Using climate keeper to prevent freezing of liquids in car overnight

[Cuttin]

Doing a road trip and subzero temperatures with multiple stops. Will have multiple liquids in the car and would ideally like to leave it in the car overnight. Ideally will be stopping at places with the destination charger.

I have only previously used climate keeper during the summer to keep the car cool and extreme circumstances when I’ve had perishable items from the supermarket in the car, I have kept it on low and even in the hot hot temperatures of the summer it kept internal temperature in the mid 40s so that was an excellent solution.

Has anyone used climate keeper in subzero temps in this scenario. I would assume I would put it on a low setting so if the temperature outside would be 25 or 30°, I would assume that it would turn on the heat at some point. However, would be really curious to know if anybody has done this as ideally I would like to keep it just above freezing but not really heat it up. Not to waste battery. From my understanding I think the lowest actual temperature would be 62 or 63°. It if I keep it on low what would happen.

 

[zoomer0056]

I think it's Cabin Ovrheat Protection, not climate keep. Climate keep would suggest you can choose and temp. Maybe you can use dog mode or camp mode.

 

[Cuttin]

I think it's Cabin Ovrheat Protection, not climate keep. Climate keep would suggest you can choose and temp. Maybe you can use dog mode or camp mode.

Thank you. But no.

Cabin overheat is separate and kicks in at high temps. 90-100 so lcd in car and other items don’t melt.

Climate keeper is meant for any temp. Where you set it and it keeps that temp in car.

I use it in summer all the time for few hours here and there and in winter also. Keeps the car nice and no worry about forgetting to preheat or precool.

you can set it t a specific temp or set it to HIGH or LOW. which just blasts either heat or AC depending. As my example it very hot summer I set it on LOW and it keeps car at mid 40s temps. Perfect so that salmon I bought didn’t spoil for few hours.

But I have never done other way around. In sub zero temps keep it on LOW setting. Which in my head use heat and not AC if the exterior temp is sub zero and internal temp is say 50 degrees.

 

[Cuttin]

I think it's Cabin Ovrheat Protection, not climate keep. Climate keep would suggest you can choose and temp. Maybe you can use dog mode or camp mode.

Also I have not used camp mode but dog mode only allows temps that are compatible with life. I’m not looking for that.

 

[scottf200]

Doing a road trip and subzero temperatures with multiple stops. Will have multiple liquids in the car and would ideally like to leave it in the car overnight. Ideally will be stopping at places with the destination charger.

I have only previously used climate keeper during the summer to keep the car cool and extreme circumstances when I’ve had perishable items from the supermarket in the car, I have kept it on low and even in the hot hot temperatures of the summer it kept internal temperature in the mid 40s so that was an excellent solution.

Has anyone used climate keeper in subzero temps in this scenario. I would assume I would put it on a low setting so if the temperature outside would be 25 or 30°, I would assume that it would turn on the heat at some point. However, would be really curious to know if anybody has done this as ideally I would like to keep it just above freezing but not really heat it up. Not to waste battery. From my understanding I think the lowest actual temperature would be 62 or 63°. It if I keep it on low what would happen

AFAIK, Camp mode keeps aux outlets on
Dog mode stops windows from being 'stepped' on and does the monitor display
Climate on is what I use when leaving someone else in the car or occasionally sleeping overnight.

You could test it overnight in your driveway or something. If you have TeslaFI-COM or the like you can see energy use. Unclear if you have a newer vehicle with a heatpump since your vehicle is not in the your sig.

 

[Cuttin]

AFAIK, Camp mode keeps aux outlets on
Dog mode stops windows from being 'stepped' on and does the monitor display
Climate on is what I use when leaving someone else in the car or occasionally sleeping overnight.

You could test it overnight in your driveway or something. If you have TeslaFI-COM or the like you can see energy use. Unclear if you have a newer vehicle with a heatpump since your vehicle is not in the your sig.

Ty. I’m not THAT worried about charge.

But the idea is If I set climate on LOW in freezing temps what temp would it keep the car at roughly?

I’ll have wine and other liquids in the car and don’t want it to freeze overnight. Setting climate on at the lowest exact temp, which I think is 62 or 63° would keep the temperature unnecessarily hot. Hence I would like to keep it at the LOW setting which I would assume would keep it in the mid 40s or so.

This has got to be a more common concern to more people. I cannot be the only one with this weird idea.

Like one time I had about 10 cases of wine in the car that I needed to keep overnight. Now that was a significant investment and some of those bottles were pricey so I went ahead and set the temperature at 72° and it kept fine overnight, I’ll be wasting a lot of battery.

For this current scenario is going to be a lot less liquids and I don’t really care about them that much so my main concern is them freezing

 

[Cuttin]

My monthlong roadtrip is tomorrow and unfortunately the temps are too high by me now to test it.

I will be in freezing temps tomorrow night. HOPEFULLY at a destination charger. In either scenario will test. I guess I’ll take the case of wine and see how it goes. Worst case will use some extra battery keeping temp up.

 

[Eric33432]

Good luck!

 

[father_of_6]

Like one time I had about 10 cases of wine in the car that I needed to keep overnight.

That's the punchline I was reading for. This seems like a really inefficient beverage cooler/warmer, and was trying to come up with a realistic use-case for such an endeavor. Cases of wine makes sense.

Just remember before you entrust the car with lots of very expensive wine - software updates have totally changed how some of the controls work on multiple occasions... so a trick that works one time might behave differently in the future. Probably worth confirming before leaving $10k worth of wine in the cabin overnight.

Somewhat related - I recently cut the hardwired electrical line to my gas boiler and wired a receptacle that plugs into itself. Then in the winter if we have a power outage, I can plug the boiler into a 100ft extension cord instead and run it out to the car to an inverter plugged into the 12v. It worked great, except it cut out when the car went to sleep. I turned sentry mode on and that seemed to do the trick, except it didn't... it kept it on for longer but eventually kicked off too. So once again, before entrusting the car with an expensive haul, make *certain* it works all night.

Good luck with this. It's one really great feature of EVs... the ability to use climate controls without running an engine, and for an extended amount of time.

 

[Cuttin]

Thank you for detailed reply.

The case with the 10 cases of wine was in the driveway of my mother’s home, worst case scenario, I would’ve had to transfer the cases into the house, which I obviously did not want to.

The use of my Tesla as a refrigerator with groceries is a quite common one in the hot summers that we get here. It is usually for Tops 1-2 hours but in once scenario, it was for about five or six hours, and it kept it pretty cold in very hot temps. This pic is one of those times that was just blowing my mind.

It is really incredible feature of our vehicles. while efficiency is plus or minus for the scenarios, The convenience is awesome.

But you can see how useful of a feature it is on long road trips where you are carrying some liquids or whatever other things that you have that you may not want to freeze in freezing temperatures. Well, obviously, it is much better when you plugged in but in either scenario having that option is incredible.

 

[Big Earl]

To answer your question about LO: it will not run any heat at all. Your minimum heat temperature is 61 or 62 - whatever it is.

 

[Cuttin]

To answer your question about LO: it will not run any heat at all. Your minimum heat temperature is 61 or 62 - whatever it is.

How do you know this?

I find it very weird for it to run AC when on LO setting even if the car internal temp is near freezing? Or will it just not run anything?

 

[scottf200]

But the idea is If I set climate on LOW in freezing temps what temp would it keep the car at roughly?

My '17 X goes from 60F to Low with the next arrow press. I'd used 60F if in doubt. I bet that is within +/- 3F.
If your temp at evening/night drops below 60F you could easily test this by looking at the app OR putting in a temp gauge that you could see when peaking in the window.

Also I use/love TeslaFI.com which allows me to have schedules (see image below). I could turn the HVAC on every hour for 5 minutes or whatever. As well, it has a log option where you could see the inside and outside temp of your car every minute (help->TeslaFI data feed).

Kyle has done several YT videos on these topics. Example:

Title: Model 3 Heater Race! Heat Pump vs PTC In -20F

To answer your question about LO: it will not run any heat at all. Your minimum heat temperature is 61 or 62 - whatever it is.

More details and source?

 

[Big Earl]

How do you know this?

I find it very weird for it to run AC when on LO setting even if the car internal temp is near freezing? Or will it just not run anything?

I never said anything about it running AC. I said putting the temperature on LO won’t run any heat. Your question was about preventing it from freezing, right? Setting it to LO will not prevent it from freezing.

 

[scottf200]

I said putting the temperature on LO won’t run any heat.

How do you know this? Were you running software that monitored it?

 

[Big Earl]

How do you know this? Were you running software that monitored it?

I've operated my vehicles in sub-freezing conditions and experimented with various HVAC settings. In my experience, LO doesn't run heat.

 

[scottf200]

I've operated my vehicles in sub-freezing conditions and experimented with various HVAC settings. In my experience, LO doesn't run heat.

Curious. That doesn't make any logical sense to me. Someday I may gather empirical evidence. TeslaFI data knows and can display both the temperature and if the heater is on minute by minute.

 

[Cuttin]

So for further follow up for those people on here, who are eagerly awaiting a rigorously tested scientific answer…

External temperature was 35 per the car, internal temperature was 39°. I turned it on the LO setting at 9:40 PM took another screenshot at 9:45 PM and then one more at 9:50 PM.

Immediately, I noticed that the cooling seats got turned on as you can see which means in my head the car is trying to maximally cool the cabin. Then the internal temperature went up from 39° to 47° within an 1-2 mins and stayed that way.

While further testing would probably help, at this point I would be comfortable leaving some liquids in my car in freezing temperatures keeping the setting and climate keeper at LO as it seems like it would keep it in the mid 40s and prevent those aforementioned liquids from freezing.

 

[Cuttin]

I've operated my vehicles in sub-freezing conditions and experimented with various HVAC settings. In my experience, LO doesn't run heat.

So as you could see in the previous post, I did kind of tested. Now I’m not an engineer so I don’t know exactly how these things work, but is it possible that it is not running heat but running the maximum cooling of the car and it is just that the HVAC capabilities of this unit in this car only bring it down to the mid 40s?

But that in my head does not make sense because I got to the same temperature when it was 35° outside and in my previous use of this which I previously posted the picture several posts back, the temperature outside was about 90°.

 

[Big Earl]

So as you could see in the previous post, I did kind of tested. Now I’m not an engineer so I don’t know exactly how these things work, but is it possible that it is not running heat but running the maximum cooling of the car and it is just that the HVAC capabilities of this unit in this car only bring it down to the mid 40s?

But that in my head does not make sense because I got to the same temperature when it was 35° outside and in my previous use of this which I previously posted the picture several posts back, the temperature outside was about 90°.

Did you have the system in automatic or manual? If automatic, the compressor was enabled. If manual, did you disable the compressor and set a manual fan speed?

LO with the compressor disabled will essentially do fan-only. On a non-heat pump car, enabling the compressor will do active cooling down to some lower limit of the system’s capabilities, although I don’t know what that limit is. On a heat pump car, I don’t know what it will do, but I suspect it will behave similarly.

Keeping climate on will keep the car computer running, which adds some heat to the interior simply by being on.

More rigorous testing would need to be performed to determine how well various settings protect the cabin from freezing.

I’m glad your wine is fine. Cheers.