Heated steering wheel? How warm is it supposed to be?

[smashweights]

Now that it's really cold out, I'm noticing the steering wheel is just barely warm. Like warm enough I can tell that it is a heated steering wheel but not quite warm enough to soothe my freezing hands after taking the kids sledding yesterday. My previous Ram was uncomfortably hot and had to be turned off most of the time so I'm used to an extremely warm wheel and my wife's Hyundai Santa Fe is somewhere in between. Just trying to see if this is something out of the ordinary? Thanks!

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[beatle]

I wouldn't say it'll burn you, but I tend to turn mine off after it's warmed up as it's just less comfortable to continue to hold unless my hands are freezing.

 

[COdogman]

Others have also pointed out the Rivian steering wheel doesn’t get as hot as another vehicle they have driven, which may or may not be true…. I don’t use it much even during the worst of our CO winters, but I have found it’s hot enough. Not sure what people want from this feature

 

[Osyras]

The steering wheel in our gen 1 didn't get too hot, when we had to replace our gen 1 with a gen 2 it was much hotter. The seats on the other hand are lackluster in both models compared to any other vehicle we have sat in.

 

[skim0000]

Mine gets plenty hot...

 

[Patrick87]

I know what you mean-- my last truck was a Ram 1500. Even in single digit weather, I had to turn it off after a mile or two down the road since it would get so hot you didn't want to touch the wheel!

The Rivian steering wheel definately doesn't get that hot. I think it's much more comfortable to leave it and MUCH prefer it to the Ram's "hot skillet" steering wheel heater...

 

[Nano]

I have written on this and tested it. The issue is the heating cycle time is too long. Meaning it will heat up nicely but then the heat turns off for about 2 mins so it doesn’t get too hot and then kicks on again. If they shorten the off cycle times once it got up to temperature this would be resolved. I have a Gen 1 S and have even messaged Rivian about it. Seems like a pretty easy software fix but I’m no engineer.

 

[cbrcanuck]

Now that it's really cold out, I'm noticing the steering wheel is just barely warm. Like warm enough I can tell that it is a heated steering wheel but not quite warm enough to soothe my freezing hands after taking the kids sledding yesterday. My previous Ram was uncomfortably hot and had to be turned off most of the time so I'm used to an extremely warm wheel and my wife's Hyundai Santa Fe is somewhere in between. Just trying to see if this is something out of the ordinary? Thanks!

I have a '23 Gen 1 and it's always heated up nice and hot in the beginning, but then cools right off after a couple of minutes so it's just barely luke warm. This is fine for me as I don't like it too hot anyway, but if we ever had a really cold day I'm sure I'd appreciate a lot more heat from it.

 

[Zoidz]

Previous discussions early on about this indicated a pretty wide variation of how hot it gets.
If it is getting warm, it's "working as intended."

 

[jwanderson88]

I thought OP was going to complain that it was too hot. Mine is plenty hot. I also turn it off after it's warmed up.

 

[therealcmj]

Not sure what people want from this feature

People that have circulatory issues, arthritis, or just have naturally cold extremities want to be able to set it to be practically burning our hands hot. And then we'll manually adjust it down once we've finally thawed out.

 

[COdogman]

People that have circulatory issues, arthritis, or just have naturally cold extremities want to be able to set it to be practically burning our hands hot. And then we'll manually adjust it down once we've finally thawed out.

I can appreciate that. I'm not saying that shouldn't be available - I meant to suggest that "successful" implementation of a feature like this is subjective due to all the varying needs and preferences people have. Whatever temp they choose will be too hot for some and not hot enough for others

 

[BTOR]

I can appreciate that. I'm not saying that shouldn't be available - I meant to suggest that "successful" implementation of a feature like this is subjective due to all the varying needs and preferences people have. Whatever temp they choose will be too hot for some and not hot enough for others

I totally agree. So subjective. I find the steering wheel and seat heaters to be quite comfortable. I don’t live in a really cold climate but 90% of the time I only need the heated steering wheel and butt warner seats to make my drive comfortable, no HVAC required.

 

[sub]

I agree that it gets hot enough, but it doesn't stay hot long enough.

After a few minutes of nice and toasty fingers it shuts off and cools back down to room temperature. And at that point there doesn't seem to be any way to turn it back on. The indicator shows on but it isn't. And powering it off and then back on doesn't seem to do anything. It will eventually turn back on if you leave it alone, but it takes a long time before it kicks back on. On a long drive it seems like I get about 5 minutes of heat per hour.

Perhaps some people think that a few minutes of heat is enough, but I find the current behavior very annoying. I want the heat to stay on until I turn it off.

 

[Time2Roll]

I believe the seats have three settings. Maybe the wheel should have same?

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