Do Gen 2 R1S third row vents blow cooled air?

[C12farmer]

I was under the impression from past comments that the third row vents only blew recirculated air from the cabin, not heated or cooled air like the other vents in the car.

Reading the documentation from the 2025 user manual, it clearly says the 3rd row vents can blow cooled air but not heated air. I looked at 2024 user manual also and it's the same exact wording.

Even in Gen 1 models, it doesn't make sense to me how it can be mechanically possible to supply cooled air but only cabin temp air for heat. Shouldn't the third row inlet be the same source weather cooled or heated air. I know that Gen 1 had a separate heat exchanger for cooling and PTC heaters for heating, but all that should be happening deep in the bowels of the HVAC system before the air gets distributed to the vents.

Fast forward to Gen 2 with a heat pump system. I assume all the air is passing through a single heat exchanger, so it should be the same source for cold and hot air. In this case, shouldn't the Gen 2 third row vents be able to supply both cooled and heated air?

In general, I think Rivian's documentation (website and PDF) really sucks, to put it bluntly. It's neither super detailed or succinct. They just use words to generally describe things but not in a clear obvious way. A lot of their documents are also out of date or not even correct for 2025 model. Someone just copied the 2024 manual and made some updates, without removing the old content.

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[Zoidz]

Yeah, third row is a bit vague as to what’s going on and Rivian has not made it clear. People here have reported getting no cold air out of the 3rd row even while the first row is blowing cold air. I have not checked 3rd row temperatures myself, but I have asked my 3rd row passengers several times and they say it is blowing cold air when they sit back there. ?‍

I recall one tear down video on YouTube, I forget if it was a Munroe or something else, but they claimed there was a refrigerant line in the back BUT never showed or mentioned an evaporator coil in the back. For it to be true air conditioning it needs an evaporator coil…..

IF (repeat IF) there is a rear refrigeration line and evaporator coil in Gen1, there could be rear cooling but no heating. That coil would be active only during cooling mode but not functional for heat. PTC is not in the refrigerant loop, it’s in the liquid cooling loop. With a Gen2 heat pump, in theory the refrigerant could be used for cooling and heat.

 

[electruck]

This is what happens when the intern decides to use GenAI to write the user's manual.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

There is a thread here and in that thread there does appear to be a chiller for the 3rd row. The confusion comes also from the UI showing "cabin temp air" icon up until the most recent updates when you activate the 3rd row. Now, it would appear the 3rd row vents actually show cooled air when activating.

I haven't had time to test this ..but at this price point I would expect cooled air in the 3rd row for sure. The times we have had folks in the 3rd row they have not complained about being uncomfortable.

 

[C12farmer]

There is a thread here and in that thread there does appear to be a chiller for the 3rd row. The confusion comes also from the UI showing "cabin temp air" icon up until the most recent updates when you activate the 3rd row. Now, it would appear the 3rd row vents actually show cooled air when activating.

I haven't had time to test this ..but at this price point I would expect cooled air in the 3rd row for sure. The times we have had folks in the 3rd row they have not complained about being uncomfortable.

If the 3rd row vents can supply cool air, then I would expect that Gen2 models can now supply heated air also.

I haven't been able to jump in the third row and have someone else in the front change all the temperatures to test this out. It's also still pretty hot here so I have no desire to kick on the heat and bake myself into a sweaty mess.

For a company doing multi-billion revenue only selling two true products, their poor and overly simple user documentation is inexcusable. I could have updated the user manual myself from 2024 to 2025 version in a matter of hours. What the hell are those engineers doing that is more important, other than adding stars to the drive mode screen. OK, rant over...

 

[Proxy]

I’ve spent a few hours in 1st, 2nd and 3rd row in Phoenix in June. It seemed that the 1st and 3rd rows cooled down the quickest. The 2nd row took the longest to get comfortable. The 3rd row would be my last choice in the winter.

 

[Zoidz]

I tested my Gen 1 to verify that the 3rd row provides active cooling, no question that it does, and it probably safe to say that Gen 2 also provides cooling.

I stuck the thermocouple of my Fluke HVAC meter inside the driver side 3rd row vent. Outside ambient temperature is 72. First picture is ambient temperature of 81 in the vent, R1S in the shade for several hours after driving in the sun for 3 hours. 2nd picture is the AC on temperature of 52 just 60 seconds after turning on the AC, setpoint was 65 degrees. Not on recirc mode so pulling in ambient air of 72. This is nicely consistent with the rule of thumb delta T of around 20 degrees. If I had let it run longer I would expect a few more degrees difference.

 

[McMoo]

3rd row definitely blows cold air and does not blow warm air. My young kids have let me know many times…

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