Cabin Heater Impacted Significantly by Outside Temp

[Scoiatael]

Was up on the mountains this weekend. 20s at night and heater worked just fine. Cabin was comfortable after about 5 minutes.

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[MNLightning]

I can't tell if you're trolling me or not - I'm a few beers into the evening and don't have my readers on?. All I was commenting on is that my truck switches to AC when it's not warm in my cabin.

I wasn’t but did think it was funny. Running the AC in subzero temperatures would require gallons of beer

 

[MNLightning]

Was up on the mountains this weekend. 20s at night and heater worked just fine. Cabin was comfortable after about 5 minutes.

I hadn’t noticed any issues either until the outside temperature was under 10 degrees

 

[schwartz83]

??

 

[Thedude]

Too much beer and you lose all the heat when you have to step out to piss.

 

[Ronimal]

I’m in MN as well and have not observed this at all, driving around in our -10F temps of late. I typically preheat the truck for 10 mins at 71 or so, and it’s nice and toasty when I get in and stays that way. I often have to dial it back as it’s too warm. I typically run cold myself so I totally would notice if the heat wasn’t performing.

I think you should contact service.

 

[MNLightning]

I’m in MN as well and have not observed this at all, driving around in our -10F temps of late. I typically preheat the truck for 10 mins at 71 or so, and it’s nice and toasty when I get in and stays that way. I often have to dial it back as it’s too warm. I typically run cold myself so I totally would notice if the heat wasn’t performing.

I think you should contact service.

I did, just waiting to hear back. Glad to hear that your experience isn’t the same as mine. Thanks

 

[rivian1800]

…and this are the results of 25-27 miles of driving in -11 temps. No kneeling mode or adjusting to snow mode(air suspension warning on dashboard) and efficiency mileage drops significantly (as expected). All sensors are off too…

 

[BigE]

Hello, friends. It's getting cold here in MN and commensurately inside my R1T as well unfortunately. As the outside temp dropped below 0 deg Fahrenheit this evening I noticed the air blowing out of the vents getting colder and colder as well. At around -4 F it almost felt like the A/C was on. Luckily, my seat and steering wheel heaters were working to keep me warm or it would have gotten uncomfortably cold inside. Turning the thermostat up to 'Hi' had no impact. Interestingly, the air blowing out of the back seat floor vents seemed to be quite a bit warmer than the front vents. Still no where near as hot as I would expect but definitely warmer than the front.
When I returned home and pulled into my heated garage, I stayed in the cab with the heat still on 'Hi' to see what would happen as the outside temp went up. Once the temp rose above 0 deg the air coming out of the vents quickly warmed up, getting back to the hot output I've been used to up to this point. By +10 it was back to normal output.

Sharing this to see if others in the cold north have had a similar experience or any suggestions on how to improve the situation, short of telling me to move to FL ;-)

It is disappointing that when I need the heat the most, it isn't there. Seems like something that would have been observed and addressed during Rivian's cold weather testing. Maybe there's some fix that could be applied.

Happy Holidays, All

As demonstrated in the Munro Videos, Rivian runs its a/c chiller in reverse for heat, thus an inexpensive way to have a heat pump. There is not resistive heater in the Rivian. My brother lives in Minnetonka. He’s driving his Ford Maverick as his Model Y doesn’t heat at -12 either. Best case is keep the Rivian in the garage, plugged in and pre-heat before venturing out. If you cold soak that battery at negative temperatures it will be hard to pull any heat out as the BMS will preserve the battery first before allowing heat for the cabin.

 

[R1T311]

So far the difference I am seeing during this fun arctic blast situation is the battery cold soak. (Live in Iowa)

Morning Trip: Truck is kept in my heated garage (40 deg) overnight. Drive ~5 miles round trip in -8 deg temps with zero in cabin heating issues. As expected.

Afternoon Trip:
Truck was kept in the same heated garage during the day and then drove ~10 miles one way in -12 deg temps with zero in cabin heating issues. As expected.

Parked: 2 hours in -12 deg temps

Drive back ~10 miles in same -12 deg temps and the in cabin heat wouldn’t get what I would call warm, let alone hot.

Left on Auto at max temp or other temps, didn’t change anything, did not attempt changing to recirculate, unfortunately as a test.

Just to add some other details to the convo.

 

[manitou202]

Keep in mind that if your battery is very cold, it will try to heat the battery immediately when you start driving. So short trips will make it seem like it used an excessive amount of charge for such a short distance. If you were to keep driving the usage would improve as the battery is brought up to temperature.

Preconditioning the truck while it's plugged in and this cold outside will make a huge difference.

I drove yesterday in -2F weather with no issues heating the cabin. No noticeable drop in heating performance.

 

[Plummer43]

Definition of cold soaked. So cold regenerate braking did not exist. It shows a sliver available but was basically coast mode. ?

 

[SoCal Rob]

As demonstrated in the Munro Videos, Rivian runs its a/c chiller in reverse for heat, thus an inexpensive way to have a heat pump. There is not resistive heater in the Rivian. My brother lives in Minnetonka. He’s driving his Ford Maverick as his Model Y doesn’t heat at -12 either. Best case is keep the Rivian in the garage, plugged in and pre-heat before venturing out. If you cold soak that battery at negative temperatures it will be hard to pull any heat out as the BMS will preserve the battery first before allowing heat for the cabin.

Actually, that’s for heating the batteries. There is a PTC (positive temperature coefficient) resistance heater for the cabin air pointed out just after 1:10 in the video here:

 

[BigE]

Actually, that’s for heating the batteries. There is a PTC (positive temperature coefficient) resistance heater for the cabin air pointed out just after 1:10 in the video here:

Oh, I guess I forgot about that…been awhile since I watched it. Well, then that doesn’t explain the lack of heat as it should be heating the cabin. Unless maybe it’s undersized for volume needed in extreme temps. Growing up in WI, I had a 1972 VW Super Beetle. In making trips from Green Bay to Madison in Subzero temps, I would wear my snowmobile suit including boots ?. Air heat exchangers don’t do much at say -35 F.

 

[SoCal Rob]

Oh, I guess I forgot about that…been awhile since I watched it. Well, then that doesn’t explain the lack of heat as it should be heating the cabin. Unless maybe it’s undersized for volume needed in extreme temps. Growing up in WI, I had a 1972 VW Super Beetle. In making trips from Green Bay to Madison in Subzero temps, I would wear my snowmobile suit including boots ?. Air heat exchangers don’t do much at say -35 F.

From what other people are reporting it sounds like Rivian's climate control system logic needs some work. Or maybe some trucks have bad in-cabin temperature sensors? It's frustrating because cars have had automatic climate control for over 50 years now so it seems like the kind of thing which shouldn't be that difficult to get right.

I'm hoping it's the logic and it can be corrected OTA. I'm sure the people getting A/C blown at them (snowflake showing on the vents) when the cabin is much colder than their set temp would appreciate that! If there is a sensor problem then that sounds like a hardware fix and a visit to a service center.

Between the heat issues on the Rivians and the EA chargers not working in bitter cold it sounds like our tech companies need to do more extreme weather testing. Products not working in cold temps isn't cool!

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