Insufficient Heat for Backseat Passengers

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

I don't have the third row child seats. I'm just talking about the regular backseat. I'm a bit surprised by the small amount of heat that comes out of the vents for the backseat passengers. There's plenty of heat for the front of the cabin. In addition to the vents on the back of the center console, there's vents underneath the front seats that direct air towards the back. I've tried different fan speeds and tried the three different vent position settings. I would have thought more seriously about getting the heated rear seats if I had known about this issue. Maybe there is something wrong with my car. It's less than a month old. Has anyone else had a problem with the back of their car not getting warm enough? It's been in the low 30s lately.

 

[Max*]

My kids sometimes complain that it's cold back there, I never thought of it as a problem with the Tesla; just kids being kids (and me setting the heat to a comfortable to me 67F...)

But now I'm interested...

 

[Philgrover]

Do you have range mode turned on? That will reduce the heater output and may be the cause? Have not had rear seat passengers enough yet to know.

 

[NewJerseyMS]

I have same exact problem. Almost nothing comes out of the vents. Although I did drive in the back in cold weather and it was fine. The front heat made it work.

 

[kort677]

the cold weather package would give you heated rear seats which would go a long way towards keeping those passengers warm.

 

[tinanbran]

I looked into this not that long ago as I felt very little air coming out the vent, I found that under the driver and passenger seats are more vents that seem to push a fair amount of air. We live in a cold climate and its been fine for us.

 

[Max*]

the cold weather package would give you heated rear seats which would go a long way towards keeping those passengers warm.

Except for those in carseats and boosters.

 

[tinanbran]

preheat is also very important. We also tend to overheat the car or any car for that matter, its easier to remove jackets if you are too warm then trying to keep the little ones the right temp. We normally set it to about 24c or 75F. Just my .02cents

 

[David29]

I don't have the third row child seats. I'm just talking about the regular backseat. I'm a bit surprised by the small amount of heat that comes out of the vents for the backseat passengers. There's plenty of heat for the front of the cabin. In addition to the vents on the back of the center console, there's vents underneath the front seats that direct air towards the back. I've tried different fan speeds and tried the three different vent position settings. I would have thought more seriously about getting the heated rear seats if I had known about this issue. Maybe there is something wrong with my car. It's less than a month old. Has anyone else had a problem with the back of their car not getting warm enough? It's been in the low 30s lately.

I share your observation about the air flow. I occasionally carry adults in the back, but not children. I do not get complaints but then, some people might be too polite to complain. (I do usually ask if people are comfortable, and I do have the rear set heaters and people do enjoy that feature.) Have you been on any trips long enough (say, 30 minutes or more) for temps to stabilize? If not, it may just be that the rear seats space heats up more slowly. I have ridden in the back seat myself, but only once or twice and don't remember how good or bad it was....And I do agree that thorough preheating can probably help.

 

[Mknac]

I think the air flow in my MS is bad to. I can't feel any heat on my legs when the heater is on. My feet are always cold in the MS. Other cars I've owned when you direct the heat to the bottom you can feel it.

When I put my hands on the vents for the back in the center the air flow is week. I didn't know there were air vents under the seat.

But my air conditioning works great.

 

[Max*]

I think the air flow in my MS is bad to. I can't feel any heat on my legs when the heater is on. My feet are always cold in the MS. Other cars I've owned when you direct the heat to the bottom you can feel it.

When I put my hands on the vents for the back in the center the air flow is week. I didn't know there were air vents under the seat.

But my air conditioning works great.

That's "normal". There's a different thread of people complaining of cold feet after one of the updates. Tesla never fixed it.

 

[David29]

When I have had cold feet, on a long trip last winter, I was able to remedy that by manually setting the airflow down, and increasing either the fan speed or the temp, forget which. I just remember that it worked. The Auto setting might be keeping the temp sensor warm enough but your feet are in a colder spot than the temp sensor....

 

[whatthe2]

I don't have the third row child seats. I'm just talking about the regular backseat. I'm a bit surprised by the small amount of heat that comes out of the vents for the backseat passengers. There's plenty of heat for the front of the cabin. In addition to the vents on the back of the center console, there's vents underneath the front seats that direct air towards the back. I've tried different fan speeds and tried the three different vent position settings. I would have thought more seriously about getting the heated rear seats if I had known about this issue. Maybe there is something wrong with my car. It's less than a month old. Has anyone else had a problem with the back of their car not getting warm enough? It's been in the low 30s lately.

This is something I've been debating as well. I'm not currently a Tesla owner, but looking at getting an MS. I live in Denver and it's in the single digits here today and have been debating the cold weather package. I've heard that if you pre-heat the car while charging, it can significantly reduce the need for the cold weather package. Curious if that is the solution or if the cold weather package is the way to go?

 

[NewJerseyMS]

You need the weather package more in the cold. The seat heaters work well and reduce the heater need. Range will be hit really hard (probably 25-30% if not more) and weather package can only help offset that.

 

[David29]

You need the weather package more in the cold. The seat heaters work well and reduce the heater need. Range will be hit really hard (probably 25-30% if not more) and weather package can only help offset that.

Bear in mind that the front seat heaters are standard equipment, so the cold weather package only makes a difference to cabin heating for the rear seats, so it depends upon how much you expect to use rear seats. On the other hand, I find the heated steering wheel to be very advantageous, and the heated parking space for the wipers can be helpful, too.

 

[MH_1]

I observed a similar behaviour. While I have heated rear seats, I still find a warm and cosy environment for my passengers as important. So I manually tried out a few things with outside temperature around 20F. And here is what I observed:
1. When on auto (internal temp set at 71F), the heating mostly applies foot-level vents, changing from time to time to foot-level vents and windshield vents simultaneously. The rear vents blowing no air at all.
2. I changed the heating to 75F and set the vent speed manually to 9. Additionally I applied foot-level vents and face level vent simultaneously. (I realised, that only face-level vent does bring some air circulation to the rear vents.) The following thing happened:
Of the four front rear vents, 3 vents blew nice and warm air, but 1 front rear vent only blew cold air (the left vent of the passenger side - see picture, the vent circled in white). The rear vent blew the exact same cold air.

I have not been able to find any manual setting that produced warm air going to the rear vents. Only cold air - or no air at all.

Now I wonder: is this "normal"? Has anyone observed that warm air goes through the rear vents? If yes: what set-up of the heating did cause warm air going through the rear vents?