Come on guys..remember the forum your in...you should, at the very least, be suggesting a Nissan product. Get a Versa

 

My girlfriend has an Altima with the same situation. My frustration when I drive her car is not that the AC turns on automatically when using the defrost setting, but that it doesn't turn off automatically when I go back to using something other than defrost. As others have said, AC is not usually necessary for the other settings, so it would be nice if it turned itself off after turning itself on.

 

Bump

 

I'll bump it and rephrase the question. How can I make it so that I can recirculate the air with the A/C Off?

 

My 08 G35X does this too but my moms 17 QX50 doesn't, hers can go through all the modes without the AC turning on at all.

 

It's a good thing to have the AC run on occasion in the winter. It keeps the refrigerant oil passing through out the AC system, keeping seals from drying out and AC compressor bearings lubed. All you have to do is hit the AC button to turn the compressor off.
Oh and AC system does pull moisture out of the air....it does this by removing heat from the air (producing cold air) and condensing the moisture in the (now cold) evaporator core where it then drains out the drain pipe through the firewall.