Cabin Heater Impacted Significantly by Outside Temp

[Gchamilton]

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

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[SANZC02]

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

Just curious, did you try using the recirculation so it was heating the interior air instead of pulling from the outside?

 

[Thedude]

I’ll let you know on Thursday once it gets down in the negatives. So far down to 5° I haven’t had anything to complain about. In fact I’ve noticed I have heat nearly instantly since I don’t need to wait for an engine to warm up first to pull heat from.

 

[DannyC]

What happens if you put the vents on inside air (recirculate)? It may not stay on long based on the humidity but worth a try. I fortunately cannot attest to the cold you are experiencing in San Diego. The heat is resistive heating and I would think should not matter what the outside air temp is unless there is an actual fault. OR you can move south for the winter, even Florida!!!

 

[3l3c7r1c]

Maybe it’s vehicle specific issue. They are using resistive heating so shouldn’t be impacted by outside temperatures.

I am in Whistler for last 3 days and even drove on -4F and cabin heater worked fine.

 

[johstacy]

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

I have totally experienced this so much so I thought my climate control wasn't working and I submitted a ticket to Rivian... we will see what answer they come up with. On a side note this is so bad that while driving in the snow my windshield starts to freeze up even with the defrost on high!

 

[MNLightning]

My experience was the same today. Recirculating setting didn’t provide a noticeable or discernible difference on the output air or cabin temperature.

I can live with it but I think my wife wouldn’t be tolerant with probably less than 50 degrees in the cab.

plus it smokes the battery level. I’m glad I kept the R1T vs the Lightning though. Pretty sure the lightning would not have gotten me home today without charging somewhere.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

This seems like an climate controller issue and is probably related to odd heater behavior even at warmer temperatures (blue wavy lines on the climate indicating cool air flowing out of the vents when cabin is still cold and even in manual). This tells me that the controller is targeting cabin temperature whether it’s on manual mode or not. My guess is it’s a software issue or the sensor used by the controller is in some odd place in the cabin.

Edit: if you look at Doug demuro’s EDV walkthrough they seem to have added a climate mode to the vans similar to older cars where heating/cooling intensity of the outgoing air is controlled directly. That’s how I interpreted it anyway.

 

[Rousie13]

Make sure the screen shows heat and not snowflakes. There seems to be some logic issue with the hvac for auto. I have turned auto mode off and use manual mode at a higher temp than I would keep the cabin at, then cycle the heat on/off manually. It’s annoying, but I’m sure they will get it fixed eventually.

Also, with an EV, they will burn a lot of juice if you are trying to keep the cabin as warm as you did in an ICE. We have just learned to keep our cars at a cooler temp and keep a light jacket in, etc. I road with my parents in their ICE and was complaining how hot it was. ?

 

[Deleted member 7086]

I have the same problem. Also during the summer when it is 115 out the ac will switch to heat. I suspect there is a software/sensor issue. Using manual as opposed to auto seems to help. One of several repair ticket items for my SC visit in January.

 

[Andystroh]

I feel like this doesn’t make sense, but in below zero it took a while to “heat up”. I was not impressed with the warmth of the air, but then like 10 minutes into the drive I noticed it was finally hot. I haven’t tested it thoroughly… but it definitely got hotter after a while. Don’t think I drove through a significant enough temperature change for that to change.

 

[schwartz83]

Make sure the screen shows heat and not snowflakes. There seems to be some logic issue with the hvac for auto. I have turned auto mode off and use manual mode at a higher temp than I would keep the cabin at, then cycle the heat on/off manually. It’s annoying, but I’m sure they will get it fixed eventually.

Also, with an EV, they will burn a lot of juice if you are trying to keep the cabin as warm as you did in an ICE. We have just learned to keep our cars at a cooler temp and keep a light jacket in, etc. I road with my parents in their ICE and was complaining how hot it was. ?

I second the suggestion to make sure the climate screen shows heat and not snowflakes. I've run into this a few times...raising the temp a few degrees flipped it to heat and then I could drop it back to where it was and it worked fine.

It was nice to remotely turn on the heated seats and steering wheel this morning when it was negative 6!

 

[MNLightning]

I second the suggestion to make sure the climate screen shows heat and not snowflakes. I've run into this a few times...raising the temp a few degrees flipped it to heat and then I could drop it back to where it was and it worked fine.

It was nice to remotely turn on the heated seats and steering wheel this morning when it was negative 6!

Make sure the screen shows heat and not snowflakes. There seems to be some logic issue with the hvac for auto. I have turned auto mode off and use manual mode at a higher temp than I would keep the cabin at, then cycle the heat on/off manually. It’s annoying, but I’m sure they will get it fixed eventually.

Also, with an EV, they will burn a lot of juice if you are trying to keep the cabin as warm as you did in an ICE. We have just learned to keep our cars at a cooler temp and keep a light jacket in, etc. I road with my parents in their ICE and was complaining how hot it was. ?

Very funny guys ..


Short drives in cold weather eat up Killy Watts . Took 18% off my charge to and from work 5 miles each way with the "heat" on full blast. Seat warmer, steering wheel, recirc, defrost. I did warm up the cabin for 10 minutes prior to make each trip though

 

[Thedude]

Good heat for me today at -6°, HVAC set to auto and 70° without recirc on.

 

[schwartz83]

Very funny guys ..


Short drives in cold weather eat up Killy Watts . Took 18% off my charge to and from work 5 miles each way with the "heat" on full blast. Seat warmer, steering wheel, recirc, defrost. I did warm up the cabin for 10 minutes prior to make each trip though

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.

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