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Bioweapon Defense Mode
- Thread starter bobmane
- Start date
beatle
Active Member
Does anyone know if the regular hVAC filter is "just as good" for normal use (meaing not with bio on)? My only experience was I rented a 2013 in Los Angles few years ago and I could smell gas fumes from traffic. Rented a model Y last month for a whole month in NY...never smelled anything even with forest fire smoke.
vcor
Tech Specialist
It's quite good without Biodefence mode on. In all modes, incoming air runs through the filters. What Biodefence mode does is put the fan on high and turn off most of the outside air (in all cars, designers never want to eliminate all incoming air). This causes a slight pressurization of the cabin, so any leak points, the air is pushed out and only the filtered air is brought in. Since it is in recirculation mode, the existing cabin air is also filtered.
vcor
Tech Specialist
As far as my own experience, without using Biodefence mode, the filtering is impressive and works exceptionally well. It almost eliminates the cow farts near Harris ranch, which are rather rough if the wind is blowing towards the freeway. Another time I drove on a freeway with a fire at the edge of the freeway. The smoke was so thick, we could only see 2 car lengths ahead and crawled along for a half mile at about 2 mph. The flames were less than 10 feet from my car! We didn't smell the smoke at all.
Speaking for the Gen1 Model S: The recirc isn't always on.... I seem to think it's on, then have to hit the temperature button to bring up the climate control screen and find that recirc is off, or "grayed out blue". Hitting the recirc button on the touchscreen turns the button a solid blue and makes a noticeable improvement. It might be default to auto mode based on speed but other cars that had this futuristic feature, would recirc at low speed, fresh air at high speed. This car seems to do the opposite..... I hate when this car tries to outsmart me, which is more than most cars do. If I want fresh air or recirc..... well I'm smart enough to know what I want.
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beatle
Active Member
Not sure if you're comparing a car with a normal cabin filter to one with the large HEPA filter. The HEPA filter makes a big difference even if not using bioweapon defense mode.
Since you're not comparing the S and Y in equivalent environments, I'd hesitate to say that the Y has a better filter than the old S. They're about the same size. The Y has a smaller cabin of air that it has to filter. Whether the air was set to recirculate or not in each situation would also be important.
That would be frustrating, I just about alway have recirc on in ICE cars would hate to have issues in Tesla with it not being manual!
I am just saying I dont care about the weapon mode itself (i guess i might in some extreme event). When I had the Y I did not use it because it was way too loud. But in the Y with AC on it seemed perfect...wheres with the older S I drove i would get exhaust smell in cabin with AC on. I just mean day to day driving not wanting to breath other cars exhaust.
vcor
Tech Specialist
I haven't seen this upgrade. If it was offered, the MS must be a dual motor raven model for the frunk to have the same basic geometry for the filter to be added. The frunk interior would largely need to be renewed to put in the huge HEPA filter and added piping. I would also be interested to see how Tesla would add this mode to the control panels inside the car to use it.
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