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How good are Tesla’s in Australia’s extreme heat?

How good are Tesla’s in Australia’s extreme heat?


  • Total voters
    66
  • Poll closed .
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I’ve had all three (current daily driver is a 3 and still have the X for the family k’s).

S - brilliant (has sunroof)
3 - near brilliant, maybe brilliant when I have gotten used to fans
X - brilliant with the exception of travelling head on in to sun around 3pm (the helicopter windscreen is perfect apart from around 2pm-4pm if driving directly in to the sun (refuse to get out the overhead screens as it doesn’t happen all that often and at all other times is glorious without the screens))

At no point do I feel the air-con isn’t powerful enough, on any of the cars, or having to run hard/high to reach desired temp in car.
 
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I must be doing something wrong, because so far I’ve felt the AC in Model 3 is rather wimpy. It was only mid 20s in Sydney today but with the sun out I had to manually set the fan speed to 7 to feel like I’m being cooled (and at speed 7 the fan is rather noisy). And that was only a few minutes into my drive. Setting to Auto and the fan slows down?!? Temp set to 21.

So I am fully prepared to be told I’m doing it wrong :cool: so please tell me how to do it right!

thats because in australia the sunLIGHT carries a lot of energy but the car only monitors air temperature. once the sun goes down at i. e. 1700ish even if it is 40 degrees outside the ac works as normal. just set the ac desired temp a bit lower. i use 21. 5C
 
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So I am fully prepared to be told I’m doing it wrong :cool: so please tell me how to do it right!
I have it set to 20C. I do pre-cool the car from the app. Auto is quiet and uses less energy but I have gone the fan boost from time to time and agree that is noisy. I accidentally had the air set to fresh rather than recirculated last week in 41+C and it coped, but seriously hoovered up the electrons. I thought something was wrong before I discovered my mistake after arriving home that night.
 
The a/c is perfectly adequate, and it does keep the temps at whatever you set it to with ease. The problem is all the glass, you're feeling the IR coming in which makes everything feel hot. Since I got roof shades and quality tinting done, it feels a lot cooler despite being the same cabin temp (Teslafi logs the cabin temps so you can verify the a/c is doing its job).
 
Thanks for all the responses folks I’ve left the survey open to April so we can get a full season of votes (and you can change your vote).

who voted terrible??? What’s up

my primary observation is when parked in driveway which is roughly east west. Windscreen to the west, it really heats up lots in the late afternoon sun. Got to 52c internal when ambient air was 25c yesterday. The interesting things are:

cabin overheat using ac was on yet it got this hot according to its own sensor. It was making slight air con noise. So I found that odd.

so as a test I did the vent function and the temp dropped dramatically.

i have a funny feeling that the infra red tint in roof (and side windows??? Not sure) works rather well so only when sun hits the windscreen it really warms up. Just my hypothesis.

interesting so I’m sure we’ll all experiment and learn and share our learnings

cheers all and merry and safe Xmas. (Autopilot ON to help save you from Xmas day nutters tomorrow eh!!)

Model 3 SR+ 4430xx
 
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Our family went for our first decent drive yesterday to North Head and back in the sunny afternoon. Now that the side windows are tinted the heat ingress feels a lot less, and operating the AC on “auto” does seem to work a lot better than running it manual. I started it on 19°C and after about 10 mins it became quite chilly in the car and I wound it up to 21°C then 22°C. Mind you, it wasn’t a super hot day in Sydney yesterday, so I’ll see how this pans out over summer.
 
Tesla aircon is weird.
Most A/C systems: you set the temp, the system will output its coldest air, then when cabin reaches the set temp the A/C will settle down.
Tesla A/C: you set the temp, and the lower you set it, the colder the output will be, if and when it reaches set temp, it will settle down.
Summary: set temp changes temp of output, not just temp of cabin.
 
I am struggling with the setting in my model 3. I kept changing between auto and manual, yet to work out what setting is best, and I don't like controlling the aircon via the touch screen, a control knob is much easier to adjust on the move.
Not sure about the 3, but on the S I have set the steering wheel dials to operate my aircon. Is that available on the 3?
 
Not sure about the 3, but on the S I have set the steering wheel dials to operate my aircon. Is that available on the 3?
You aren't able to control it from the wheel no, that is exclusive to the driver display.
I find the best way to change the temperature is just to hold down on the temperature and then move your finger to the left for cooler and right for hotter. Then just let go and it set, much easier.
 
Agree, M3 A/C is not what I would have expected, it seems fairly capable, but doesnt run in a consistent way.
Maybe its the glass and IR. I have in-roof sun-shades front and rear ... but still it's really hard to get a consistent, comfortable setting.
 
I haven't figured it out either. If it's 30+, according to the car, and the sun is directly above the car then I really feel the heat from the roof. The best solution I've found, as someone else suggested, is blast it down and at me with the fan on 8+. Unfortunately that's really loud.
 
... looked at it again today, I seem to get different "output" 1 day vs another ... I'm now wondering if its deliberately regulating A/C output based on what it believes the external temperatures are, not just the internal.
Hence only manual operation works to override it.
 
I am struggling with the setting in my model 3. I kept changing between auto and manual, yet to work out what setting is best, and I don't like controlling the aircon via the touch screen, a control knob is much easier to adjust on the move.

I have been changing between auto and manual too. However, it's a lot easier after the new update as the voice commands make the process of adjusting a lot easier.

I need to get the sunshades as the glass gets hot and radiates heat into the cabin.