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Model 3 + Snow Exposure = Frustration

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I've never had a car that, under those conditions, would not freeze up and make entry difficult. Melting snow followed by a hard freeze is impossible to design around. Volvo, Ford, VW, it doesn't matter, they all freeze shut under those difficult conditions. Sometimes some hard pounding with the heel of your closed fist will do the trick (but I can understand being reluctant to pound a car you typically only baby). I've even resorted to peeing on the doors when returning from a backcountry ski trip and there was no hot water or electricity handy. No, it wan't a Tesla, fortunately, Tesla's don't have keyholes. Because keyholes are the really stubborn thing to get unfrozen.

I cringe when people act like the Model 3 (or any Tesla for that matter) is somehow different from other cars because the designers are all from "California". Some people even pretend they are all from "Southern California". It makes no sense, Tesla is composed of people from all over and are no more likely to freeze shut than any other car - it's mostly a function of the conditions, not the car.
To be fair I've owned 4 cars before the Model 3, all in this climate, none of which had this issue. They did not have frameless windows, but I never recall not being able to use the door handle, or the gas cap being frozen.
 
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To be fair I've owned 4 cars before the Model 3, all in this climate, none of which had this issue. They did not have frameless windows, but I never recall not being able to use the door handle, or the gas cap being frozen.

Climate is different from weather. But do you mind sharing the make/model of cars that don't freeze shut when it snows, melts and then freezes hard?
 
Climate is different from weather. But do you mind sharing the make/model of cars that don't freeze shut when it snows, melts and then freezes hard?
Hondas and Hyundais. Sure they ice over during extreme conditions, but can be easily remedied with an ice scraper. The problem with Model 3 is that while beautiful, its not easy to remove the ice from the handle or charge port. Honestly I would rather have a regular handle. The charge port should have some kind of rubber cover on it, which I'm sure will be/is available from some 3rd party supplier. Not too sure what can be done about the frameless windows, might be just something we have to live with given the design.
 
Hondas and Hyundais. Sure they ice over during extreme conditions, but can be easily remedied with an ice scraper.

A Google search for "prevent door seals from icing up" shows this is a real problem. But I didn't see any Tesla's in the links, just ICE cars. Any car will ice up in freezing rain, etc. and an ice scraper is not the solution in those links. Most of them deal with seals freezing. This is not even close to being unique to Tesla.

I put Gummi Pfledge on my door seals last October and haven't had any problems even after nasty freeze/thaw events.
★ NEW Gummi Pflege Car Auto Door Seal Rubber Care Treatment Germany BMW Audi VW | eBay
The most I've had to do is hit the door handle with the heel of my closed fist a couple of times. I've had to do that on every car I've ever owned. Disclaimer: I'm a frequent snow skier so I see more than my share of winter nasties.

I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. It's called winter, it happens with every car, deal with it.
 
Hey, sorry for the bad experience. I'll tell you what I do. I find that I can always open the rear trunk in cold weather. I will open the rear trunk and get a bottle of Isopropyl alcohol (with a spray atomizer on top) and a piece of microfiber cloth. Spraying the door handle will unfreeze it. Make sure you spray the driver's side window as well. Wipe IPA off with microfiber towel.
 
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A Google search for "prevent door seals from icing up" shows this is a real problem. But I didn't see any Tesla's in the links, just ICE cars. Any car will ice up in freezing rain, etc. and an ice scraper is not the solution in those links. Most of them deal with seals freezing. This is not even close to being unique to Tesla.

I put Gummi Pfledge on my door seals last October and haven't had any problems even after nasty freeze/thaw events.
★ NEW Gummi Pflege Car Auto Door Seal Rubber Care Treatment Germany BMW Audi VW | eBay
The most I've had to do is hit the door handle with the heel of my closed fist a couple of times. I've had to do that on every car I've ever owned. Disclaimer: I'm a frequent snow skier so I see more than my share of winter nasties.

I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. It's called winter, it happens with every car, deal with it.
Im just speaking of personal experience. I agree every car freezes, but seems to be Model 3 is more prone to it than others. Although I like the car I'm not going to pretend thats its perfect. Also I'm not saying this is a deal breaker, just looking for a solution and what other people have done.
 
Im just speaking of personal experience. I agree every car freezes, but seems to be Model 3 is more prone to it than others. Although I like the car I'm not going to pretend thats its perfect. Also I'm not saying this is a deal breaker, just looking for a solution and what other people have done.

I also put CRC silicone spray on the charge port door arm as a preventive measure.
 
I have a similar product (silicone lube) that I've applied around the top seals of the windows. However my problem seems to be the windows freezing inside of the door under the bottom seal. I've read that applying the lubricant at this location will cause large streaking on the windows every time you open/close them for a long time to come...

There ix nothing to freeze in there. There is nothing for water to stick to and freeze. I've had the door opened many many times.

Its no different than an ICE car.

Tesla's don't have special windows.
 
Let me preface this by saying the Model 3 is a great car and I love it...on most days. That being said, I was quite frustrated last night after I had a day of snow during the morning, followed by melting temperatures, followed by a very cold evening. I had to move the car off the street and into my driveway but everything on the car was frozen! There was not too much visible ice on the car, but the door handle, windows, and charge port were frozen shut. Upon being unable to get inside, I turned the heating on in the car with the app to defrost it. 30 min later, still frozen! I finally managed to get the door handle to budge with some banging around but as a result the door came open while the window was still frozen. Now I couldn't close the door in -15C (5F) weather! I did my best to close the door as much as I could and cranked the heat to full blast to try and thaw the window. While waiting I found a suggestion of someone recommending to use a credit card between the window and bottom seal to separate it from the ice. I did that and definitely felt a lot of ice inside the door under the seal that was keeping the window frozen. Unfortunately this did not immediately resolve the issue, the window still would not go down. After 20 more minutes of defrosting the window finally came loose and I was able to close the door. Good, now I can go home and relax right? WRONG! Tried to plug the car in to charge, since nearly 1hr of full blast heat almost killed the little charge I had left, but the charge port would not come open due to freezing. I pried it open, but there was ice inside of the charge port prohibiting me from inserting the charger! 10 min later of trying to chip and clear the ice away with a screw driver it finally went in and started charging.

This car preforms great in above freezing temps, but WOW what a frustrating experience. Anyone else experiencing this? I was expecting having occasional issues with this that could be resolved by 10min of preheating since I knew this was a frameless design, but not to this extent! Seems the Model 3 could use some better weather sealing, or stronger window actuators.

Just scrape your windows with a window scraper. Don't wait for the defroster to melt the ice. As for the thaw/freeze/precipitation cycle, that's just kind of life with any car in a place that gets those cycles. Remember having to buy lock cylinder de-icer so you could get your key in and turn the damn thing?

Anyway, silicone lube on the seals will keep the ice from sticking too bad, scraping the ice off your windows, and then between the seals is pretty standard fare for everyone in the winter.

Just kidding, run a 120 volt line out to the car and keep it conditioned maybe? I would also lube the top seals on the drivers door.

A 120v 15A circuit doesn't supply nearly enough power to keep the climate system running without draining the battery. Inside my garage on a -6C day, the car pulls 4kW from my HPWC after the cabin is warmed up. When it's first warming, it easily draws all 11kW available to it.

In the Tesla Service presentation there's mention of charge port redesign which drains off moisture better. The new ports aren't in stock yet but Tesla will be replacing the ports of those who have problems and take into Service.

This is to address charger cables frozen into the port. It doesn't do anything for a frozen door. The best way I've seen to handle a frozen shut charge door is to clear all the ice off it by gently banging it to break it off, to warm it up so the ice melts, or to pry the door gently.
 
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Im just speaking of personal experience. I agree every car freezes, but seems to be Model 3 is more prone to it than others. Although I like the car I'm not going to pretend thats its perfect. Also I'm not saying this is a deal breaker, just looking for a solution and what other people have done.

I don't agree that the model 3 is more prone than others concerning freezing.
 
Make sure you double tap defrost button so that it glows red and not a single tap that glows blue.

I’ve been lucky to not get caught in an ice covered model 3. I read enough to know it’s a challenge.
My wife complained for months that her defroster was weak, I came checked the car out and sure enough she wasn't double tapping the Model S defroster heater to turn from blue (cold) to red (hot)....
 
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Had my Toyota freeze shut. But the handle was still lose. Unfortunately when I pulled it the ice on the seal suck and tore all the way around the door.

I've never torn a seal on any of my long list of cars but that is only because I know if the door is frozen shut to the seal I need to pound around the perimeter with the heel of a closed fist while gently applying a pulling force to the handle. This has always worked for me in the past without damage even when the door was really frozen HARD to the seal. But it can take a while to get it to release.

Since I'm using Gummi Pfludge on the Tesla seals it looks like that might make it much less likely that the seal will freeze to the glass. The water-based coating dries to a very slippery feel. It seems to fill any microscopic pores in the seal material. So far, so good.
 
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My wife complained for months that her defroster was weak, I came checked the car out and sure enough she wasn't double tapping the Model S defroster heater to turn from blue (cold) to red (hot)....

Good find. Also, if you plan to use the cabin heater remotely to thaw out the cabin, If your heater is on "Manual" when turning off the car in the evening, it's a good idea (during freezing weather) to make sure the A/C is "off" and the fan is on a high enough setting to thaw out the cabin in the morning. Sometimes I use A/C to defog window glass in humid weather and forget to turn it off. This greatly reduces the speed of defrosting the entire cabin.
 
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