Unacceptable Heater Performance

[breeves002]

-10F and plenty of heat in my R1T. Thinking something wrong with vehicles that aren't getting warm enough.

Convection plays a huge factor. If you are driving 70mph with a head wind of 20mph you have 90mph worth of air going across the car. I drove in -4ºF the other day and found that when I was driving into the wind the cabin got a little cold for comfort, but when I drove the other direction with the wind behind me I stayed toasty warm. Lots of heat loss through the windows at speed.

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[Rivianready]

When setting it to HI sometimes the fan goes to full blast or nearly full blast. When it is really cold outside this can cause you to actually cool the cabin off because you're sucking in more cold air than can be heated. I recommend never setting the temperature above 80ºF as there really is no point.

Great advice! Thanks. Hopefully Rivian will fix that in an update by making sure when the outside temp is below a certain level that the fan speed goes down and/or the set temp does too. Yet another example how a programmable car can fix things. It makes so much sense to me why a car designed around a computer makes so much sense and why companies like Rivian are disrupting the auto industry- for the better.

 

[Whale Blubber]

Heated steering wheel is not a thing in the r1s. It is barely even warm.

Weird. I find my steering wheel get's hotter than I'd like, albeit 25 degrees is the lowest temps I've used it in.

 

[Atlrivian]

2023 R1S with 5,000 miles, running 2023.50. This cold snap going through the country has exposed either an issue with my SUV, or a problem with the design in general.

Yesterday it was -5, and a 20 minute procondition (via the app) got the cabin from 12 degrees, to 42 degrees indicated on the app. A 20 minute drive after preconditioning, the air coming out of the vents was at best (I would guess) 50ish degrees. Warmer than outside, but not comfortable. Feels cold on your skin if you hold your hand in front of the vent. In prior drives, when the temps were around 30ish, it at least feels warm, but it is by no means hot like a typical ICE car would get after being all the way warmed up.

While driving, I had gauge view up, and the battery was 27 degrees. Motors were in the 90s. They never got over 100, even when going 60 on the highway, and stop and go traffic around town. I expected temps in the 200s given the car would be trying to heat the battery, but it did not appear to be attempting to.

Steering wheel and seat heat were enough to at least tolerate the drive, but if I had to drive anything over 20 minutes or so, this would not be acceptable performance. I don't think it's really acceptable performance at all. With my wife and two kids, I would not want to drive more than 40 miles or so with this level of heater performance.

I had heat on HI, auto off, max fan, and it never got anywhere close to a comfortable temp in the cabin. Turning recirculate on brings the cabin temp up marginally, but the windows fog almost instantly. I tried HI on auto, and it performed worse. The second row was even colder than the front.

How has everyone else's heater performance been, in significant cold? I am wondering if I need to submit a ticket, or if this is the typical performance of the heat in an R1. If so, I may need to reconsider keeping it if it can't keep the cabin hot in the winter.

Sorry if someone else said this (didn't read all the comments), but I think I found a bug in the software that may also be affecting you:

I have a T and my heat is wonky, too. When I turn my heat on in the front, if the vents in the back are turned off the heat in the front doesn't work well. The vents will put out barely warmed air in this scenario. As soon as I open the rear vents I notice significantly warmer air coming from the front vents.

Anyone else noticed this?

 

[Atlrivian]

For what it's worth, I discovered a weird "glitch" in my R1T that I've heard a few others have:

As long as the rear seat has air turned on (top, bottom, or both), the whole system works fine and air blows HOT. If I completely turn off the back, ya know... to direct all the hot air to the driver and windshield when I'm driving alone.... then suddenly the heat doesn't work and blows luke warm at best, even when set to HI. I just leave the back on all the time. I was parked at a ski lodge all day at ‐5F, got in at the end of the day and it warmed up pretty quick, was down to a tshirt in about 15 minutes. So I know the physical system works fine, just a software issue of some sort.

This. I noticed it a few weeks ago.

 

[shimps1]

Sorry if someone else said this (didn't read all the comments), but I think I found a bug in the software that may also be affecting you:

I have a T and my heat is wonky, too. When I turn my heat on in the front, if the vents in the back are turned off the heat in the front doesn't work well. The vents will put out barely warmed air in this scenario. As soon as I open the rear vents I notice significantly warmer air coming from the front vents.

Anyone else noticed this?

The vents in the center console, or the floor ones? My floor ones are always on, but if you mean the center console ones, maybe it's possible.

 

[Atlrivian]

The vents in the center console, or the floor ones? My floor ones are always on, but if you mean the center console ones, maybe it's possible.

If all vents in the rear are off / closed it doesn't matter what I have open in the front. Only lukewarm air comes out.

 

[SSteveEV]

If all vents in the rear are off / closed it doesn't matter what I have open in the front. Only lukewarm air comes out.

I can't go test this now but once the rear vents are off does it still say "auto" below the set temp?

I had bad user error and was turning off auto when changing other settings. I still don't understand why the set temp shows when auto is off but now make sure I look for the "auto" and it functions a bit better.

Another frustration of mine was that the rear vents were enabled everytime I'd drive, so maybe that's why I always had issues after turning them off.

 

[RivianandWaiting]

Just an observation:

Reading this, I had noticed similar issues (in Cali, so not nearly as cold). Heat was on (75F) and fan speed set to 2-3 and the air coming out was not hot at all. Vehicle had been sitting for about an hour and a half so the cabin was cool.

Now, I never use the Auto feature because I hate being blasted with air, even though it turns the fan down automatically after a time. This time I decided to try engaging the Auto and VOILA! Instantly had warm air in the cabin and literally had to turn it off because it got so hot.

Not sure if this is relevant here, but thought it might help.

 

[Hillbilly]

2023 R1S with 5,000 miles, running 2023.50. This cold snap going through the country has exposed either an issue with my SUV, or a problem with the design in general.

Yesterday it was -5, and a 20 minute procondition (via the app) got the cabin from 12 degrees, to 42 degrees indicated on the app. A 20 minute drive after preconditioning, the air coming out of the vents was at best (I would guess) 50ish degrees. Warmer than outside, but not comfortable. Feels cold on your skin if you hold your hand in front of the vent. In prior drives, when the temps were around 30ish, it at least feels warm, but it is by no means hot like a typical ICE car would get after being all the way warmed up.

While driving, I had gauge view up, and the battery was 27 degrees. Motors were in the 90s. They never got over 100, even when going 60 on the highway, and stop and go traffic around town. I expected temps in the 200s given the car would be trying to heat the battery, but it did not appear to be attempting to.

Steering wheel and seat heat were enough to at least tolerate the drive, but if I had to drive anything over 20 minutes or so, this would not be acceptable performance. I don't think it's really acceptable performance at all. With my wife and two kids, I would not want to drive more than 40 miles or so with this level of heater performance.

I had heat on HI, auto off, max fan, and it never got anywhere close to a comfortable temp in the cabin. Turning recirculate on brings the cabin temp up marginally, but the windows fog almost instantly. I tried HI on auto, and it performed worse. The second row was even colder than the front.

How has everyone else's heater performance been, in significant cold? I am wondering if I need to submit a ticket, or if this is the typical performance of the heat in an R1. If so, I may need to reconsider keeping it if it can't keep the cabin hot in the winter.

I plug a space heater into the gear tunnel outlet and route through the back seat.

 

[iansriv]

OP, something is off on your car. Sounds like most ppl in similar situations don't have heating issues. I precondition before most drives in the cold. Just did a 600 mile drive in very cold weather (~10) without issues. Best of luck.

 

[jeeden]

Just adding the data point that our R1S sat outside all day yesterday at 25 and the temp consistently went down all day to about 15. I ran out to the store about 5 miles away and while on auto 72 degrees it was like the fires of hell coming out of the vents, even before the heated seats and steering wheel heated up which only took about 5 min.

Sounds like maybe some are having issues with the heater itself and then maybe another underlying software issue of auto vs non auto?

 

[MidnightRivian]

I’m loving the heater and how powerful it is. My significant other is always asking me to turn down the heat or switch the seat heaters to low.

I typically pre-condition to 79 degrees or “Hi”. Then once I get in the car I change it to recirculate and lower the temp closer to 70-73. Turn off the steering heater and keep the seats on low.

I actually like the heater more than AC because of how quick it heats up and how quiet it is. I’m looking forward to trying the AC again now that I have a ceramic windshield tint and ceramic front window tint.

 

[SteveInBend]

I went up to the mountain yesterday and the heater was working just fine.
R1T was plugged in overnight, cabin temperature around 45 degrees while parked inside garage. Outside temps around 0° F. Recirculation was on and front & back floor vents were open. Started out with temperature set to 84°. S/W is 2023.50.1.

Was about 15 minutes down the road and started to turn down the heat!

 

[R.I.P.]

I have the third ticket in now for heater woes.

Based on the troubleshooting I have done, I am convinced that at least in my case, the evaporator is icing over and preventing any heat flow over the elements. The problem only occurs with high outside humidity (providing the moisture for the icing). The burnt plastic/wiring smell is most likely coming from the heating element, losing the airflow and overheating itself.

This theory could explain why some people are having problems, and others are not. If it is very cold, and/or the air is dry, the problem will not occur. It is cold in conjunction with high moisture content in the air that is icing the evaporator.

I have found that I can limit this problem by selecting recirculate before the icing occurs, as the inside air typically does not have as much moisture as what the vehicle was pulling from outside.

Today, low 40s outside, I started out the trip with the HVAC set to 74° auto. The truck was toasty and comfortable, until about 20 minutes into the trip, air flow through the vent ceased, and the temperature started dropping until I arrived at my destination with the interior temperature at 51°.

Bypassing the service center I chatted with a tech I know at Rivian. I presented him with my findings and opinions, and he had a two-word response for me;

"We know".

He assured me they are working on it, and the latest update was supposed to help; it has not. It seems logical that running defrost cycles on the evaporator more frequently could help the issue (although running the risk of fogging up the windows), but I am starting to think there is a physical design issue that they are wrestling with.

FWIW.

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