Heat is wholly inadequate - Ford should have to eat these things

[prdude]

I'm going to take a flyer here and assume car manufacturers don't build cars for areas where there are extremes either in use or climate.

Actually, car manufacturers typically size climate control systems, especially a/c systems, for extreme climates. In fact, most automotive systems have the cooling capacity of a typical home system, because customers want their 150 F heat-soaked interior comfortable in less than five minutes.

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[prdude]

I think this may be the problem. The heat on this car doesn’t work like “everything else you own.”

It’s an electric heater not a heat pump. And it doesn’t have a hot gas engine to pull heat from.

Like others have said:

Precondition while plugged in
Recirculation mode
Blower on lvl 1
Heated seats and steering wheel on

Try the above and report back. Like many things with this car, there is a learning curve.

Note that if you manually set the blower speed and/or manually hit the recirc button, you are taking the system out of auto mode; it seems that many folks don't understand this. Also, it seems that many folks don't understand that, while operating in auto mode, the calibration forces the system into recirc the majority of the time, even though the recirc icon is not illuminated.

I believe the OP said they were using remote start from FordPass to precondition. I also do this to precondition. I have the remote start climate control settings set to "use last settings" in the touchscreen. I leave heated steering wheel on, driver's heated seat set to auto, and climate control set to 18.0 C auto-low. So far, I have found that if I allow for 5-10 minutes of preconditioning, the interior is warmed up to well above 18.0 C when I get into my vehicle parked in my unheated, detached garage.

 

[Mach1E]

Note that if you manually set the blower speed and/or manually hit the recirc button, you are taking the system out of auto mode; it seems that many folks don't understand this. Also, it seems that many folks don't understand that, while operating in auto mode, the calibration forces the system into recirc the majority of the time, even though the recirc icon is not illuminated.

I believe the OP said they were using remote start from FordPass to precondition. I also do this to precondition. I have the remote start climate control settings set to "use last settings" in the touchscreen. I leave heated steering wheel on, driver's heated seat set to auto, and climate control set to 18.0 C auto-low. So far, I have found that if I allow for 5-10 minutes of preconditioning, the interior is warmed up to well above 18.0 C when I get into my vehicle parked in my unheated, detached garage.

You sure that “auto” will recirc most of the time?

Based on the smells from outside the car, it doesn’t seem to be the case. I have to hit the recirc button all the time to reduce outside exhaust smells. Side note, I don’t like that it doesn’t stay in recirc. Lots of stinky exhausts around here since they don’t do emissions testing.

For fan speed, I don’t set it manually, I just keep it in “auto 1” vs “auto 3” that I assume the OP was referring to.

When I hit the recirc button, auto temp and auto fan speed do stay the same though.

 

[Pushrods&Capacitors]

You sure that “auto” will recirc most of the time?

Based on the smells from outside the car, it doesn’t seem to be the case. I have to hit the recirc button all the time to reduce outside exhaust smells. Side note, I don’t like that it doesn’t stay in recirc. Lots of stinky exhausts around here since they don’t do emissions testing.

For fan speed, I don’t set it manually, I just keep it in “auto 1” vs “auto 3” that I assume the OP was referring to.

When I hit the recirc button, auto temp and auto fan speed do stay the same though.

Same experience here, when using A/C the system is definitely coming out of recirc and into fresh air mode way too often for our liking. Stinky exhaust smells are the first alert and sure enough, the recirc icon is always off when we notice the smells and needs to be reselected manually. It’s getting pretty annoying.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Yes, my Eheat is on, thanks for asking. I live in northern Wisconsin where below zero temps are common in the winter.

Went out today to pick up the dog. Remote started car in the +10F garage for about 10 minutes while I got ready. Car is pretty toasty when I leave.

After a few minutes of driving I notice the car isn't maintaining cabin heat. Put hand by heater outlet, and yeah, it's blowing cold air. Not ice cold - it's somewhat heated - but not what it needs to be. Temps on this trip were +1 to -2F the whole time.

Now I'm wondering what to do with this thing. Taking it in won't do much good unless they have it when the weather is below zero. I really don't think there's anything defective per se about this particular vehicle - I believe they all have inadequate heaters for this climate. I think it's clear Ford didn't do squat with regard to arctic testing. These cars shouldn't be sold north of I-80.

Guess I'm going to do my best to lemon law this thing and get it sent to Florida where it belongs.

The car should have enough heat for -10 to -20°F. You might have to reduce the fan speed though. In these temps near or below 0°F you should be using the precondition feature rather than remote start so the battery is warmed up. Some of your heat may have been diverted to warm the battery so that may be why it stopped keeping up.

 

[MorsRedigo]

Driving mine in -30c past few days and no issues

 

[Luke]

I park my mustang outside and so far I haven't had a heating issue (Milwaukee WI) It was about 10 degrees last night and I went for a quick drive, no pre-heat and my car warmed up SUPER fast. I think it might just be your car. Also, even with the auto seat warmer setting on, my ass catches fire. They need to tone that down a bit... Also, incase you are wondering, I'm not one of those people that is cold resistant. I'm like 120lbs skinny dude that shivers cold in the summer. I have no idea why I live in such a cold place.

I'm 260lb and still not cold resistant. Fat is the first thing to freeze ?

 

[BadgerGreg]

I have no issues with heat at that temp either. In fact, at +10F it seems to do OK, when it starts getting close to zero is when there's trouble

Having grown up in northern Wisconsin (Wausau), I understand your pain. I've been driving here in SE Michigan with morning temps in the upper teens. Not frigid by any stretch of the imagination, but still pretty cold. I've had no cabin comfort issues yet, and I think the MME will do fairly well for the driver (and maybe the front seat passenger) in frigid weather, due to the heated seats. However, I worry about whether the e-heat can keep the entire cabin warm when it dips to near zero (F). Sorry you're having issues with those low temps.

 

[Garbone]

Ahhh, winter, when we break out the sweatshirts and wear closed toe shoes........

 

[sotek2345]

Ahhh, winter, when we break out the sweatshirts and wear closed toe shoes........

Canadians say the same thing!

 

[Badger_Prof]

I received my car in Wisconsin the first week of February. The day I picked it up was -19 F (yes, F—not C)—so about -28 C. The following week continued to be cold. I never ever had a problem heating the cabin to whatever temp I wanted (Once I figured out how to turn on e-heat). If you are cold in yours, there is definitely something wrong (or I got lucky).

 

[tuminatr]

IDK what you mean by precondition? I remote started it. And yes, I used the seat and steering wheel heat.

And I most certainly did not say there's nothing wrong with the car. I believe they ALL have inadequate heaters for this climate.

Take it and have it looked at. I was in Wausau, WI on Tuesday morning -10 outside with no issues. My car gets too hot I have the heat set to auto and 65 degrees.

You should also preheat if possible. How you preheat is when the car is plugged in set a departure time. The difference between setting a departure time and using remote start is the departure time preheats the battery and then everything is toasty.

 

[noname]

Crank it to 76-78F, only then it starts blowing warm air.

 

[tuminatr]

I agree with you about the heat not being fine tuned. I don't have that low temperature yet in Mass but we will. I also noticed the semi-cold air blowing from the vent. The heated seat helps but the legs are still cold. I think this will only be resolved after the moved to a heat pump setup.

This is a common misconception however heat pumps are extremely inefficient below freezing. I believe that vehicles that do have heat pumps also have a resistive heater in them for when the temperatures get really cold

 

[DrSteveBrule]

I don't have my MME yet, so I can't confirm this, but in many cars, electric or no, you can run heat and A/C simultaneously to remove moisture from hot air. This is true in my ID.4, for example. Could be one solution to the fogging when recirculate is on.

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