The A/C was always underwhelming, but at about 100K + miles, the A/C system would just turn on and off intermittently, especially on warm days. I looked online for a possible problem and it was neither an A/C clutch problem nor a refrigerant problem.

I took it to the dealer two summers ago and they said it's normal for it to operate this way, so it won't freeze itself.

After getting fed up about it, I took it back to the same dealer a year ago and they said the problem is that the A/C unit is designed in such a way that on hot days, when the engine is running hot anyways, all of the temperatures are so warm that the A/C cycles no matter what you do. The only solution is to replace the A/C unit with an entirely new unit with a better design.

I decided to buy a new A/C system for about $1200 parts and labor. It solved the problem. But this is one of several problems with the 2014 Forester.