. Is it normal for A/C to be so loud?
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I usually don't hear the car when parked and plugged in. I park right in front of my door (apartment). Just typically when the A/C is in high demand for the passenger compartment. Quite loud, definitely louder than the ICE.
I wish I could agree with that, but this occurs when parked or lower speeds. reasonably loud hum/whine from the compressor. Of course I do agree that the sound dissipates at speed due to tire/drivetrain noise. Even when parked with the hood up and ICE on, it's very obvious over the sound of the ICE. No performance issues though and since I have never heard another Volt operating I can't say if this is normal or not, just that it's normal for mine.
That would be consistent with my experience. Definitely no need for any sort of pedestrian warning with the A/C running hard as you can hear it about a block away.Something I should have mentioned: I'm talking about from the outside with the windows down. Sorry, the whole discussion went off in the wrong direction. I first noticed it when I started the car remotely. You could hear it from way across the parking lot. I couldn't believe that was my quiet, high-tech Volt. It isn't terribly noisy from inside with windows up. The air blowing from the vents drowns it out. I think from what people have written that they're all pretty noisy. With a "normal" car you don't hear it much because the engine is so loud.
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