How good is the air conditioning really?

[dgstan]

Now that I've owned a MY for a week, I thought an update was in order. My AC is just fine. It works best on the auto setting.

The performance is great and the ability to rapidly cool the car from my phone app is very, very nice. Not being able to adjust the air volume going to the passenger or rear seats is the only negative.

I find that the A/C in the Model Y is much better than my Model 3. Now, with the fan at "2" and the temp set to "70", I have to turn it off after a few minutes because it's too cold. This is when it's been 90 outside. I know it's all subjective, but I think it works great.

I'm thinking the 3 might have had a problem.

 

[KMMM]

Here is a text we got from the service center....

Bartman1, thanks for posting. Please update if you find a fix. I still have problems of intermittent A/C...sometimes it blows cold air but most of the time it just blows the fan. A owner in Georgia had a similar issue that was fixed with the replacement of a temperature sensor.

PT Sensor, Low Pressure
Part #: 1510048-00-A

I hope it’s a firmware problem but it doesn’t seem likely at this point. It might be worth sending them this possible solution and part #. In my experience, Tesla service centers can benefit from the help of a team based approach.

 

[Zer0t]

I went through the same thing a few days ago. It was a little warmer here in California as it was 97 degrees. My AC was blowing lukewarm air and my temperature gauge on my app was jumping all over the place. I did the hard reboot (hold down the brake pedal and press down both scroll wheels until the system completely rebooted). After that my AC has been normal and very effective.....your results may vary, but this worked for me.

I’ve had this issue with my S where reboots have helped.

 

[seismicsanic]

On a recent trip to SoCal it was 115F in the central valley, the AC in the Y was set to 70 and it managed to keep up pretty well. There is a bit of a difference if someone is sitting in the back seat, I think it shuts off the rear vents and gives more air up front if nobody is sitting there.

 

[mark95476]

I have the same settings (temp=70, fan=2) for the Bay Area. I'm resilient to cold temps too. If I get chilly then I disable cabin recirculation.

I find that the A/C in the Model Y is much better than my Model 3. Now, with the fan at "2" and the temp set to "70", I have to turn it off after a few minutes because it's too cold. This is when it's been 90 outside. I know it's all subjective, but I think it works great.

 

[Matsayz]

On a recent trip to SoCal it was 115F in the central valley, the AC in the Y was set to 70 and it managed to keep up pretty well. There is a bit of a difference if someone is sitting in the back seat, I think it shuts off the rear vents and gives more air up front if nobody is sitting there.

Yup, that's what it does in the Model 3 as well. I believe it uses the seat sensors in the rear to detect this. Of course you can always turn it on/off as you wish though. I'm thoroughly impressed by both the 3 & Y with decent tint here in Las Vegas(haven't done the roof on either yet but will with 70%).

Attached is our weather for this week, all triple digits and I'm not worried about staying cool at all in the car

 

[CyberB]

With my previous ICE cars I noticed the efficacy of the A/C correlated to the engine size. I am using model Y in Phoenix. It's 107 with 14% humidity today. My car is parked in covered parking at work and garage at home. I tolerate heat quite well. The A/C doesn't seem as powerful as my previously owned Lexus RC350 but it works well enough for me. Remote climate definitely helps. When I leave the car out in the parking in the SUn, I just leave the A/C running for short stops.

 

[h82fuel]

Today I drove a model Y at the service center in Scottsdale, Arizona. The outside temp was 104 degrees and I set the AC to 70 degrees. My wife and I were comfortable in our drive. The AC worked fine.

 

[Xminus6]

With a background in refrigeration design the best one can expect is a 20-30 degree temperature drop from external air once the air delivery vents start to cool down. High ambient humidity will lower efficiency as well. Regarding traditional A/C and a heat pump system there is no difference at all when in cabin cooling mode. None. To do the temperature drop test, put the A/C fan on high, air not recirculating, and measure temperature in drivers vent, or what acts like a vent on the drivers side as it will be farther from the evaporator. Doing the test in a shaded area is best so you don’t have to wait for venting to cool down.

Temper your expectations with dual temperature mode since there is only one evaporator and heater “core”. If the driver sets a temp to 64 and passenger to 74, expect end result to be a type of average temp. You won’t get extremes on driver and passenger sides.

Yeah. I never found dual mode to be cold enough for me being the cold side of the equation. It always seems just sort of average.

 

[Bartman1]

Tuesday evening they called and said they figured out it was definitely a software issue. My wife asked how long it would take to fix and they said they didn't know because the software has not been developed yet. They said we could actually pick up our car and drive it in the meantime, but my wife insisted on keeping the loaner with cold AC. My wife asked if they can fix the problem and he said they definitely figured out the problem and can, and will, fix it, but don't know the timeframe. Yesterday we got a text saying it's ready for pickup and now my phone screen is showing "Ready for pickup. Estimated Completion Date Jul 15th, 4:15 PM". Not sure if it's ready for pickup because we CAN pick it up, if we wanted to, and the SC has done all they can do until the software comes to them?

My wife is going to call the SC later today to verify that it's still waiting on the software....

 

[SparkyTX]

I've had my MY since 6/20 and although I've not driven a lot due to the pandemic, the times I've been out, it has handled the heat here in Houston just fine. Like any car it helps to be moving to improve the air flow on the cooling coils but even standing still it seems to do okay. I rarely park it outside so I don't know how well it recovers from being heated up and then cooled down. If it is outside, I just try to remember to turn on the cooling a few minutes before I have to get in the car. That is one of the best features of this car for us hot weather folks. Also, I have found no need for additional tinting on the roof glass but then again I've not driven a lot since delivery.

 

[Bartman1]

Agree. Our Model S and Model 3 worked great. Probably better than any other cars we had owned before. Tesla has awesome AC. Ours just has a problem that they are fixing and I'm sure it will be awesome when it's done. We are not at all worried about it. The SC has been fantastic with helpfulness and communication. We hare happy customers!

 

[chdavis]

This thread is unbearable. Use the auto setting! I have never adjusted the individual climate settings in any of my cars.

 

[dgstan]

This thread is unbearable. Use the auto setting! I have never adjusted the individual climate settings in any of my cars.

I personally cannot stand the "auto" setting. The fact that the system will turn the fan up to full blast when you get in the car is what's unbearable. I never want the fan on full blast. I'd rather have the car take longer to cool down than get blown away. I have never had a car where I was happy with the "auto" mode.

Tesla does solve this to some degree by allowing me to turn on the system prior to getting in the car (or leaving it on altogether). I wish there was an IFTTT or Siri shortcut to turn it on with one click instead of having to wait to wake the car. Let me toggle a switch and then wake up the car in the background.

 

[azentropy]

I had brought it up long before that I suspected the Y's AC wouldn't be as good/fast as the 3 since if they are sharing the same system and with the Y's increased interior volume. But that was before we knew about the heat pump.

I've been wanting to do some testing/comparisons between my 3 and Y. It is supposed to get ~115 in the Phoenix area. I've already noticed that just sitting in my garage the "Climate/Interior" of the Y is usually 3 or 4 degrees warmer than the 3 in the app. A sunlight comparison might not be fair yet though since my 3 is tinted whereas my Y is not yet (appointment 7/15).

 

[chdavis]

I think the A/C in the Model 3 is extremely powerful. Much better than the A/C in my Model X. I suspect it will be able to cool the Model Y just fine.

 

[dgstan]

BTW - I found a Siri shortcut to turn on the climate control with one click. It does require your ID and password to be stored in the shortcut, but there's always a price for convenience.

I created a Siri Shortcut that wakes up my Tesla and turns on the climate control : teslamotors

 

[Y_NOT]

AC works great in this car. It took me awhile to figure out how to adjust AC vent haha so cool

 

[KMMM]

Finally found a solution to my intermittent A/C issues. Hopefully it lasts but apparently it was as simple as recharging the Freon. My VIN is in the 2000s and made it out before COVID shutdown so I’m more understanding of a few minor, easy fix oversights.

 

[KMMM]

And I already spoke too soon...it worked as expected once picking up the car but trying again just now —no A/C. Bummer.