Preconditioning confusion

[antennariidae]

So with the last update, I've seen a lot more discussion about this. I lokoedin the owner's manual and it mentions it very briefly, but doesn't really say anything. I am about to make my first relatively long-range winter trip with the truck. The destination is about 225 miles away and it is winter, so it is cold. So I am figuring out the best way to approach the trip given that the trip will be uphill (on the way out) and in the cold. So this seems to be a good time to ask about preconditioning as I need to plan for startup/charging, etc. I tried to go through the other threads and am confused about the dufference or similarity between warming up the cabin and battery preconditioning at startup. My understanding at the moment is that preconditioning:

1 - helps get the battery ready before driving so that the truck is ready for normal and efficient operation.
- this can be scheduled in the app through the climate interface after update 50.1
- possibly happens if you manually start the climate system some amount of time before leaving
Q: when you do the second method, is the battery preconditioned, or just the cabin warmed up? Is there a difference? Also, there does not appear to be an option to use the charger for power if you start the cabin process manually, so I'm assuming the only way to use the charger to power startup preconditioning is by scheduling a time and selecting use the charger for power? Is this true?

2 - gets the battery ready for more efficient fast charging
- my understanding is that this ony works if you are navigating through the Rivian nav system and have selected a charger for fast charging. The truck then heats or cools the battery as necessary when it thinks you are the right distance from the charger you have told it you want to use. And this only works if the charger you want to use is in the Rivian nav system.
Q: Is this an accurate description of what is happening? How much difference does it make? I really don't like how the Rivian nav app routes me. It is very time delayed with traffic conditions and almost always picks a worse route that Waze/Google maps. I have, on two occasions, had it route me the wrong way down one way streets due to daily road reversals as well so I am not a fan . . .

Thanks in advance for any additional information.

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[LL75]

So with the last update, I've seen a lot more discussion about this. I lokoedin the owner's manual and it mentions it very briefly, but doesn't really say anything. I am about to make my first relatively long-range winter trip with the truck. The destination is about 225 miles away and it is winter, so it is cold. So I am figuring out the best way to approach the trip given that the trip will be uphill (on the way out) and in the cold. So this seems to be a good time to ask about preconditioning as I need to plan for startup/charging, etc. I tried to go through the other threads and am confused about the dufference or similarity between warming up the cabin and battery preconditioning at startup. My understanding at the moment is that preconditioning:

1 - helps get the battery ready before driving so that the truck is ready for normal and efficient operation.
- this can be scheduled in the app through the climate interface after update 50.1
- possibly happens if you manually start the climate system some amount of time before leaving
Q: when you do the second method, is the battery preconditioned, or just the cabin warmed up? Is there a difference? Also, there does not appear to be an option to use the charger for power if you start the cabin process manually, so I'm assuming the only way to use the charger to power startup preconditioning is by scheduling a time and selecting use the charger for power? Is this true?

2 - gets the battery ready for more efficient fast charging
- my understanding is that this ony works if you are navigating through the Rivian nav system and have selected a charger for fast charging. The truck then heats or cools the battery as necessary when it thinks you are the right distance from the charger you have told it you want to use. And this only works if the charger you want to use is in the Rivian nav system.
Q: Is this an accurate description of what is happening? How much difference does it make? I really don't like how the Rivian nav app routes me. It is very time delayed with traffic conditions and almost always picks a worse route that Waze/Google maps. I have, on two occasions, had it route me the wrong way down one way streets due to daily road reversals as well so I am not a fan . . .

Thanks in advance for any additional information.

1. If you do manual starting the climate, it will only warm up the cabin. If you set it thru schedule, it will warm up the cabin and the battery as well. My battery was at 70 degree this morning when I left the house in 15 degree weather.
2. Rivian should develope a push button just for battery condtioning anytime you want instead of thru rivian nav. system. The different is probably a few minutes at most when you are charging with a cold battery and preconditioned battery.

 

[Throwdown]

1. If you do manual starting the climate, it will only warm up the cabin. If you set it thru schedule, it will warm up the cabin and the battery as well. My battery was at 70 degree this morning when I left the house in 15 degree weather.
2. Rivian should develope a push button just for battery condtioning anytime you want instead of thru rivian nav. system. The different is probably a few minutes at most when you are charging with a cold battery and preconditioned battery.

Using the schedule doesn't precondition my battery, just the cabin. The battery was still relatively warm from charging overnigh but I call bs on the heating.

 

[R.I.P.]

1. If you do manual starting the climate, it will only warm up the cabin. If you set it thru schedule, it will warm up the cabin and the battery as well. My battery was at 70 degree this morning when I left the house in 15 degree weather.
2. Rivian should develope a push button just for battery condtioning anytime you want instead of thru rivian nav. system. The different is probably a few minutes at most when you are charging with a cold battery and preconditioned battery.

This is incorrect information that keeps getting passed around. Even prior to the latest update, manually starting the climate control will also trigger battery conditioning if the vehicle deems it necessary.

You can watch this happen yourself, by starting the climate control manually in the vehicle a period of time before leaving. You can then watch the motors heat up as it starts to put some heat into the battery pack.

In my observation, It has been pretty inconsistent on when the vehicle chooses to do this. Sometimes it will trigger heating under 50°, it will usually trigger it under 40° (actual battery temp).

 

[LL75]

Using the schedule doesn't precondition my battery, just the cabin. The battery was still relatively warm from charging overnigh but I call bs on the heating.

I charged my truck from 9 pm and it stopped around 2 am this morning . The truck is sitting in my garage with outside temp about 15 degree. I had it precondition at 8 am and left the house about 5 mins before 8. I checked the battery temp and it is at 70 degree.

 

[LL75]

This is incorrect information that keeps getting passed around. Even prior to the latest update, manually starting the climate control will also trigger battery conditioning if the vehicle deems it necessary.

You can watch this happen yourself, by starting the climate control manually in the vehicle a period of time before leaving. You can then watch the motors heat up as it starts to put some heat into the battery pack.

In my observation, It has been pretty inconsistent on when the vehicle chooses to do this. Sometimes it will trigger heating under 50°, it will usually trigger it under 40° (actual battery temp).

Interesting. Before the latest update, I moved the charging percentage to a few more percent an hour before leaving to warm the battery by charging. I did not know that turning on the cabin will also pre warming the battery.

 

[Redline]

Using the schedule doesn't precondition my battery, just the cabin. The battery was still relatively warm from charging overnigh but I call bs on the heating.

It warms the battery. I have confirmed that twice this weekend.

 

[Mathme]

I haven't had an opportunity to answer #1 above, but as for #2 here's what I've seen works best. You are correct in that you need to tell the dash navigation you want to go to a DCFC...if you try to do it through the app I've seen it get wonky.

In my case, I drive from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe which requires a charge stop somewhere in the Sacramento area (about 1/2 way) as the 7500 feet of elevation gain takes a lotta battery. For these trips, I'll use the Nav screen to sort for EA and RAN stations and then zoom out and select the one in the Sacramento area I want to stop at. Once I've entered that stop, I then program in the final stop up in the Lake Tahoe area.

Since it's been cooler, the battery only preconditions for 10ish minutes somewhere relatively close to my charge stop. Last summer when it was pushing 100 degrees, I've seen the battery precondition for up to an hour before the stop. It all depends on how warm/cold that pack is.

When cold, the truck will put the motors slightly out of phase and warm them up so if you see them moving from their usual 150ish to upwards to 270 when it's preconditioning, don't be alarmed. I did see in the .50.1 release they changed the orange motor colors when the battery is preconditioning.

 

[R.I.P.]

It warms the battery. I have confirmed that twice this weekend.

Correct. Preheating the vehicle also triggers battery conditioning; if the vehicle deems it necessary.

In my observations, it does not trigger battery heating if the battery is over 50° Fahrenheit. This may be where the confusion is coming in, as the vehicle is not going to waste energy heating the battery if it is at least above that base level.

 

[zefram47]

Using the schedule doesn't precondition my battery, just the cabin. The battery was still relatively warm from charging overnigh but I call bs on the heating.

Call BS all you like, but it does work. Even before 2023.50 came out on 2023.46 I went out to the truck while it was preconditioning and the motors were all in the 200F realm and the battery had been warmed from its cold-soaked state up into the mid-40F realm. The schedule does the exact same thing, you just don't have to turn it on manually.

 

[Singletracker]

With my goal to heat the cold battery a bit, previously, with the truck plugged in, I have set the target battery percentage high enough to initiate charging. If it was preset to charge to 70% overnight, I would bump it up a couple of percentage points when preheating. I also had the cabin heat up. My question is, if the battery is already charged to the predetermined percentage and I select to heat the cabin, will the battery also begin heating? AND, if plugged in, will this all occur using my house power, in spite of the fact that the battery is already charged to the preset max?

BTW, prior to 50.01, on cold mornings, without preheating the battery, my motors would gradually heat up, sometimes into the 270+ range. Now, they barely reach 100 degrees, after miles of driving. So, something major changed with my T. Yesterday, after the truck sat out overnight in freezing weather, I drove 20 miles In 45 degrees weather. The motors barely nudged 100 by the end of the trip. The battery temp stayed in the mid-40’s. The efficiency was WAY better in those conditions than I had ever experienced. Go figure.

 

[Ngkgb]

I really think the best option is to have a charging schedule where vehicle will be charged to whatever level you chose by your departure time. This should warm the battery.

 

[PhatDaddy]

EV newbie here living on mobil charger on 120V… still waiting to receive L2 charger. My local utility off peak hours are from 9:00 PM till noon.
Question: So once I have my L2 charger, during colder temps would it be most efficient to set my over-night charging schedule so that it typically completes at just about the same time I have set the schedule to start warming the cabin in the morning… so that the battery is already fairly warm from just completing charging?
(Oh, basically same thing ngkgb just said)

 

[fastwheels]

EV newbie here living on mobil charger on 120V… still waiting to receive L2 charger. My local utility off peak hours are from 9:00 PM till noon.
Question: So once I have my L2 charger, during colder temps would it be most efficient to set my over-night charging schedule so that it typically completes at just about the same time I have set the schedule to start warming the cabin in the morning… so that the battery is already fairly warm from just completing charging?
(Oh, basically same thing ngkgb just said)

This is basically how I did it last winter and it worked out quite well.

 

[Throwdown]

It warms the battery. I have confirmed that twice this weekend.

Yours warms the battery, mine does not. I'm assuming it only does it if necessary. My garage is insulated so the battery really never gets "cold" unless I don't need to charge for a couple of days

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