Unacceptable Heater Performance

[Migz]

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 have a 2023 R1S delivered in November and 3 weeks in had to take it for service for this exact same issue.
Apparently the heating coil/core over heated and burned out, which also caused an “immediate service required ” light to come on.

You should definitely take it in

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[rmalfritz]

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.

Try it on Auto mode. That seems to work much better than when it’s not selected.

 

[QGessner]

I also have had no problems in the extreme cold weather. In fact, my wife and I both enjoy just how quickly the Rivian heats up and how warm the Rivian can be. The new schedule feature, let’s the car determine how much time it needs to get up to temperature.

 

[JayinNJ]

I set mine to 70F and it has been fine. It was 27F yesterday and my R1S was comfortable. For me the steering wheel and seats get too hot so I set seats to 1 and usually turn off the steering wheel after 5 minutes. Sounds like your HVAC has an issue.

 

[Perplexed]

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.

In -17 here in Toronto, I find that the temp control is off in that, set at 19 deg C, it still feels too hot.

Also, anyone know why the fan is always on at high speed in auto?

 

[R1 EVY]

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'm finding that my issue is ONLY when driving on the expressway. I have a ticket to get something replaced. It's fine when I'm just driving around the city. The only problem is on the expressway for a while.

 

[JayinNJ]

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

Mine gets way too hot in the R1S. I must turn it off after 5 minutes.

 

[R1Tom]

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

 

[Writemax]

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 had an experience with unacceptable heating on a two hour drive, when it was only 40 degrees out. The cabin never got above 50. I tried lots of different setting to no avail. Then the next day everything was normal again. Still makes me nervous about the heater.

 

[Rivianready]

Not nearly as cold here in Richmond Va. My RTS heating works very well, however, I took it to the Service Center in this morning to get a problem with the tailgate fixed and the R1T they gave me as a loaner had terrible heat (34 degrees when I picked it up). I had it set to Hi and drove 25 minutes to work and the cabin never got warm.

 

[rpo]

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

Mine gets uncomfortably warm.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Digital thermometers are cheap. Place one in the car, set your HVAC to a certain temp. If during your drive the cabin never reach that temp, then you know something is wrong (either with hardware or user-error). Then, first order of business would have been to contact Support and initiate a dialog. They will obtain info, provide pointers and follow up with more things to try or a path to service.

 

[ThumprMN]

I do wish there was a way to tell the ambient cabin temp without opening the App to see. It’s obviously a known metric, but why only in the app and not on the screen. Or am I missing something obvious?

 

[NY_Rob]

I do wish there was a way to tell the ambient cabin temp without opening the App to see. It’s obviously a known metric, but why only in the app and not on the screen. Or am I missing something obvious?

They don't want us to see the actual cabin temp vs. what we have the HVAC set to

 

[breeves002]

Not nearly as cold here in Richmond Va. My RTS heating works very well, however, I took it to the Service Center in this morning to get a problem with the tailgate fixed and the R1T they gave me as a loaner had terrible heat (34 degrees when I picked it up). I had it set to Hi and drove 25 minutes to work and the cabin never got warm.

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.

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