# Heated Seat Behavior



## AndrewF (Jul 3, 2018)

I have noticed some particular behavior of the heated seat system that isn't documented in the manual and that I thought i would share.

In my ICE vehicle, if I've been using the heated seats, they are automatically re-set to the "off" state every time the car is turned off. This is not the case in the M3.

It appears that the rear seat heaters are returned to "off" when you park the car and walk away. Next time you use the car, the rear seat heaters do not come back on. The front seats, however, do remember what state they were in last time the car was used, and it restores that state. I noticed this on the weekend when my wife and I went out for dinner on a cool evening and my wife had her seat heater on. Several days later, when driving to work on a weekday, I picked up a file folder that had been sitting on the seat and noticed that it was hot, and that the seat heater had been cooking away un noticed on my daily drive.

It also remembers the state of the front seats based on driver profile.

Something to watch out for.

Cheers.


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## ravisorg (Jun 27, 2018)

I’m going to take a wild guess and suggest they may turn off automatically if there’s no one sitting in that seat, but if they were previously on and there’s a person there again they tip back on. Will test to see if that’s the case. 

Also suspect that’s because it’s cheaper to heat the seats than the cabin and so Tesla is nudging you to use the seat heaters vs the cabin heater.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

I like that each time I get in the car, the driver seat heater remains where I last set it, and stays on thru the drive. 
Its always bugged me that other cars have the seat heater time out after so long. So part way thru a drive you realize it no longer is toasty warm and you have to manually turn it back on.


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## Rick Steinwand (May 19, 2018)

I recently used the front seat heaters and noticed that behavior and also found it different.

What I want tho is the behavior from my Chevy Volts. The seat heaters turned on automagically based on temp. I didn't have to turn them on off and I could set the cabin heat to eco and use seat heaters more. If someone was in the passenger seat, it would turn on that seat heater too.

Did I mention it had an AWESOME heated wheel too?


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## AndrewF (Jul 3, 2018)

Rick Steinwand said:


> Did I mention it had an AWESOME heated wheel too?


Ya, wouldn't that be sweet if EM was able to give us a heated wheel in a software update


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## AndrewF (Jul 3, 2018)

ravisorg said:


> I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest they may turn off automatically if there's no one sitting in that seat, but if they were previously on and there's a person there again they tip back on. Will test to see if that's the case.
> 
> Also suspect that's because it's cheaper to heat the seats than the cabin and so Tesla is nudging you to use the seat heaters vs the cabin heater.


Nope. Both front seats come back on regardless of whether someone is sitting in them or not. If you re-read my original post, I discovered it when picking up some papers off the passenger seat that were warm. The items on the seat weren't heavy enough to have triggered the sensor in the seat.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Rick Steinwand said:


> Did I mention it had an AWESOME heated wheel too?


That's pretty much the only thing I'm going to miss about my Leaf.


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## SalisburySam (Jun 6, 2018)

Seat heaters in my Nissan LEAF work the same way: remain on until shut off regardless of starting the vehicle or someone in the seat. Same for rear seat heaters. And like @garsh, I do enjoy the heated steering wheel and take my LEAF when I want that feature.

NOTE: seat heaters in the LEAF are manual 3-position switches (Hi-Lo-Off), not electronic ones like the Model 3 has.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

SalisburySam said:


> Seat heaters in my Nissan LEAF work the same way: remain on until shut off


And then just to screw everything up, the heated steering wheel in the Nissan Leaf shuts off automatically.


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## Jay79 (Aug 18, 2018)

I was surprised Tesla elected not to include a heated steering wheel in the premium package. Thats the number one feature for me in the deep freeze, way above rear heated seats that will seldom if ever be used. I can count on one hand how many times I've had passengers in my current car where that came in handy. I would have gladly paid extra for this feature, not a big fan of 3rd party warmers either.


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## TrickorDevice (Apr 25, 2018)

What we need next is remote heated seats. The ability too turn them off or on through the app.


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## scaots (Sep 13, 2017)

Andrew Foord said:


> I have noticed some particular behavior of the heated seat system that isn't documented in the manual and that I thought i would share.
> 
> In my ICE vehicle, if I've been using the heated seats, they are automatically re-set to the "off" state every time the car is turned off. This is not the case in the M3.
> 
> ...


I like this implementation. You can see status of front seat heaters so you know if they are on or not, but good to turn off rear since you wouldn't notice from the display.



TrickorDevice said:


> What we need next is remote heated seats. The ability too turn them off or on through the app.


Agree, this would be perfect compliment to preheating.


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Found this old thread for something I'd prefer to change. Perhaps in settings. 

Here is my situation --- in morning, I drive three kids to school. All enjoying the heated seats right now. When I drop them off, all their heated seats stay on. I'd prefer that when Tesla notices someone in the seat (and it can from what it tells me about seat belts) but then after a minute with no one in the seat, the heater turns off. 

I realize not all will want this, but I'd like to have the option of making this occur.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Nom said:


> Found this old thread for something I'd prefer to change. Perhaps in settings.
> 
> Here is my situation --- in morning, I drive three kids to school. All enjoying the heated seats right now. When I drop them off, all their heated seats stay on. I'd prefer that when Tesla notices someone in the seat (and it can from what it tells me about seat belts) but then after a minute with no one in the seat, the heater turns off.
> 
> I realize not all will want this, but I'd like to have the option of making this occur.


The rear should need to be turned back on for each drive (not stay on indefinitely). Has that changed in a recent FW update?


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## SR22pilot (Aug 16, 2018)

MelindaV said:


> The rear should need to be turned back on for each drive (not stay on indefinitely). Has that changed in a recent FW update?


I don't think so.


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## tivoboy (Mar 24, 2017)

yeah, I'm not sure why they just couldn't time out. Most seat heaters come on full at first, then throttle down over time to say level 1.. then off if/when car is shut down. I really don't like that if I come back to the car the next AM, the passenger seat as an example is still on full.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

tivoboy said:


> yeah, I'm not sure why they just couldn't time out. Most seat heaters come on full at first, then throttle down over time to say level 1.. then off if/when car is shut down. I really don't like that if I come back to the car the next AM, the passenger seat as an example is still on full.


Only the driver's seat should remain where it was before shutdown. All others should turn off automatically. If yours don't, you have an issue.


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## tivoboy (Mar 24, 2017)

FRC said:


> Only the driver's seat should remain where it was before shutdown. All others should turn off automatically. If yours don't, you have an issue.


Are you sure, but not auto shutting off is the way they have worked for the past six months. I'm on 44.3 at this point I think.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

tivoboy said:


> Are you sure, but not auto shutting off is the way they have worked for the past six months. I'm on 44.3 at this point I think.


Actually, no I'm not sure. I've read that in these forums several times, and took it as fact. I'm not sure I've ever used my own rear seat heaters!


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

My experience is that the front seats will remain the same between trips. The back will turn off between trips. I would like the passenger seat, and the rear for that matter, to turn off after one minute of no occupancy as @Nom suggested.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

FRC said:


> Actually, no I'm not sure. I've read that in these forums several times, and took it as fact. I'm not sure I've ever used my own rear seat heaters!


I stand corrected, just finished a little test. Front seats remain at previous setting. Back seats turn off with car.


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## ADK46 (Aug 4, 2018)

I picked up a pizza tonight. I set it in the passenger seat and was able to turn on the seat heater. Acceleration was good, too, so pizza was good and hot when I got home. 

Excellent pizza run car.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Heated seats are also saved to the profile; switching profiles will go to the last state of that user.
My wife usually has them on, when I switch to my profile the heated seat turns off. Switch to hers and it goes back on


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Is there a way to give a suggestion to Tesla directly? I'm not really a twitter user and Elon and I aren't buds.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Nom said:


> Is there a way to give a suggestion to Tesla directly? I'm not really a twitter user and Elon and I aren't buds.


from inside the car, press the right hand button and say "report" immediately followed by your suggestion. or email [email protected]


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Thanks @MelindaV - have sent the email.


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## MrBookworm (Nov 9, 2018)

My wife’s Audi Q7 sets the driver seat heater to the last state when you start up based on the key fob. The passenger and rear seat heaters always return to off when the car is turned off. That seems like a good way to me.

Love the steering wheel heater in the Q7 and wish my M3PD had it.


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## Reid (Apr 25, 2018)

Yeah, heated seats remember the setting from the last driver profile. Which is odd, because typically I drive to work, and my wife drives home, so if I take the car out in the evening after getting home, I wonder why the passenger seat heat is set to on.. and I have to remember the morning commute  

In my Golf, the seats would reset to 'off' after 15 minutes parked, but for quick stops would retain their setting, which I liked. 
In VAG-COM I set them to remember the setting all the time (like on the 3), but ultimately set it back to the factory setting as I found the permanent set heater memory setting to be annoying. 

BTW, they've added remote seat heater activation to the app! Great feature.


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## BluestarE3 (Oct 12, 2017)

ADK46 said:


> I picked up a pizza tonight. I set it in the passenger seat and was able to turn on the seat heater. Acceleration was good, too, so pizza was good and hot when I got home.
> 
> Excellent pizza run car.


If the acceleration is too good, wouldn't the toppings and cheese get all bunched up on one side of the pizza?


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

BluestarE3 said:


> If the acceleration is too good, wouldn't the toppings and cheese get all bunched up on one side of the pizza?


 Need a pizza spinner!!

I have seen a most annoying behavior with v50 firmware using the pre-heat feature via the mobile app. v48.x didn't do this.

EVERY TIME I activate inside heat via the app, all five seat heaters are set to mid-level (two bars) when cabin heat is engaged [from the app]. I must manually turn off each seat heater in the app.

I have NEVER enabled the rear seat heaters in any drive profile pre-heat. I ALWAYS disable [set to off] all front heaters on all profiles when I exit the car.

I can think of no reason to pre-heat a seat heater. They get hot in seconds.


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## Bokonon (Apr 13, 2017)

Karl Sun said:


> EVERYTIME I activate inside heat via the app, all five seat heaters are set to mid-level (two bars) when cabin heat is engages [from the app]. I must manually turn off each seat heater in the app.


My favorite part is that if you turn the rear seats off first, when you tap the passenger seat, all three rear seats reset to 2 bars of heat for some reason.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

I've noticed that I seem to be a bit impatient when trying to control the seats from the app (iOS). I touch one to turn it down and then again to turn it off, then start on the next, they they all disappear and then all come back, it's all over the place it seems.

This morning I decided to be a little slower and patient to see what would happen. Turned the climate on, all 5 seats came on to medium heat. I touched the right rear seat once, gave it about 4 seconds and all 4 seats went off, leaving only the drivers seat on. That was perfect and brilliant, if that is all it takes, but I'm not sure just yet.

I've been at work about an hour this morning so I just opened the app again, waited - all 5 seats remained on medium heat. i touched the seat behind the driver, that seat and the drivers seat remained on and went to level 1, the other 3 seats went off. Maybe there is a pattern here. Will have to continue to play with it each hour or so through the day. I want them to have time to reset and the car to be sure and cool down again inside.


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## NJturtlePower (Dec 19, 2017)

Karl Sun said:


> I have NEVER enabled the rear seat heaters in any drive proifilve pre-heat. I ALWAYS disable [set to off] all front heaters on all profiles when I exit the car.


I don't believe the seat heating option can or will save with the profile settings. It COULD I'm sure, but don't think that's how its currently set up.

It should also be dependent on the external temperature like any other car I've owned or driven.... for most this is about 40F.


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

NJturtlePower said:


> I don't believe the seat heating option can or will save with the profile settings.


It definitely changes with profiles. I have two for myself (one for normal driving and one for winter conditions). Changing between the two will change the heated seats. One thing to note, though, is that this is only for the front seats. The rear always default to off.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

iChris93 said:


> It definitely changes with profiles. I have two for myself (one for normal driving and one for winter conditions). Changing between the two will change the heated seats. One thing to note, though, is that this is only for the front seats. The rear always default to off.


I've never had the rear seat heaters on for anyone either, but each time I preheat the car recently, all 5 seats come one. I'm trying to be patient to see if it is temporary. I'll start to give it more time, maybe 20 to 30 seconds to see if their state changes before I try turning them off. While I'm driving in the car, the only seat on is the drivers. it comes back on if I just get in the car without preheating. There is something a bit buggy in the app. This was its first iteration, they'll smooth it out I'm sure. Like most of their updates, it brings nice added functionality, it just takes the a couple of tries to get it implemented and tweaked.


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

GDN said:


> I've never had the rear seat heaters on for anyone either, but each time I preheat the car recently, all 5 seats come one.


I have had the rear heat seaters on, but they always default to off in the car. I have the same experience as you with the app, pre-heating turns all 5 seats on.


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## Reid (Apr 25, 2018)

I think the "all 5 seats" thing is just a bug. It happened to me the only time I tried it, too, back a few weeks ago. 

Tried it today after having my car serviced, it doesn't do that anymore. 2018.48.12.1, seems to not be particularly new though.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Reid said:


> I think the "all 5 seats" thing is just a bug. It happened to me the only time I tried it, too, back a few weeks ago.
> 
> Tried it today after having my car serviced, it doesn't do that anymore. 2018.48.12.1, seems to not be particularly new though.


It's dependent of temperature. They only turn on when it's cold enough, and will turn on at 1 bar or 2 bars depending on temp as well.
I'm with everyone else wishing this didn't happen at all.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

Reid said:


> I think the "all 5 seats" thing is just a bug. It happened to me the only time I tried it, too, back a few weeks ago.
> 
> Tried it today after having my car serviced, it doesn't do that anymore. 2018.48.12.1, seems to not be particularly new though.


 I didn't see the seat heaters auto-on with 48.12. But it always happens with current firmware of 50.xx.


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

iChris93 said:


> It definitely changes with profiles. I have two for myself (one for normal driving and one for winter conditions). Changing between the two will change the heated seats. One thing to note, though, is that this is only for the front seats. The rear always default to off.


Are you saving profiles with the seat heaters on or is it remembering automatically without a save?



Karl Sun said:


> I can think of no reason to pre-heat a seat heater. They get hot in seconds.


Why are folks so concerned about all the seat heaters coming on? If you have passengers, they won't have to sit on a cold seat before the seat heater comes on. Does it not contribute a bit to warming up the car just a bit (at a much lower power level)?


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## NJturtlePower (Dec 19, 2017)

JWardell said:


> It's dependent of temperature. They only turn on when it's cold enough, and will turn on at 1 bar or 2 bars depending on temp as well.
> I'm with everyone else wishing this didn't happen at all.


Hopefully the next version of the Model 3 manual might detail/confirm this?

Latest available PDF on my Tesla account is already a few months old, 11/2018.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Kizzy said:


> Are you saving profiles with the seat heaters on or is it remembering automatically without a save?
> 
> Why are folks so concerned about all the seat heaters coming on? If you have passengers, they won't have to sit on a cold seat before the seat heater comes on. Does it not contribute a bit to warming up the car just a bit (at a much lower power level)?


The profile is not saved with the seat heater on. They come on when you start the climate from the app on their own. As @JWardell notes it seems to be related to how cold it is as to what level they come on at, but regardless they all 5 come on every time.

I don't need them on sucking juice from the battery, I almost never have anyone in the back seat and for the daily commute it is only me in the drivers seat. Turning these on without someone in the seat will generate very little heat toward heating the cabin. You feel it well sitting in the seat, but it doesn't radiate well at all.


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

GDN said:


> The profile is not saved with the seat heater on. They come on when you start the climate from the app on their own.


This did not answer my question about seat heaters coming on when changing profiles.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Kizzy said:


> This did not answer my question about seat heaters coming on when changing profiles.


Maybe I didn't understand it, but this has nothing to do with profiles. The heaters come on depding on temp - whether you have them saved or not or whether or not you were using them the last time you were in the car. Drive the car - sunny and 70 outside, not heated seats saved in any profile. Get up the next day cold and 40 degrees (Yep it happen in TX for sure) - turn on climate from the app and all 5 seat heaters come on. Nothing to do with a profile.


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

GDN said:


> Maybe I didn't understand it, but this has nothing to do with profiles. The heaters come on depding on temp - whether you have them saved or not or whether or not you were using them the last time you were in the car. Drive the car - sunny and 70 outside, not heated seats saved in any profile. Get up the next day cold and 40 degrees (Yep it happen in TX for sure) - turn on climate from the app and all 5 seat heaters come on. Nothing to do with a profile.


My question was not about the app and preconditioning, it was a question to @iChris93 about the statement that heated seats are saved to profiles.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

GDN said:


> Maybe I didn't understand it, but this has nothing to do with profiles. The heaters come on depding on temp


there is more than one conversation going on regarding the seat heaters. You are responding to how they act from the new app update, there are others discussing if they come on (and to what level of bacon🥓) when getting into the car based on profile (or swapping profiles).


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

Kizzy said:


> Are you saving profiles with the seat heaters on or is it remembering automatically without a save?


Remembering automatically without a save. It seems like what ever the settings are when you leave the profile are what it returns to when you go back to it.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

Kizzy said:


> Why are folks so concerned about all the seat heaters coming on? If you have passengers, they won't have to sit on a cold seat before the seat heater comes on. Does it not contribute a bit to warming up the car just a bit (at a much lower power level)?


 Seat heaters do not contribute any measurable amount to warming the cabin (compared to the heater air circulation system or direct sunlight). Just a waste of battery power, which is a limited resource [between charging].

Seat heaters get hot in SECONDS. There is no reason to pre-heat seat(s). If I have any passengers, they can have cold butts for a few seconds.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Karl Sun said:


> Seat heaters do not contribute any measurable amount to warming the cabin (compared to the heater air circulation system or direct sunlight). Just a waste of battery power, which is a limited resource [between charging].


Disagree. Seat heaters add 100% of their energy to the cabin. The air circulation system OTOH also heats the vent ductwork and other parts inside the dashboard. Plus it pulls in some amount of cold, outside air. So that system is the bigger waste of battery power if the goal is to heat the cabin.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

garsh said:


> Disagree. Seat heaters add 100% of their energy to the cabin. The air circulation system OTOH also heats the vent ductwork and other parts inside the dashboard. Plus it pulls in some amount of cold, outside air. So that system is the bigger waste of battery power if the goal is to heat the cabin.


 We might agree if each seat heater had it's own fan to circulate the heat into the cabin. Otherwise they're useless for heating the cabin.

But feel free to test it yourself. Place a thermometer on the center console and turn on the heater (1). Then on a different day or a few hours later, leave the same thermometer on the console and turn on (only) the five seat heaters (2). Plot time vs temp for each.

Let me know which heats up the cabin.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Karl Sun said:


> We might agree if each seat heater had it's own fan to circulate the heat into the cabin. Otherwise they're useless for heating the cabin.
> 
> But feel free to test it yourself. Place a thermometer on the center console and turn on the heater (1). Then on a different day or a few hours later, leave the same thermometer on the console and turn on (only) the five seat heaters (2). Plot time vs temp for each.
> 
> Let me know which heats up the cabin.


to that point, how many watts do you think the seat heaters use?


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Karl Sun said:


> Let me know which heats up the cabin.


They both heat up the cabin. Seat heaters are much lower wattage. But 100% of the heat they generate goes towards heating the cabin. It's not in any way wasteful if the goal is to heat the cabin.


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## Reid (Apr 25, 2018)

I thought the # of 'bars' on the seat heater was a bug, because as soon as I manually selected one, the others went out. But again, I only saw it happen once. 

Right now, car is sitting at home, plugged in, interior at 55.
Turned on climate, all 5 came on to level '1'.. and when I manually turned one off, the rest stayed the same. Weird.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Reid said:


> I thought the # of 'bars' on the seat heater was a bug, because as soon as I manually selected one, the others went out. But again, I only saw it happen once.
> 
> Right now, car is sitting at home, plugged in, interior at 55.
> Turned on climate, all 5 came on to level '1'.. and when I manually turned one off, the rest stayed the same. Weird.


They do seem to be a bit random, but I've now 3 times successfully turned the right rear passenger seat off and all seats go off except the driver. Since this is all undocumented for the most part still, it's just my guess, but I'll take it if that works. Personally I think they should be in the off position and we get to choose, but at least this is somewhat easy if turning that one off will turn 4 off.


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## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

I think the "random" behavior that people are seeing is the seat heaters reverting to the seat heater setting that was set when you last drove the car. I originally thought you had to hold down one of the seat heater buttons for 5 seconds to get it to revert, but apparently it reverts whenever you start manipulating the seat heater controls from the app (with about a 5 second delay).

Turn climate on from app, and all 5 seat heaters will automatically turn on 0, 1, 2, 3? bars based upon temperature. Then if you change any of the seat heaters from the app, wait about 5 seconds, and the seat heaters will revert to whatever setting they were the last time you drove (with the exception of the seat you manually manipulated). At least that's my observation.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

garsh said:


> Disagree. Seat heaters add 100% of their energy to the cabin. The air circulation system OTOH also heats the vent ductwork and other parts inside the dashboard. Plus it pulls in some amount of cold, outside air. So that system is the bigger waste of battery power if the goal is to heat the cabin.


 I see no evidence that when setting the HVAC to recirc that it brings in any outside air. I have tested this extensively when motoring behind stinky, diseasel buses in my area. Not a single whiff of diseasel stench when set to recirc.
.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Karl Sun said:


> I see no evidence that when setting the HVAC to recirc that it brings in any outside air.


The fact that you can drive the car for several hours on recirculation without suffocating from oxygen deprivation is your proof.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

garsh said:


> The fact that you can drive the car for several hours on recirculation without suffocating from oxygen deprivation is your proof.


I beg to differ.

Bringing in outside air is entirely different than being gas tight.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Folks are overlooking the fact that the seat heaters get their power from the 12V battery and DC converter, while the cabin heater gets its power from directly from the high voltage battery.
Turning on all those seat heaters taxes the (infamously troublesome) 12V system, and adds power drain in addition to the cabin heater that can no longer be supported by shore power with a 32A hookup. They might contribute a tiny amount to cabin heating, but they put more energy into the padding of the seat, which is wasted on seats I will never use. And I certainly agree, seats heat up so quickly they don't need more than a minute of pre-heating...
Now if Tesla wants to be slick they would turn on the seat heaters when the car first detects your phone in proximity as you walk up. That's 10-20 seconds where I don't mind the heating.


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## Karl Sun (Sep 19, 2018)

MelindaV said:


> to that point, how many watts do you think the seat heaters use?


 I would guess 150-300 watts each on low; maybe 900 watts [each] on high (seats get really hot very fast on high).. From actual measurements I know the cabin heater uses at least 5.9Kw.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

IMO, the seat heaters have a negligible difference in energy used.

from Teslafi, here's two back to back days driving to work. exterior conditions and route were identical, but one day the drive took 30 minutes and the following day 60 minutes. Both days the cabin heat was off and the driver seat heater on high. 

















the day the car was on and moving for 2x as long (and presumably more stop and go also would be more taxing), took .09kWh (90watts) more for that extra 30 minutes. If the only thing running over that extra 30 minutes was the seat heater, it would be a max of 180watts per hour, but there was also everything else and the stopping/starting inefficiency likely much more to blame for the extra .09kWh of usage.

someone please correct me if I am over simplifying this.


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## Reid (Apr 25, 2018)

MelindaV said:


> someone please correct me if I am over simplifying this.


Couple post back mentioned the seat heaters use the 12v system so it wouldn't show up at all in your stats.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Reid said:


> Couple post back mentioned the seat heaters use the 12v system so it wouldn't show up at all in your stats.


but part of the overhead power consumption is to recharge the 12v battery, so it would indirectly be there.


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## jsmay311 (Oct 2, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> how many watts do you think the seat heaters use?


When I turn on climate while plugged into the UMC, set the temp to low (to minimize cabin heater power draws), and then toggle all 5 seats between "high" (3) and "off" (0), the real-time home power meter that I have installed on that circuit jumps/drops by approximately 450-500 watts.

So assuming the power drawn from the grid is an accurate reflection of how much power the car is using, it looks like each seat heater can pull up to 90-100w (minus some losses), which is a bit higher than I would've guessed TBH.


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## JoeP (Sep 7, 2018)

90-100 watts is a lot for a seat heater actually. the ones in my Tesla Rav4EV are 15w (downsized from the Toyota standard value which is 25 or 35 watts, i cant remember which). And they're plenty warm even at 15, i use the seat heaters in that car extensively when driving it. (I live where its usually about 30-35F in the morning when i get in the car anytime between November and March or so). And yeah i use the seat heaters in the Model 3 just about every day too. Maybe its my imagination but i think they're already warm when i get in if i do remote climate (which i also do a lot) before i get in the car.


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## TheHairyOne (Nov 28, 2018)

My car charge eta on 32 amp 240vac, per screen, increased from 3 hrs to 6 when the blower and heater turned on as I opened the door to get stuff.


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## JoeP (Sep 7, 2018)

well i monitor my power usage quite closely and ive seen peaks as high as 23amps while the car was plugged in and i was preheating a car that had cold-soaked down to 30-35F
it seems to level out at about 10-12 amps (at 240V) = 2400+ watts and then it'll gradually decline to 4-5 amps (1000 watts) as the car interior warms up. This is while no actual charging is going on. since i charge overnight the car is always plugged in in the morning and already charged, so it doesnt need to charge additionally.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

jsmay311 said:


> When I turn on climate while plugged into the UMC, set the temp to low (to minimize cabin heater power draws), and then toggle all 5 seats between "high" (3) and "off" (0), the real-time home power meter that I have installed on that circuit jumps/drops by approximately 450-500 watts.


That sounds too high. I'm wondering if you're just seeing some cabin heater start-up current.

Leave the climate setting alone for a few minutes and wait for it to become more steady-state. Then change the seat heater settings and see how much the power draw changes.


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## jsmay311 (Oct 2, 2017)

garsh said:


> Leave the climate setting alone for a few minutes and wait for it to become more steady-state. Then change the seat heater settings and see how much the power draw changes.


Exactly what I did. And, like I said, it's higher than I was expecting too.


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Controlling the seat heaters from the app seems to be a crap shoot. Really weird. I need to be more scientific but sometimes it seems to ignore my wishes (even though it is showing me what I want on the app), and other times, we get in the car and the seats are set up like we meant them to be. The app indications sometimes hop around. Really really weird. Lots of bugs to work out.


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## Bokonon (Apr 13, 2017)

Nom said:


> Controlling the seat heaters from the app seems to be a crap shoot. Really weird. I need to be more scientific but sometimes it seems to ignore my wishes (even though it is showing me what I want on the app), and other times, we get in the car and the seats are set up like we meant them to be. The app indications sometimes hop around. Really really weird. Lots of bugs to work out.


I find the app's behavior to be very odd and unpredictable as well, and it's partly because there's a delay between the moment you tap a heated seat on your phone and the moment the car receives that command (and subsequently reports the result back to your phone).

@GDN has suggested the following trick for setting the heated seats through the app, and it seems to work decently for me:

1. Start pre-heating the car. Heated seats icons will appear.
2. Tap the rear passenger's side seat, and wait a few seconds. The heated seat icons will then change to be whatever they were at the end of your last drive.
3. To make adjustments, tap one seat at a time, and wait a few seconds after each tap to confirm that the seat's heat was adjusted as expected.

Obviously, we shouldn't have to go to this much effort to pre-heat the seats a we desired, so hopefully an upcoming version of the Tesla app will make this interaction more intuitive.


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

How do I turn off / disable seat heaters in Summer?

Twice in the past two days the driver seat heater has come on HIGH all by itself when I turn on the HVAC fan just to bring in some outside air through the vents with heat and AC both off. For some unknown reason the car thinks it needs to add copious amounts of heat to me. 

How do I disable this action? Won't need seat heaters again until late November at the earliest.


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## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

Klaus-rf said:


> How do I turn off / disable seat heaters in Summer?
> 
> Twice in the past two days the driver seat heater has come on HIGH all by itself when I turn on the HVAC fan just to bring in some outside air through the vents with heat and AC both off. For some unknown reason the car thinks it needs to add copious amounts of heat to me.
> 
> How do I disable this action? Won't need seat heaters again until late November at the earliest.


Are you sure you didn't brush the button when reaching for the HVAC button? That's pretty easy to do. Haven't heard reports of it coming on automatically.

Maybe also verify that your touchscreen is working properly and that it doesn't trigger when hovering your finger above the screen. I had a bad phone touchscreen once that would phantom trigger like that.


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

I could possibly see me unintentionally touching that once but not twice in two days of driving when I haven't accidentally triggered it in the previous 8 months. Including at least two months wearing gloves. Just seems unlikely.

If only there were touchscreen logs to review.


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Improvements I noticed since my last post on this thread

1. App controls now seem to work - selections stick.

2. Front passenger seat heater will turn off when the passenger leaves car. 

But — back passenger seat heaters do not turn off when those folks leave the car. I do find this a bit weird. Fixed for front passenger seat but not for back seats?


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Oh — and we just used the damn things yesterday. May 30th — way too cold in New England still!!


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## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

Nom said:


> 2. Front passenger seat heater will turn off when the passenger leaves car.


Except they messed up and passenger seat heater turns off even if the passenger doesn't leave the car. Shuts off as soon as you start to drive. Started in 2019.8.3 and is still not fixed in 2019.16.2.


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## Frully (Aug 30, 2018)

Nom said:


> Improvements I noticed since my last post on this thread
> 
> 1. App controls now seem to work - selections stick.
> 
> ...


This was definitely in a firmware release note where they better synchronized the current status with the expected click action in the app. Something along the lines of 'set seat to x' instead of 'increment seat by x' and having the desynchronization from internet lag causing confusion.


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Ok - bringing this up again. I’m wondering what the use case is that warrants the following behavior. 

4 people in car. All four seat heaters on.

3 get dropped off (after putting car in park. Driver door never opens.)

Drive away. Result:
- both front seat heaters are turned off automatically. 
- back seat heaters are still on.

Huh? Can clearly tell no one is in the back seats but the heaters are left on? But felt a need to turn off the driver’s heater?

Such an easy software fix. I feel like I’m missing a use case that demands this kind of behavior. Anyone have one?


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Nom said:


> Ok - bringing this up again. I'm wondering what the use case is that warrants the following behavior.
> 
> 4 people in car. All four seat heaters on.
> 
> ...


I've had my driver seat heater on nearly 100% of the last year without it ever turning off automatically, regardless of the state of the passenger's seats/seat heaters.


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Melinda - did you have people leaving the car after putting car in park? And your heater stayed on? I figure so ... 

Anyone see what I’m seeing?


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## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

Nom said:


> Melinda - did you have people leaving the car after putting car in park? And your heater stayed on? I figure so ...
> 
> Anyone see what I'm seeing?


I rarely use the rear seat heaters so can't comment on that part. But my daily routine involves both front seat heaters on and putting the car in park to drop off the passenger. I've never had my driver seat heater shut off in this scenario. Over different software versions I have seen bugs with the passenger seat heater. On 2019.32.12.2 it's working well now, and the passenger seat heater shuts off after some delay once the passenger leaves. Again, my driver seat stays on.

I know the driver seat heater is saved with profile and can shut off if the profile changes, including the switch from Easy Entry. Your profile isn't changing is it?


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