Pre-Conditioning / Remote Heating / Seat Heaters

[DaBagBoy]

I'm confused about the ability to start the heat and seat heaters from the Tesla App.

Sometimes when I pre-condition (heat) the car the heat turns on with no seat heaters, sometimes it defaults to the first (low) setting on all 5 seat heaters, and sometimes it defaults to the second (medium) setting on all of the seat heaters?

Is there much or any "logic" to how the seat heaters are turned on?

Usually if I will be the only one in the car I have to click the other four seat heaters off, and turn the drivers heater to high?

Then it occurred to me that maybe I should leave them all on to precondition the battery as I have definitely noticed the difference in our cold Michigan winters.

 

[jsmay311]

Is there much or any "logic" to how the seat heaters are turned on?

I believe the initial seat heater power level is based on the current cabin temp. Colder = higher power.

Usually if I will be the only one in the car I have to click the other four seat heaters off, and turn the drivers heater to high?

Holding down one of the seat "buttons" in the app for 3-5 seconds will change the power levels for all seats to their previous settings.

Then it occurred to me that maybe I should leave them all on to precondition the battery

The seat heaters will not heat the battery.

 

[dsvick]

The seat heaters will not heat the battery.

Not directly, but I think he is implying that having all the seats on high will draw more from the battery which should warm the battery faster. While that may be true, I'd be willing to bet that the difference is negligible.

 

[DaBagBoy]

Thanks, Aside from turning on the climate control or charging.....is there another way to pre-condition the car?

 

[SD_Engnr]

Thanks, Aside from turning on the climate control or charging.....is there another way to pre-condition the car?

Climate controlled garage.

All jokes aside, I think it's still just a manual operation. I'd love a scheduled climate control similar to the scheduled charging.

 

[viperssd]

I noticed on my loaner S, there is an option for it to learn your schedule and condition the car automatically so if you leave at the same time every morning it will just be ready to go. This seems pretty cool, but manually scheduling would be just as useful!

 

[2012MS85]

I noticed on my loaner S, there is an option for it to learn your schedule and condition the car automatically so if you leave at the same time every morning it will just be ready to go. This seems pretty cool, but manually scheduling would be just as useful!

Wow, what year and specs can you share on your loaner S? Is it unique to that vehicle? I thought that most features like this would be part of a software update and available to all similar models (S), but maybe I'm mistaken? Thanks in advance for any details you can share about this...

 

[viperssd]

Wow, what year and specs can you share on your loaner S? Is it unique to that vehicle? I thought that most features like this would be part of a software update and available to all similar models (S), but maybe I'm mistaken? Thanks in advance for any details you can share about this...

The loaner is a 2018 75D, pretty basic model, the option is called 'Smart Preconditioning'

 

[viper151]

Wow, what year and specs can you share on your loaner S? Is it unique to that vehicle? I thought that most features like this would be part of a software update and available to all similar models (S), but maybe I'm mistaken? Thanks in advance for any details you can share about this...

I recently bought a used 2015 MS 85D and it already has the smart preconditioning option but I believe it's a really old feature given that I can find threads here from 2016 for that feature.
It's the last one on the vehicle settings

 

[t0mmyr]

I’ve not figured out any logic to it.

Running the app on my iPhone 7+ and trying to change the seat settings feels very laggy to me in its current state.

This evening I warmed my cabin to 75f as it had been parked in a semi covered outside garage all day and was very chilly. The app showed red arrows and all 5 seats warming @ 1 bar. As I walked to the elevator I changed the driver seat to 2 or 3 bars. I don’t remember if all the other seats remained at 1 bar or cleared themselves off but when I got in the car my seat was nice and warm for my bottom and I placed my palm on the passenger seat and it was cold! I’m starting to think the Tesla app is lieing to us when it begins to warm sometimes.

I really wish the model 3 had a heated steering wheel. And I wish there was a way to enable seat warmers via app without first having to turn on the heat/ac.

My 09/17 model s 75d has smart pre conditioning, the mix of my wife and my driving the car in its first months seemed to throw off the conditioning and there were times I’d find the car was running the ac for hours for no reason. You can clear the smart conditioning and re-train it if you have a steady schedule I’d imagine. After a few weeks I just turned the feature off, enabled energy saving, disabled always connected and the car has been perfect ever since, absolutely no more vamp drain at night if left undisturbed. I really wish my model 3 didn’t lose 2-7 miles a night and had customizable power management options available to us.