Pre-conditioning/Defrosting

[ShadowSix]

How is this system supposed to work now? Recently when I've set a precondition departure time, the car has warmed the cabin to the chosen temperature. That's fine, but I'm sure that previously when ambient temps were below a certain point it would automatically include defrosting options (max heating etc). What I've been walking out to in the mornings (-2 Celsius) is a slightly defrosted car, completely misted up on the inside, all windows.

The misting up inside might be an issue with my car, I don't know yet (it seems reluctant to engage A/C sometimes), but in temperatures bellow 0, shouldn't the car be defrosting itself? Otherwise I'm not sure what point timed cabin conditioning serves if I have to manually set it to defrost in the morning anyway.

 

[stolengoat]

I share these questions too - it seems to have changed behaviour!

 

[Durzel]

There is a "Defrost" option in the app, you have to pull up the bottom tray on the Climate screen, if that makes sense.

I don't know what it does differently to just turning on the AC, because whenever I've done that the graphic shows the front and rear demisters going on (at least graphically).

What I want to know is what option in the Climate section of the app (or elsewhere) actually preconditions the car itself - i.e. the battery - for departure? Is switching the AC on sufficient for that? I ask because it doesn't take too long for the app to notify me that the cabin is at the desired temprature, but I have no idea how warm the battery is.

 

[Mrklaw]

Are there no heaters on the door handles? Just defrosted mine but couldn’t get in because the handles were frozen shut!

Edit: and drivers side wing mirror won’t unfold

 

[Durzel]

No door handle heaters I'm afraid. Tesla guidance is that you're supposed to give it a firm whack with the side of your fist to break any ice.

Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Understand various things you can do to ensure optimal performance in cold weather.

www.tesla.com

 

[s88ats]

Are there no heaters on the door handles? Just defrosted mine but couldn’t get in because the handles were frozen shut!

Edit: and drivers side wing mirror won’t unfold

No heaters present. Once you set the temp to 'defrost' it blows hot air to handles and charger port along with front and rear windows.

 

[Irata]

I think the car uses the internal humidity sensor to help decide when to use the AC.

However, I also think a threshold has changed and it maybe related to Tesla tweaking the system because of the extreme cold heat pump issues going on at the moment. It is more reluctant to use AC in cold weather than previously and I expect this will be tweaked again in all these patch releases.

Also, check air recirculation is turned off for those misting up during preconditioning. I noticed mine got turned on during the last software update and this setting seems to have become sticky until manually turned off.

The door handles are not air right, the theory being the hot air forced through should help defrost - but I accept in reality not really. But again, if air recirculation is on then it probably won't work anyway.

 

[MrBadger]

Are there no heaters on the door handles? Just defrosted mine but couldn’t get in because the handles were frozen shut!

Edit: and drivers side wing mirror won’t unfold

They do leak air so need to warm up hot in plenty of time otherwise a palm thud should free things up. WD40 on the pivot points and other winter suggestions in the manual. But its not always easy as unless things have changed, a wet dew suddenly freezing will deposit water in the buckets of the handles will 'glue' things tightly shut. The other issue is windows freezing along their bottom edge ('Gummy pfledge' sp? helps with the actual door seals) which might prevent them dropping enough to clear the trim. I've owned cars with rimless doors all my motoring life and never had the basic issues that the Model 3 suffers with unless you are prepared to spend half hour defrosting and, if on shore power, several kWh at peak carbon intensity.

Repeat some of the above for charge port door. I couldn't get ours to fully close yesterday (despite making sure that I cleared as much ice off the mechanism and seal as possible) with matters being made worse by the app constantly telling me to press the button on the charge wand to open the flap.

edit: I also wipe the door mirror supports but tbh, I really must turn off folding this time of year but its such a useful visual indicator if car is locked or not.

My son was politely reminded not to buy a Tesla until they can make a winter ready car that doesn't need forward planning to use (ie emergency dash situation). Thankfully only a big issue a few times a year.

 

[Alan J]

There is a "Defrost" option in the app, you have to pull up the bottom tray on the Climate screen, if that makes sense.

I don't know what it does differently to just turning on the AC, because whenever I've done that the graphic shows the front and rear demisters going on (at least graphically).

What I want to know is what option in the Climate section of the app (or elsewhere) actually preconditions the car itself - i.e. the battery - for departure? Is switching the AC on sufficient for that? I ask because it doesn't take too long for the app to notify me that the cabin is at the desired temprature, but I have no idea how warm the battery is.

Thanks for pointing that out it is definitely not intuitive on the App there's zero indication that there are other Options below the main Climate Screen.

 

[Adopado]

Thanks for pointing that out it is definitely not intuitive on the App there's zero indication that there are other Options below the main Climate Screen.

True. (I initially thought @Durzel was stating the obvious and would "get his head in his hands" in your response e.g. "no sh*t Sherlock" ... but you're quite right, it's easy to miss!)

 

[DM206433]

As we live on such a quiet estate, the defrost button is the 'upset the neighbours' button for me but it does seem to work fairly well. It sets the heat to max and absolutely blasts the cabin from what I can tell.

 

[Mrklaw]

As we live on such a quiet estate, the defrost button is the 'upset the neighbours' button for me but it does seem to work fairly well. It sets the heat to max and absolutely blasts the cabin from what I can tell.

is that similar to the neighbours’ ‘pollute the street while they leave their cars runnign on the drive to defrost’ button?

It is quite loud but not that bad once you’re indoors - even in my ‘office’ which is the old garage I’m really close to it through a window and its not objectionable. Does sound loud standing next to it though.

 

[Durzel]

True. (I initially thought @Durzel was stating the obvious and would "get his head in his hands" in your response e.g. "no sh*t Sherlock" ... but you're quite right, it's easy to miss!)

I only found the option by chance the other day, when accidentally swiping up from the bottom. It isn't obvious at all (to me) that there are additional controls down there, or even what "Defrost" does above and beyond just turning the AC on.

I don't even know how to properly precondition my car for adhoc departure now. Do I just turn the AC on? (which, as said, appears to show the windscreens being heated graphically), or should I be using "Defrost" ?

 

[DM206433]

is that similar to the neighbours’ ‘pollute the street while they leave their cars runnign on the drive to defrost’ button?

It is quite loud but not that bad once you’re indoors - even in my ‘office’ which is the old garage I’m really close to it through a window and its not objectionable. Does sound loud standing next to it though.

Yeah I was jesting really - I do often get woken up by someone running their engine for 20 minutes to defrost their car - or the sound of scrapers, etc. so its fair game as far as I'm concerned

 

[ShadowSix]

There is a "Defrost" option in the app, you have to pull up the bottom tray on the Climate screen, if that makes sense.

I know about the defrost option, and I'm now reverting to that manually. The question I was really getting at is, why doesn't a timed precondition automatically detect that the car might need defrosting and set defrost without my intervention. I'm sure it's done that in the past.

Bottom line for me right now is that scheduling a precondition is worse than useless because of the state of the car when I get to it, so I'm now manually flicking on defrost of a morning so that the car is in a drivable state when I need it.

 

[Blockhead748]

There is a "Defrost" option in the app, you have to pull up the bottom tray on the Climate screen, if that makes sense.

I don't know what it does differently to just turning on the AC, because whenever I've done that the graphic shows the front and rear demisters going on (at least graphically).

What I want to know is what option in the Climate section of the app (or elsewhere) actually preconditions the car itself - i.e. the battery - for departure? Is switching the AC on sufficient for that? I ask because it doesn't take too long for the app to notify me that the cabin is at the desired temprature, but I have no idea how warm the battery is.

 

[Blockhead748]

From what I’ve read, and admittedly have only owned my 2022 M3 since December 24, figure 35-45 minutes to precondition the battery, depending upon the outside temperature. On the IOS app, use Schedule, set using Departure and time. It seemed to work fine and I did not get the notice that my Regenerative brakes would not operate at full capacity.

 

[gangzoom]

I'm not 100% the difference between pre-condition and defrost, but defrost doesn't hold back on energy consumption when activated!!

-4 today, the car was pulling the max 7KW from the wall plug with defrost activated.

 

[Adopado]

I only found the option by chance the other day, when accidentally swiping up from the bottom. It isn't obvious at all (to me) that there are additional controls down there, or even what "Defrost" does above and beyond just turning the AC on.

I don't even know how to properly precondition my car for adhoc departure now. Do I just turn the AC on? (which, as said, appears to show the windscreens being heated graphically), or should I be using "Defrost" ?

Manually turning on the climate with the app will also cause the precondition of the battery to kick in if it's cold enough to need it. No need to use full defrost if the glass is already clear of ice.

 

[browellm]

I think Defrost is the app is equivalent to selecting full defrost inside the car: Temp gets set to 'Hi', air direction flow set to max (or close to max), airflow direction is pushed to the front windscreen.

Agree with @Adopado that battery preconditioning is invoked independently of the Defrost option, and will happen if either of climate or defrost is chosen.