[saoshen]

Hello, been an off/on reader for awhile now, and a few months ago bought a CPO 2013 Volt I believe with everything except stand alone navigation. Cyber gray with chrome wheels.

Anyway, it was still relatively warmer weather when I bought mine, and now that I have had it through some colder weather, I have been rather disappointed at the heater/climate control system.

I have had it in for service for no/little heat while on electric, and while they said it was working as intended, the did do something because now the does work on electric, but not what I consider adequate.

I have, over a period of time, tried to read through the many threads regarding the heater/controller issues, but as stated the service dept found nothing wrong.

Heat while ICE is running, is mostly OK.

Given that introduction and background info, the point of this thread/poll is to determine the, for lack of better terms, quality/consistency of climate control (winter) the system provides, in order to help myself and other users determine if their climate control is functioning 'as designed' or not so much.

This is in regards to gen 1 Volts, and these questions/answers are requesting *measured with some kind of thermometer* cabin temp, not 'guestimated' or how it 'feels' or whether it is comfortable.

I use an lcd temp/humidity gauge velcro'd to my dash, near a vent but vent not blowing directly on it.

Also you can assume that comfort mode is used.

Outside temp, as displayed on panel 30 to 50F.

I am trying to gather some factual data.

questions:

1) My Volt climate keeps the cabin air temperature (not vent temp) perfectly at the same temp as set on the climate temp?

a) yes, my measured cabin air temp closely tracks the temperature that I have set on the climate control.
b) mostly, my cabin air temp is normally within a few degrees of the climate temp.
c) not really, my cabin air temp is normally 10+ degrees lower than the set climate temp.

2) It generally takes how much time for your Volt cabin air temp to reach your set comfort temp? (obviously a lot of factors can affect this, but as in general when you leave for work in the morning etc)

a) I use pre-conditioning and my cabin air temp is normally reaching comfort set temp immediately or within 5 minutes.
b) I don't use, or when I don't use pre-conditioning, my cabin air temp warms up within 5 minutes or so (with or without ICE heat assist).
c) My cabin air temp typically takes about 10 minutes to get where I am comfortable or to specified temp.
d) My cabin air temp typically takes longer than 20 minutes to get comfortable or to specified temp.

3) With electric only heat:

a) my electric only heat warms up fast (1-3 minutes) and keeps the cabin air temp at or near specified temp.
b) my electric only heat takes a few (~5-7) minutes and will bring cabin temp up to or near specified temp.
c) my electric only heat takes a seemingly long time (10+ minutes) to bring cabin air temp up to or near specified temp, or never reaches specified temp (within the ~30 mile electric range).

I probably have a few more questions to add later but these are the biggies I'd like to get out there.

I'll post my own personal answers in a later post.

 

[Cord]

Some Volt years have had a NO heat at all problem

An air filter ( which I had to add to my 2012 Volt) will reduce air flow at least one fan click and the heaver carbon one a bit more.
I wanted cooling to be faster but heating has never been a problem even when we get 14 to 20 F in Texas

 

[AtomicPowered]

Use this youtube video to test your Volt heating system. If you are getting 100 F out of the vents after a few minutes, it's working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57V49QMBeO0

 

[Loboc]

My 2013 was light on heat when in EV mode. That's why I have no problem with ERDTT or using hold when I know I can't get there on EV only. I never measured it to see if it was keeping the temp at the set point.

In both ELR and Volt I use max/comfort [email protected] 74F. ELR heats way better in EV mode than Volt did. Both cars take forever to heat when using ECO mode.

 

[Slotracer577]

Heat is definitely lacking. From what I can tell the temp shown on the heat knob is not really cabin temp. I had mine set at 72 and it was blowing cold air, it was 9f out. Turned it up to 84 and then I got warm air out of the vents. So I now assume the knob is really like the one in all the other cars I have owned and it's really just a hot/cold temp control, not a true hold this temperature setting. Once I made that adjustment the heat works ok. Turn it way up to get heat, down for less. Will be interesting to see how cooling works.

 

[saoshen]

My cabin air temp tracks 10 to 15 degrees lower than the temp set on the console, for up to around an hour.

After about an hour or so drive, the temp will have ever so slowly be getting closer to the set temp.

Example this morning, my normal commute is about 30 minutes of mostly highway driving.

There was an accident and commute was 90 minutes of mostly stop and go, and mostly on electric. I had some early highway miles on HOLD until I came up on the traffic jam from hell.

My set temp is usually 78 to 80 degrees. This typically gives a ~65ish cabin air temp for a typical drive (less than hour).

by the 45 to 60 minute mark, cabin air had starting rising slowly from 70ish cabin air, to when I got the 70-80 minute mark, it was a toasty 80 degrees and I had to crack the windows and drop the temp setting.

Outside air was approx 55 degrees.

I had preconditioned twice before leaving. I put on hold mode after about 5 miles of electric, once I pull on to the interstate. So there is already ICE heat assist within the first 10 minutes, if not during pre-conditioning.

So my personal answers;

my cabin air temp tracks the set temp about 10 to 15 degrees lower for trips less than hour.

when using preconditioning, the cabin air has usually reached the comfortable or close to it (55-60 degrees), however it never reaches the set temp.

when not using preconditioning, it takes 10-15 minutes of electric only heat to reach 55-60 and possibly never to reach set temp.

ICE assist heat will generally will warm cabin air significantly faster, however again the cabin air temp generally takes over an hour continuous running for it to finally match the set temp with the cabin air temp.

I really love the car but this is one of the most frustrating situations.

In summary, the heat does work, but it does not work satisfactorily or consistently especially when used in conjunction with a typical 30 minute commute.

 

[Barry]

I have a '13 and my heat is weak, and I do not think it is working correctly. It is out of warranty and the dealer is not able to confidently fix it. They have tried a couple of things and I am not going to pay them to experiment further. The next step is replacing the heater control module, but I think it is over $700 and no guarantee it will work.

They don't understand the car. They say things like "you are supposed to use the heated seats, not the heater." Of course, that is BS. Whatever. It works half OK and I can live with it. I live in NC and have a longer summer than winter. Thankfully the AC blasts and that is more important to me. I wear a coat and use the seat heater. The vent heat is enough to get by. And I could always trump the problem by running the engine, so it really is not serious. I just accept it as a quirk of the car.

The main problem with my car is that the heater coolant 2 way valve is not being controlled correctly. It is allowing heat to be diverted into the cold engine block. This can be seen by connecting an OBDII scan tool and observing the engine coolant temperature rising when EV heat is on. Also by placing your hand on the engine block, which should be cold in EV mode. I explained all this to the service advisors, who then condense it into two words for the technicians. If your car is under warranty, you might look into that possible issue. If you have it, make them fix that while it is on their dime, because it can be objectively measured and proven and is clearly wrong, so they can't just say it is supposed to work that way.

It makes my heater suck more power, and heat is slower and weaker to the cabin than it otherwise would be. I don't have a thermometer mounted on my dash, so I can't easily provide the data you are asking about.

 

[saoshen]

Use this youtube video to test your Volt heating system. If you are getting 100 F out of the vents after a few minutes, it's working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57V49QMBeO0

Thanks for the link, I have watched the video in the past during my previous thread research, and that is a similar thermometer and placement as I have started using. (mine actually shows both temp and humidity, I got it at home depot)

I have not done the same test (yet), because I know that the heat works, it just does not work satisfactorily, nor does it act accurately/consistently according to the climate set temp.

 

[2VoltFamily]

2013 models have heating problems depending on manufactured date. I have two 2013s. Software update, potiention K10 module faulty (they had a bad batch), or valve problem.

Set the temp to HI and Comfort mode. If you don't get enough heat to run you out of the car you may have a problem.

See the listed problem PIC numbers in my signature. The dealer can take if from there.