59 comments.

  1. [deleted]

    Just turn on climate, if the battery needs to be heated at all it would also occur at this time. This uses a decent chunk of energy so if you aren’t plugged in be mindful.

  2. ArtificialSugar

    Yeah that’s all preconditioning means. Just turn on the climate, or defrost if you’re parked outside.

    Edit: Downvote if you want, this is the answer, you just turn on the climate in the app.

    https://reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/comments/kiaoia/_/ggq5tbu/?context=1

    1. [deleted]

      I think it means a little more than that, It also warms up the battery while the car is plugged in so you don't waste extra energy warming it up while driving. At least that's my understanding after talking to a mobile service tech about it.

      1. dr7s

        Yeah I'm talking about warming the climate AND warming up the battery without scheduling. Sounds like you can't!

        1. sylvaing

          Yes you can by turning the climate on. Bear in mind that the cabin will heat up to set temperature way before the batteries are warmed. That's what is meant by wasted electricity. When you schedule the departure, the battery will heat up first and near the departure time, the cabin will heat up too. This wastes the least electricity.

      2. ArtificialSugar

        I know that’s the case when heading to a supercharger, but for scheduled departure, I don’t think there’s any difference between using that feature and just turning the heat on.

        1. NeedISayMore4

          Nah, it warms up the battery in addition to cabin climate

        2. JiveDino

          If that was the only case then “preconditioning” works for one but not the other. He’s right 👏

          1. ArtificialSugar

            Who are you saying is right? Both scheduled departure and just turning on climate warm the battery pack. The only difference is when the car decides to charge.

          2. JiveDino

            The main difference is using the outlet to power the conditioning rather than just battery power

          3. ArtificialSugar

            Which is still the case when just turning on climate. No need to schedule.

          4. JiveDino

            Climate control does not affect the battery like preconditioning does

          5. ArtificialSugar

            Incorrect

            https://reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/comments/kiaoia/_/ggq5tbu/?context=1

          6. JiveDino

            In your case when you set your GPS to a supercharger and it starts to precondition, does your cabin start to warm up?

          7. jordanjam

            Preconditioning talked about here is not the same as preconditioning for supercharging. At least not to the same degree.

          8. essential-cheese

            You’re already in the car & the climate is set, why would the car change the temperature? While navigating to supercharger the car heats the battery for FAST CHARGING, as it’s programmed to do… heating the battery for regen happens when you turn on the climate or you set scheduled departure.

    2. TheDisneyDoc

      Is it possible just to increase your charge limit by a few percent so it needs to be actively charging again (not just topping up after a night of charging) since the battery warms for charging? This of course wouldn’t be useful when not plugged in. This also coming from a non-current Tesla owner. Just a thought.

  3. simplestpanda

    Do you mean precondition the car to drive or to charge? To drive you just turn on climate control remotely. When the car cabin is “up to temperature” (you’ll get a notification) you’re good to drive.

    There is way to manually precondition for a fast charge, unfortunately. It’s something a lot of us have been asking for.

    1. GregTheSplinterCell

      Obviously he's referring to the battery. And you would think Tesla would use a little common sense for us people who live in colder regions and have an option to ONLY turn on preconditioning for the battery.

      1. simplestpanda

        I’ve been hoping for manual battery conditioning for a while - for getting the car ready to drive and, more importantly, for fast charging at non-Supercharger stalls.

        Unfortunately Tesla considers input to be error so we have to deal with the OS “just knowing” when to precondition. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to “just know” anything.

        1. GregTheSplinterCell

          Hopefully they are reading our issues and will finally include that simple option from the app soon.

    2. dr7s

      When you schedule it warms up the battery and set the climate. I am wondering how to do both without scheduling but it's sounding like you can't unfortunately.

      1. simplestpanda

        Manual precondition for charge remains impossible. The “hack” is to set the navigation to the nearest supercharger and then just drive to the charger if your choice instead. Not a great fix of course.

        1. essential-cheese

          It’s not really a hack, if you’re going to charge at a supercharger navigating there, will precondition (heat up) the battery for FAST CHARGING, also arriving under 20% will also get you faster charge rates.

          The car will always heat the battery (precondition) for FAST CHARGING, navigating to supercharger just ensure you don’t waste extra time & energy when you plug it in.

          1. simplestpanda

            Yes, a Tesla will precondition the battery for a fast charge when you navigate to a Supercharger. This is shown in the UI and nobody is confused by this.

            However, a lot of us are fast charging at non-Supercharger stalls. For many of these charge points, the only way to get the car to precondition the battery before arrival is to tell it you're going to a nearby Supercharger and then ignore the car-nav. The car will precondition the battery for Supercharging, and you get the benefit when arriving at the fast charger of choice.

            Of course, doing this means the nav is basically yelling at you the entire way because you're not on-route, and you're SOL if there's no nearby Supercharger.

            Other car brands have started adding "precondition" buttons in their interfaces to let users manually precondition the battery for fast charging. It'd be nice if Tesla added this. It'd be even better if they also added the ability to mark a navigation destination as a fast charger so you got a painless precondition before arrival.

          2. essential-cheese

            Okay… for third party fast chargers ahh I see. Okay Did not know this, I’ve never used one, seems Tesla needs to add in some code..

      2. essential-cheese

        Open the app, on your phone, select climate, then press the on switch both will happen… the car does what it needs & all you have to do is drive. 🙌

      3. Shmoe

        The battery heater comes on if you turn on the climate manually and the battery is cold. What are we missing here? The 3 little wavy lines appear next to your SoC in the app.

        1. essential-cheese

          Lol idk why they’re fighting themselves… the car literally does what it needs to have it operate optimally. Manually turn on climate, if the battery is cold, it’ll warm the battery & also set the climate in cabin, if the battery doesn’t need conditioning for your drive, only the cabin temperature will be set. Preconditioning for Fast charging will happen when we navigate to Superchargers. People worry too much about these cars, Tesla engineered these things to work how they’re supposed to, so we can enjoy every bit of it. I stopped worrying about all those lil things. I just drive, let the software handle all the worrying.

  4. shamelin73

    Schedule departure does warm up the battery. It’s stated in the manual. It also states that on the app when you schedule it.

    Edit do to Siri typing wrong.

    1. ArtificialSugar

      Read the title again. They’re asking how to precondition without scheduling. The answer is turn on climate.

      1. shamelin73

        Missed the without scheduling it.

  5. splume

    As others have said, there isn't a perfect solution to this. Here's what I do:

    Plugged in to an L2 charger at home. I bump up the charging % (assuming you're "full") a few to get juice flowing into the battery. Then, I turn on climate control and if it is really cold outside I'll crack the windows a little bit so that the climate control runs a little longer/harder while charging.

    Wasteful? Yeah, it is, but it'll get the battery ready to go in 5-10 minutes.

    1. mbhmbhmbh

      And what does this achieve sorry?

      1. splume

        As others have said, turning on the climate will draw energy from the battery, which gets it warming up. What I probably wasn't clear about was that you should start charging when you do this, which will further warm the battery up and you won't lose energy from the climate control because you are feeding the battery more than you are drawing form it.

        So, the charging and use should warm up the battery in 5-10 minutes so you get full regen while driving (so long as you are not at 100%).

        This is just my experience. Obviously, YMMV depending on ambient temperature and battery charge level.

        1. mbhmbhmbh

          So when you set off on your journey you just have a fuzzy feeling knowing the battery is warm?

          1. FuriouslyFurious007

            The OP is trying to warm up the battery so Regen works. I live in New England so I know how Regen struggles in cold winters. For the first half of my commute Regen is limited if I don't schedule charging/departure.

          2. splume

            I'm not sure what you're getting at here. OP asked how to "precondition" the car without scheduling it. What I've described accomplishes this.

          3. mbhmbhmbh

            I think at a cost (your energy + actual energy) that outweighs the benefit though.

            Where do you draw the line? e.g to precondition mine I just drive 20 laps around the block and park back up on the drive before I leave

  6. IsCharlieThere

    First question is why do you need to precondition? For your daily commute and errands there is no compelling reason.

    Just turning on climate to warm up the interior is most likely sufficient.

    Edit: maybe if you’re on a hill and it’s super cold you would want preconditioning to get better regen braking, but that’s an edge case

    1. [deleted]

      That's exactly my case. I live on top of a mountain and have a 7 mile drive down. it's usually in the mid-20s or lower in the morning. I don't drive to work every day and it's different times when I do, and I'd love to have the car precondition before I start down. Otherwise, I get the message that regen is limited. Any ideas other than just manually doing it?

      1. IsCharlieThere

        I don’t think there’s a perfect solution.

        I assume you’re only charging it to 80% or so to give it room to regen. Other than that, just pre-warming up the interior might help you get to the highest regen state quicker. Tradeoff between wasting electricity vs brakes.

      2. zalinanaruto

        manually do it. how would your car know otherwise?

    2. Ftpini

      I use precondition once the ambient temp in my garage gets into the 40s. But I always turn the climate on at least a minute or two before I get in my car year round. Why get in a car that isn’t already the perfect temperature when you don’t have to?

      1. IsCharlieThere

        Climate is understandable, but why do you precondition the battery?

        1. Ftpini

          Precondition when scheduled almost never does anything with the battery. I’ve never seen it kick on before my garage is at or below 40f. The car isn’t stupid. It won’t precondition the battery of it doesn’t need to. It just turns the climate on automatically most of the time.

          1. IsCharlieThere

            That’s exactly the point. Preconditioning is overrated and people worry about it way too much (because Tesla hypes it).

          2. essential-cheese

            The wording from Tesla is clear… it’s just people worry too much about it & not fully understanding… once you’ve lived with the car long enough you’ll start to understand how it works. Manually turning the climate on, does pump heat to the battery if needed for regen for your drive, well from my experience at least.

  7. [deleted]

    Does setting a destination in the nav system precondition the battery? I once saw a prompt saying that the battery would precondition itself for charging if I had set the navigation to the charger I was driving to. Wondering if it can also do something similar when you're not charging, but preparing to drive?

    1. GregTheSplinterCell

      Yes but you have to actually get into the car and place it into "Drive" for it to start heating up the battery. Unfortunately it won't allow you to do this remotely so that the battery is warm by the time you reach a charger. Tesla seriously needs to start using common sense and do this for us who live in colder regions.

  8. ApprehensiveStreet90

    You can pre-condition your car with the 3rd party app. But the tesla app only does it when you schedule departure.

  9. Anthayden24

    The fact you can’t set the schedule to do different times on different days blows my mind

    1. essential-cheese

      This is the only real issue… being able to set different times & days for charging & preconditioning.

      1. Anthayden24

        Or just add a button in the app to “precondition”. If it just turns on the climate so be it, it would get rid of a lot of confusion

        1. essential-cheese

          Lol the button is already there 🤦‍♂️ in climate… that’s what turning on the climate does, if your car is parked. But… what someone said was there is no straightforward way to do it if you’re driving to third party fast chargers.

          1. Anthayden24

            I know it is, but the avg owner doesn’t seem too

  10. MisterBumpingston

    If you live in very cold climate you can use Defrost Car according to the manual. Otherwise turning on Climate is the closest thing (and I don’t remember if it really is according to the manual). I assume if you live in warm climate then it’s not an issue.

  11. [deleted]

    I always set up my car to charging at a Tesla station and the car does the preconditioning while i charge at home.

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