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

[medphys3]

Don’t always trust what the app is showing you.

I'm starting to believe this lol

Yesterday afternoon, it was 28 degrees F outside and I had no indication of battery heating and had the blue snowflake for 30+ miles after sitting outside for 8 hrs. Lots of regen dots too. This morning, plugged in and at 90% SOC, turned on the cabin heat and I had the bacon strips. In my garage and at about 45 degrees F. No regen dots.

Curious what I'll see this afternoon; it's 36 out.

 

[medphys3]

Just fired up the cabin. It's sunny and 38 and I have the blue snowflake, no bacon. Weird.

I wonder if they took away battery heating while unplugged?

 

[GtiMart]

No... battery heating is unaffected by the car being plugged or not AFAIK. It's just that the active heating target is lower than before.

 

[ropogigio724]

My Model Y is not showing the same symptoms as my Model 3. Y sat all day in 30F same time and no snow flake while the 3 had the snowflake. Something is definitely up.

 

[medphys3]

No... battery heating is unaffected by the car being plugged or not AFAIK. It's just that the active heating target is lower than before.

But that doesn’t explain why it heated the battery when it was at 45 degrees, but not when it was a 28 degrees. Seems it would be the other way around. Unless it’s heating the battery, but displaying the snowflake because it’s r e a l l y cold. But that wouldn’t explain why I had a snowflake for 3+ miles (if it were actually heating it).

It’s really odd.

 

[medphys3]

…and this evening’s snowflake only lasted about 7 minutes, but showed no bacon.

 

[medphys3]

Quick update- my car was 40 degrees this morning, turned on cabin climate and the battery started to warm showing the bacon strips in the app and the rear motor was whining. I unplugged the car and the bacon disappeared and the whining stopped. Plugged it back in and the bacon returned along with the motor whining.

Tesla definitely removed the ability to warm the battery when unplugged at least with my car. This is with the 2021.44.30 software update.

 

[jkeyser14]

My car gets parked outside. I always have the snowflake icon in winter. I can drive 2 hours and still not have a warm battery. This is with both a 2018 and 2021 Model 3.

 

[GtiMart]

I won't quite contradict you @medphys3 because I didn't have 2021.44.30 when I did my test a couple days ago, I had the previous 2021.44.25.2... but... My car was parked outside in -15C unplugged and I started heating the cabin and looked at scanmytesla while doing it. The car was definitely actively heating the battery. I did not check if the mobile app showed the bacon icon or not but scanmytesla doesn't lie.

When you unplug the car, it might act the same as when you open a car door: the car does stop actively heating the battery at that point. It's been doing that for a while already.

 

[Big Earl]

Quick update- my car was 40 degrees this morning, turned on cabin climate and the battery started to warm showing the bacon strips in the app and the rear motor was whining. I unplugged the car and the bacon disappeared and the whining stopped. Plugged it back in and the bacon returned along with the motor whining.

Tesla definitely removed the ability to warm the battery when unplugged at least with my car. This is with the 2021.44.30 software update.

I suspect the set point for battery heating while using climate control is now lower than the set point for battery heating while charging.

 

[medphys3]

I suspect the set point for battery heating while using climate control is now lower than the set point for battery heating while charging.

I suspect the same. It's down to 22 degrees out now and with cabin heat on, I finally see the bacon strips Unplugged.

 

[Lephturn]

My car gets parked outside. I always have the snowflake icon in winter. I can drive 2 hours and still not have a warm battery. This is with both a 2018 and 2021 Model 3.

I'm in Ottawa, Canada with temps down to -25 sometimes. Precondition it to avoid the snowflake. If you have to drive it with no chance to let it precondition for 15 minutes, the key is to drive slower if you can, use more acceleration, and then stop for a coffee or something. I've found that if I drive on city streets and do some spirited accelerations if I stop for a few minutes or sit in a drive-thru lane for a hot chocolate it will warm up and clear the the snowflake and get regenerative braking going. Driving at a constant highway speed in cold temperatures the heat pump cars can't heat the battery up enough to overcome the heat loss, but drive it slowly or stop for a few minutes and it can "catch up". The good news is you can just schedule departure, and setting it for even 10 minutes from when you leave helps a lot. When it's really cold out, like -15 C and below, you definitely want it plugged in and scheduled departure so it can draw power from the grid to heat the battery. It also helps a lot if you schedule charging so that it finishes charging to where you need it "just in time", as it heats the battery up to charge anyway so it's basically already warmed up. What I do is plug it in at night and set the charge limit to 55%, and then when I get up I will bump the charge limit up to 65 or 80 or whatever I need so that it is charging right up until departure time - that will get you a warm battery even in the coldest conditions.