Miraculous air conditioning

[Saghost]

have had my x for a few days. I assumed that I would be blasting the ac all summer because that's what I do with my ice car.

we have had many sunny days in a row of around 100 degrees and I have only had the fan on about half way and I have been very comfortable.

why is the model x the closest car I have ever owned by a long shot?

are all electric cars this way?

how can this be possible for a car without the sunshade with a gigantic windshield to be that cold in the summer?

One thing to keep in mind is the X has a built in advantage over most cars for the initial cool down.

Cabin overheat protection runs a fan to keep the cabin from getting over ~105 F while parked - so when you turn on the AC on a hot afternoon, it starts thirty or forty degrees cooler than the ICE car does.

(And you can turn it on before you get there so you never have to feel the initial cool down, too.)

 

[mxnym]

Really? My June 2018 X100D can get the cabin down from 100 F to about 70 F in just a few minutes. Nevertheless, I’m getting ceramic tint j stalled all around to reduce the amount of AC needed.

Really. In the sun at high temperatures. I have ceramic tint on front doors and AFAICT the rest of the glass already blocks some heat. The overheat protection keeps it below 105, but when I turn it on <30 minutes before my trip, it is blowing cold and my seat and steering wheel are cold, but there are still hot spots where my feet and head are. Perhaps the preconditioning doesn't recirculate, but either way every ICE vehicle with A/C that I have owned has cooled better than my X. Even after preconditioning, when it is 90+ out, it can hardly keep up.

 

[XwingTom]

Really. In the sun at high temperatures. I have ceramic tint on front doors and AFAICT the rest of the glass already blocks some heat. The overheat protection keeps it below 105, but when I turn it on <30 minutes before my trip, it is blowing cold and my seat and steering wheel are cold, but there are still hot spots where my feet and head are. Perhaps the preconditioning doesn't recirculate, but either way every ICE vehicle with A/C that I have owned has cooled better than my X. Even after preconditioning, when it is 90+ out, it can hardly keep up.

Yeah I tried it again today - I was driving home from work in one of the work vans and opened the app. I saw that the X was at 105F interior and turned on AC to 70F about 5 mins from home. I watched it all the way home and it was 70F as I turned onto my block. The car wasn't in direct sunlight - a bit of sun but a bit of haze (90F outside). I don't have any tint on it yet - getting it installed tomorrow & friday (SolarGard 3 ply ceramic 80%).

 

[mxnym]

Yeah I tried it again today - I was driving home from work in one of the work vans and opened the app. I saw that the X was at 105F interior and turned on AC to 70F about 5 mins from home. I watched it all the way home and it was 70F as I turned onto my block. The car wasn't in direct sunlight - a bit of sun but a bit of haze (90F outside). I don't have any tint on it yet - getting it installed tomorrow & friday (SolarGard 3 ply ceramic 80%).

The number the app reports doesn't necessarily mean much; I don't know where the sensor is located or looking. Regardless, your post made me decide to do some legwork, and the results make it appear to me that the A/C in the X is even more underpowered than I thought. Here's a rundown:

12:42 PM:

• 84F outside per wunderground app
• parked facing East in direct sunlight
• 104F in car per Tesla app
• climate on via Tesla app

12:47 PM:

• 73 in car per Tesla app

1:03 PM (was pulled away from phone at 12:47 until 1:03):

• 69 in car per Tesla app

1:06 PM:

• entered driver seat
• still hot in footwell
• still hot above shoulder point of seat (at lowest backmost not so reclined position)
• press brake pedal, my settings activate (all auto except air directed toward footwell & windshield in addition to main vents)
• begin driving South @ 55 MPH

1:08 PM:

• A/C settings screen starts showing "Limited by settings" (IOW "I'm underpowered")
• "Limited by settings" remains displayed for remainder of drive

1:16 PM:

• arrive at destination
• park facing East
• footwell comfortable now
• still hot above shoulder point of seat
• Keep Climate On (I don't change the defaults here since they revert back and won't affect Tesla app)

1:31 PM:

• entered driver seat
• warmer, but not hot in footwell
• not so hot above shoulder point of seat
• press brake pedal, my settings activate

1:36 PM:

• still parked facing East
• "Limited by settings" displaying again (could have come back up before 1:36; wasn't watching)
• begin driving North @ 55 MPH
• "Limited by settings" remains displayed for remainder of drive

1:48 PM:

• 85F outside per IC
• park facing North
• exit car and immediately load Tesla app
• 74F in car per Tesla app (IOW, A/C can't even keep up with "preconditioned" cabin when you try to actually cool all the space with it)

Those results are pretty far from the equator in temperatures that really aren't very extreme; I'm actually a bit nervous about road tripping to FL or TX (both places I plan to visit) in the X.

 

[KevinY]

I think the AC in the X is lacking. I've tinted the front windshield with 80%, front door glass with 35%. I use the FWD and panoramic Tesla sunscreen's.
I believe Tesla has gone form over function with the AC design.
I believe every other ICE car I own has better performing HVAC system.

 

[Big Earl]

have had my x for a few days. I assumed that I would be blasting the ac all summer because that's what I do with my ice car.

we have had many sunny days in a row of around 100 degrees and I have only had the fan on about half way and I have been very comfortable.

why is the model x the closest car I have ever owned by a long shot?

are all electric cars this way?

how can this be possible for a car without the sunshade with a gigantic windshield to be that cold in the summer?

In addition to many other things posted already, there isn’t a giant internal combustion engine under the hood cranking out tens of thousands of BTUs. It’s amazing how much less heat gets transmitted into the cabin in an electric car.

 

[TexasRat]

I don't have mine yet but I've been in 5 different Xes on test drives and loaners, as well as at least 2 different Ses. I found the AC to be hit or miss based on the vehicle. Some of the AC systems felt way too underpowered. Some of them felt amazing. I don't know what the difference was, but I want to say 10 - 20% of the vehicles I've tested have had amazing AC. It's pretty varied. This doesn't help, but it might explain why some people are reporting amazing AC and some say it's awful.

 

[Capt. Joe]

The 5 seater has either fewer vents, blower motors or compressors depending upon what you read. The bottom line is that it does not cool as well as the 6 and 7 seaters. The option description on the 6 and 7 seater options lists "Rear A/C and heating unit included".

Last month I took my 100D "S" on a long road trip from east to west coasts (10,000 miles) and out west Arizona and California I experienced my air conditioner struggling and blowing hot air every once and a while. It would only last for a minute or two and then go back to cold.. Could that be a compressor starting to fail ??

 

[DCGOO]

Last month I took my 100D "S" on a long road trip from east to west coasts (10,000 miles) and out west Arizona and California I experienced my air conditioner struggling and blowing hot air every once and a while. It would only last for a minute or two and then go back to cold.. Could that be a compressor starting to fail ??

It could be that I suppose. But when that happens you need to be on the phone with the help desk, or your home SC. If you are out of cell coverage, make a note of the precise time of the event and call it in later. Your SC can log in to the car and see exactly what the situation is. Precise time of the symptom is very helpful to techs looking for errors in log files. "It was blowing hot air today at 14:54, went back to cold at 14:58"

No one here can do anything to help you.

 

[mknox]

FWIW, we've been having really hot and humid weather (near 100F) in my area. My X 100D a/c is fantastic. You could hang meat in the car.

 

[drmichaels9]

have had my x for a few days. I assumed that I would be blasting the ac all summer because that's what I do with my ice car.

we have had many sunny days in a row of around 100 degrees and I have only had the fan on about half way and I have been very comfortable.

why is the model x the closest car I have ever owned by a long shot?

are all electric cars this way?

how can this be possible for a car without the sunshade with a gigantic windshield to be that cold in the summer?

I find my S is incredibly quick at cooling the car down... and being able to turn the A/C on remotely through the mobile app is key. I bought a bunch of fruits this past weekend and left them in the car for a bit. Luckily I kept the A/C on while I was away and it's like I had kept them in the fridge! This car is just too damn amazing

 

[XwingTom]

Ok just got back from a road trip (Bay Area to Seattle and back). We drove through several 100+F days and through the Crater Lake fire and our AC was locked at 68F the whole time. Zero complaints except it was too cold at some points even! I used the “keep cliamte on” feature a few times to keep our dog in the car when we went into non-dog friendly places and it worked like a charm. I kept a close eye on the app and it kept the cabin at 72F even with it 107F outside (I had it set at 68F) so it did struggle to keep up a little bit but overall worked fine and our pup was happy. I did have solar gard ceramic tint 80% on all the windows except the front windshield (the installer ran out of film). I’m going back next week to get the front installed to complete the whole thermal reduction thing

 

[Padelford]

I’m currently not thrilled about my A/C performance. I just had a service center check it, and they said it’s working fine. Sigh.

One issue of late is that the fans in the front of the vehicle seem to be running full-blast (like at a Supercharger on a hot day) while the A/C is on. Do others notice this? It’s loud enough to hear inside with the windows up. Meanwhile, sort-of cool air comes from the vents. My thought was that some of the A/C system charge had leaked out.

 

[Saghost]

I’m currently not thrilled about my A/C performance. I just had a service center check it, and they said it’s working fine. Sigh.

One issue of late is that the fans in the front of the vehicle seem to be running full-blast (like at a Supercharger on a hot day) while the A/C is on. Do others notice this? It’s loud enough to hear inside with the windows up. Meanwhile, sort-of cool air comes from the vents. My thought was that some of the A/C system charge had leaked out.

That happens sometimes, especially if I'm walking up to the car as it's pre-conditioning while parked on a hot summer day.

 

[mknox]

One issue of late is that the fans in the front of the vehicle seem to be running full-blast (like at a Supercharger on a hot day) while the A/C is on.

Oh yeah, that is just how these cars are, it seems. My 2013 S roared like that and so does my 2018 X. I had used the remote HVAC feature the other day, and could hear my car roaring away far across the parking lot before I was anywhere near it. Tesla once told me you can hear the a/c because there is no ICE to mask the sound, but I never heard my ICE roar like that from the other side of the parking lot if I used remote start.

I once even had a pedestrian approach me and say he thought something was wrong with my "engine" because of all the noise.

 

[Saghost]

Oh yeah, that is just how these cars are, it seems. My 2013 S roared like that and so does my 2018 X. I had used the remote HVAC feature the other day, and could hear my car roaring away far across the parking lot before I was anywhere near it. Tesla once told me you can hear the a/c because there is no ICE to mask the sound, but I never heard my ICE roar like that from the other side of the parking lot if I used remote start.

I once even had a pedestrian approach me and say he thought something was wrong with my "engine" because of all the noise.

Well, preconditioning on a hot day is something of a worst case. There's no air flow except what the fans generate, the air that's available is all heated from the parking lot asphalt, and the car is trying to drag the cabin down thirty or forty degrees in just a few minutes.

Your ICE car can't push the AC compressor anywhere near as hard, because it's driven by the engine which is only turning at idle speeds. That means the AC can't cool the car anywhere near as fast - or dump as much heat into the condenser cores to need the air flow.

 

[mxnym]

I once even had a pedestrian approach me and say he thought something was wrong with my "engine" because of all the noise.

I get the occasional "did you know your car was running?" from people even though it's electric. I can explain that it's cabin overheat protection or I'm preconditioning, but it feels embarrassing since the vehicle is electric, all I can do is smh.

ETA (this was posted while I was typing):

Well, preconditioning on a hot day is something of a worst case. There's no air flow except what the fans generate, the air that's available is all heated from the parking lot asphalt, and the car is trying to drag the cabin down thirty or forty degrees in just a few minutes.

Your ICE car can't push the AC compressor anywhere near as hard, because it's driven by the engine which is only turning at idle speeds. That means the AC can't cool the car anywhere near as fast - or dump as much heat into the condenser cores to need the air flow.

Great point, but I'll continue to feel embarrassed.

 

[Saghost]

I get the occasional "did you know your car was running?" from people even though it's electric. I can explain that it's cabin overheat protection or I'm preconditioning, but it feels embarrassing since the vehicle is electric, all I can do is smh.

ETA (this was posted while I was typing):
Great point, but I'll continue to feel embarrassed.

It's a Tesla. On, Off, locked, unlocked, even drive and reverse are all just ephemeral states of mind for the car.

 

[mxnym]

It's a Tesla. On, Off, locked, unlocked, even drive and reverse are all just ephemeral states of mind for the car.

I agree, but I don't even want to be involved in the aftermath that could manifest if I said "no it's not."

 

[mknox]

Well, preconditioning on a hot day is something of a worst case. There's no air flow except what the fans generate, the air that's available is all heated from the parking lot asphalt, and the car is trying to drag the cabin down thirty or forty degrees in just a few minutes.

Your ICE car can't push the AC compressor anywhere near as hard, because it's driven by the engine which is only turning at idle speeds. That means the AC can't cool the car anywhere near as fast - or dump as much heat into the condenser cores to need the air flow.

I do understand all of that, and it makes sense... except that my former ICE would have the cabin cooled down in exactly the same amount of time under the same conditions when I used Remote Start, but without all the racket.