Change in Battery Preconditioning with Recent (Christmas 2021) Update?

[medphys3]

Before this update, when the car was cold (below about 45 degrees Fahrenheit) I would turn on climate and my battery icon would indicate that it was warming the battery (showing the 3 bacon strips). I could also hear the rear motor whining indicating that it was producing heat.

Now with this new update, I don’t see any bacon strips nor do I hear the motor whine. Today after work, it was 28 degrees out and when I turned on climate, no bacon. Just a blue snowflake for the cold battery. After 20 minutes of preheating, the snowflake still remained. After driving about 30 miles at highway speeds, the snowflake was still there.

This is completely different behavior that last winter as I almost never ever had a blue snowflake.

I’m curious if any of you in cold climate’s are seeing the same thing (maybe they realized that preconditioning isn’t needed?) or if I might have a software bug or something.

 

[medphys3]

This is after 30-ish miles of highway speeds.

I then “navigated” to a supercharger to force the battery to warm and the snowflake went away after another 8-9 miles. But, I don’t know if that was due to supercharger preheating or the battery was already getting warm enough.

 

[EVJAutoJunkie]

Are you running version 2021.44.25.2? There has been a recent update to 2021.44.30 to address a bug with the heat pump.

 

[medphys3]

Are you running version 2021.44.25.2? There has been a recent update to 2021.44.30 to address a bug with the heat pump.

25.2 but pre-heat pump. Maybe a patch is inbound.

 

[EVJAutoJunkie]

Get yourself into LTE coverage area and even reboot the car if you have to. You'll also want to open a ticket and they could force the update to your car sooner than the scheduled OTA rollout.

 

[chrstna4]

I have used the app to set a time to precondition by. It usually finishes early, which is good because I then have to turn off preconditioning in the app so I can turn on defrost from the app (it’s the only way to also turn on seat warmers at the same time - you can turn on defrost while it’s preconditioning but trying to turn on seat warmers fails for me through the app).

 

[lomed77]

I am also seeing blue snowflake for a long amount of time 40 mile drives and it is still there. I made a service appointment and they remotely diagnosed and said all batteries were ok. first time i have ever seen the snowflake last more than 10 to 15 min.

 

[lomed77]

I am a 2019 sr plus running 2021.44.25.6

 

[EVJAutoJunkie]

I am a 2019 sr plus running 2021.44.25.6

There no update for the FSD beta firmware yet.

 

[EVJAutoJunkie]

I have used the app to set a time to precondition by. It usually finishes early, which is good because I then have to turn off preconditioning in the app so I can turn on defrost from the app (it’s the only way to also turn on seat warmers at the same time - you can turn on defrost while it’s preconditioning but trying to turn on seat warmers fails for me through the app).

Since preconditioning already sets your cabin to your desired temp, what are you trying to do with the seat warmers? Do you have the seat warmers set to auto in the car already?

 

[ropogigio724]

I have noticed the same. Definitely not warming up battery since the holiday update. Maybe they figured out it’s not needed in most cases unless it is really really cold.

 

[medphys3]

Morning update- last night I turned off the option to have the car automatically precondition prior to my departure. When I woke up, I turned on the cabin heat and the battery heating icon (bacon strips) DID show up and were on for about 15 minutes. Temperature was about 45 degrees in my garage.

It's going to be 33 and sunny today so we'll see what happens after work.

 

[medphys3]

Since preconditioning already sets your cabin to your desired temp, what are you trying to do with the seat warmers? Do you have the seat warmers set to auto in the car already?

Auto seat heaters only work when HVAC is in Auto as well. Many people don't use Auto (me included). In order to turn them on from the app when it is set to precondition, you need to turn off the climate, then turn it back on.

 

[Gasaraki]

Before this update, when the car was cold (below about 45 degrees Fahrenheit) I would turn on climate and my battery icon would indicate that it was warming the battery (showing the 3 bacon strips). I could also hear the rear motor whining indicating that it was producing heat.

Now with this new update, I don’t see any bacon strips nor do I hear the motor whine. Today after work, it was 28 degrees out and when I turned on climate, no bacon. Just a blue snowflake for the cold battery. After 20 minutes of preheating, the snowflake still remained. After driving about 30 miles at highway speeds, the snowflake was still there.

This is completely different behavior that last winter as I almost never ever had a blue snowflake.

I’m curious if any of you in cold climate’s are seeing the same thing (maybe they realized that preconditioning isn’t needed?) or if I might have a software bug or something.

I turned on the climate this morning and I got smelly battery so it works. It was about 40F degrees in my garage.

 

[medphys3]

I turned on the climate this morning and I got smelly battery so it works. It was about 40F degrees in my garage.

Smelly battery? I sure hope not lol

 

[Gasaraki]

Smelly battery? I sure hope not lol

The 3 smelly battery icon. You don't get the red smelly battery icon?

 

[medphys3]

The 3 smelly battery icon. You don't get the red smelly battery icon?

Ha! I call them bacon strips, but smelly battery works too!

 

[chrstna4]

Since preconditioning already sets your cabin to your desired temp, what are you trying to do with the seat warmers? Do you have the seat warmers set to auto in the car already?

My seat warmers are not set to auto. I just want a warm seat when I get into the car and what I described is the only way I’ve been able to get the battery warmed up, cabin warmed up (both those happen with the scheduled preconditioning), and have my seats warmed (which I haven’t been able to make happen with preconditioning - I get an error message when i try- so I have to do it after preconditioning finishes).

Sounds like I may be able to skip preconditioning and just defrost the car, based on other posts, to get the battery warmed along with cabin and seats.

 

[GtiMart]

The active battery conditioning temperature target has changed since last year. I believe it's now around 4C so the car will only warm the battery if it's under 4C, when you condition the cabin using the mobile app. I'm talking battery temperature, not outside temperature. A battery takes a while to cool down, it might be higher than ambient. In a garage, I see my battery colder than ambient by a couple degrees. I suspect being down close to the concrete is colder than the height of my thermostat.

EDIT: As a reference, last year that target temp was around 20C.

 

[Big Earl]

The battery heating strategy was changed prior to the holiday update, perhaps with 2021.44.6 or maybe even before that - it wasn’t super cold yet so I don’t really know.

It seems that the target temperature has been lowered a little bit from its previous setting, presumably to make preconditioning use less energy since its primary objective is to make the cabin comfortable. I’m my opinion, it ended up wasting a lot of energy heating up the battery for no real reason other than some increased regen and a little extra range.

Perhaps someone with Scan My Tesla can have a look at the current battery heating targets.

I’ve also noticed that if preconditioning while charging, the app won’t show the bacon (battery heating icon) and will display a green battery bar even though it is still actively heating the battery. If not charging, even while plugged in, it will show the bacon and the orange battery bar. Don’t always trust what the app is showing you.