[Harpac]

I have a 3 month old 2017 Volt Premier. I couldn't help but notice that the fan in the car will come on immediately and blow cold air after starting the car on a cold day. (This is in Auto Mode, does it in Eco and Max).

I am used to other "high end" autos that wait until there is something warm to give you before the fan starts to run, and then it steps up the fan speed based on the coolant temperature.

Is this normal? Does anyone else notice the initial cold blast of air?

 

[HiFlite]

My Gen I does this too. If you set the fan to 'off', the heating stops. The best one can do is put it on the lowest speed and recirc until the heater reservoir warms up. In that way, it makes sense to always start with "comfort" so the warmup is as fast as possible.

 

[voganni]

Do a preheat, then you'll start your drive with warm air. I think the designers skipped the slow ramp-up feature because the heat comes on so quickly. I have heat in literally less than a minute. But the preheat feature is even better!

 

[dadentist]

I bought my 2017 Volt Premier a few days ago, had the same concern and couldn't find a solution in the manual. However, the salesman had the answer: switch off the power button on the climate control panel. It is item #10 on page 158 in the manual.

 

[knodal]

If you have Auto Defog turned on then you will get this cold blast upon startup. I believe it is on by default, so unless you have turned it off, then this is your likely culprit. Owners Manual page 143.

 

[acarney]

Do a preheat, then you'll start your drive with warm air. I think the designers skipped the slow ramp-up feature because the heat comes on so quickly. I have heat in literally less than a minute. But the preheat feature is even better!

"Heat" is being used in a vague way here.

The only time I actually get heat is when I have the temp setting at between 85F - HI, MAX, and the fan speed 3/4 or less. I get conditioned air which is warmer then outside, but certainly not hot. I miss my near 60mi battery range compared to the 20 to 30 I get with these 10-20F days

 

[ClarksonCote]

That's odd. With the Gen 1 (2011-2015) in Eco or Comfort with Fan set to Auto, it only ramps up once there's some heat that can be felt.

Of course, people often complain "there's no heat coming out, what's going on?" so I guess it's a mixed bag.

In Fan Only, the fan will blow pretty hard even if the air isn't hot, because it's trying to give you what little heat may be left from the heater core before it was turned off.

"Heat" is being used in a vague way here.

The only time I actually get heat is when I have the temp setting at between 85F - HI, MAX, and the fan speed 3/4 or less. I get conditioned air which is warmer then outside, but certainly not hot. I miss my near 60mi battery range compared to the 20 to 30 I get with these 10-20F days

That should not be the case. The Gen 2 Volt has an even more powerful heater block than the Gen 1 (9kW versus 6kW or something similar) and the Gen 1 can get nice and toasty hot air with "normal" temperature settings. So I would have this looked into.

 

[sparty]

"Heat" is being used in a vague way here.

The only time I actually get heat is when I have the temp setting at between 85F - HI, MAX, and the fan speed 3/4 or less. I get conditioned air which is warmer then outside, but certainly not hot. I miss my near 60mi battery range compared to the 20 to 30 I get with these 10-20F days

+1 to the no heat - even with pre-condition you can't get it hot.. (Note the manual suggest to set it to 74, ha!)

 

[Loboc]

+1 to the no heat - even with pre-condition you can't get it hot.. (Note the manual suggest to set it to 74, ha!)

Both my Volt and ELR I set them to 74F, auto, (max) comfort. No issues. Have heat before I got to the end of the driveway or out of the parking lot. If I pre-condition, already hot. Of course it doesn't really get that cold here in DFW area. If it happens to snow or something, I just work from home until it melts. Usually an hour or so later.

 

[chevyman142000]

There is also a setting for changing the blower speed (low, medium, high). I tested it tonight on my drive home. Seems like when it is set to low, it helps not blow cold air, but doesn't seem to ramp up the fan speed once it has warm air to blow. I don't recall the exact name of the setting, but it is in the same spot as turning on the heated seats automatically, etc.

 

[Harpac]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I have tried a couple of them, and will try the rest as time allows.

We are headed for some below 0 temps here in the Chicago area, and I will get to test out all the different ideas and get a chance to see how the new Volt does with some challenging temperatures.

 

[chevyman142000]

It will do great. I live in Wisconsin. We are experiencing some pretty cold temps right now and it has been doing super.

 

[V0ltastic]

We precondition our car every morning and it works like a champ. However, I believe the wife does set it to 80+ on the temperature and hits the MAX button. After that she lowers the temperature settings and uses the seat/steering wheel warmers to essentially maintain her comfort. At least for her, she doesn't feel warm unless using that MAX button which will through plenty of heat. I also know using the ICE will through some great heat too and worth a bit of gas if you're in the pinch to just hit the hold button.

 

[snic]

"Heat" is being used in a vague way here.

The only time I actually get heat is when I have the temp setting at between 85F - HI, MAX, and the fan speed 3/4 or less. I get conditioned air which is warmer then outside, but certainly not hot. I miss my near 60mi battery range compared to the 20 to 30 I get with these 10-20F days

My guess is that you're a victim of AutoDefog, which turns the a/c on when the car thinks your windows are going to fog up. As soon as I turned that off, I noticed that the car gets toasty warm when set at a reasonable temperature (72, 74).

HOWEVER, my experience here is based mostly on preconditioning the car, which basically means 5 to 10 minutes of MAX heat with the temperature set at whatever the last setting was (usually 70-74). The few times I don't precondition, it does seem to take quite a while for the cabin to warm up when set to ECO mode. Ironically, this seems to be a worse problem when the outside temperature is relatively warm (45-50 degrees) than when it's cold (25-35 degrees), presumably because ECO mode will crank up the power to the heater at those cold temperatures, so the air coming out the vents feels toasty warm. It feels just sort of lukewarm when it's 50 degrees out. The solution at those temperatures, of course, is to run in MAX mode until you're warm, then switch to ECO (with heated seats on throughout).

 

[Arcanox]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I have tried a couple of them, and will try the rest as time allows.

We are headed for some below 0 temps here in the Chicago area, and I will get to test out all the different ideas and get a chance to see how the new Volt does with some challenging temperatures.

Headed for? This morning it was -5 just west of where you are

I went for lunch today and my round-trip mileage was 29 gas, ~40-45 combined. Ewwwwwww.