Sure way to know whether your heater works?

[magnitude]

Being in the Bay Area with a garaged car, the heater is not really something I had to use yet. If anything, I've had to cool using the A/C, or merely resort to seat heating.

But the other day, at the end of the commute, I thought I'd try it out, with all the heater failures you hear about. The air that came out was not very hot at all. Then again, I was at the end of my commute, so did not give it much time. By the time I was home, I felt that the air was a little bit warmer.

Now I have no idea what to expect, this being my first EV. I know it's not like in a car with an external combustion engine, where a warmed up engine will give you heat instantly. Presumably the heater needs some time to come up to temperature? How long?

And would a heater failure really only affect heating, or cooling as well? I heard it's rather a heat pump? "Unfortunately", I don't need much A/C in the Bay Area either, so if that doesn't fully work I'm not sure I'd notice as well...

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[TaycanCook]

Being in the Bay Area with a garaged car, the heater is not really something I had to use yet. If anything, I've had to cool using the A/C, or merely resort to seat heating.

But the other day, at the end of the commute, I thought I'd try it out, with all the heater failures you hear about. The air that came out was not very hot at all. Then again, I was at the end of my commute, so did not give it much time. By the time I was home, I felt that the air was a little bit warmer.

Now I have no idea what to expect, this being my first EV. I know it's not like in a car with an external combustion engine, where a warmed up engine will give you heat instantly. Presumably the heater needs some time to come up to temperature? How long?

And would a heater failure really only affect heating, or cooling as well? I heard it's rather a heat pump? "Unfortunately", I don't need much A/C in the Bay Area either, so if that doesn't fully work I'm not sure I'd notice as well...

Enter the location of a charger far away from you tomorrow on your drive to work. Assuming you work 30+ minutes away, you should see your battery temp climb. If it does, your heater is working. If it doesn't, it is suspect.

 

[Torv]

I'm in Marin County and my heater failed in January. I noticed because it was damn cold and the heater was not offering any relief. I took the car to Porsche Marin and they confirmed the heater had failed. They replaced it a couple of weeks later after receiving the parts, a 10-day job.

If I were you I’d have it checked out. These cars should be perfect and there's no reason to sit out the problem just because it's seasonally convenient.

 

[magnitude]

If I were you I’d have it checked out. These cars should be perfect and there's no reason to sit out the problem just because it's seasonally convenient.

I will, if I know it's actually broken.

Reality is, with having the car only since April, even with temperatures dropping over night, because it's garaged I didn't need heat so far. The thermally ("and noise") insulated glass is probably doing its part as well, and so might the panoramic roof (though I know it's not supposed to)...

That's why I'm asking for certain telltales.

 

[TaycanCook]

By climb, I mean, you should be seeing 90+*f by 30 min in when in moderate temps.

 

[Torv]

I will, if I know it's actually broken.

Reality is, with having the car only since April, even with temperatures dropping over night, because it's garaged I didn't need heat so far. The thermally ("and noise") insulated glass is probably doing its part as well, and so might the panoramic roof (though I know it's not supposed to)...

That's why I'm asking for certain telltales.

Understood. Because of our temperate weather, it took me probably a month or two to figure it out. But there's no harm or cost in having them check it out.

 

[philbur]

Cold feet.

 

[Raphie]

Just turn your blower on full, temp on 35c and it should feel like a hairdryer, if ambient, it’s broken

 

[magnitude]

Just turn your blower on full, temp on 35c and it should feel like a hairdryer, if ambient, it’s broken

Should it feel like that immediately, or does it take a while to build up?

 

[Raphie]

After 2mins or so for sure

 

[lcarron]

Should it feel like that immediately, or does it take a while to build up?

I thought the cabin heater is using the heat pump. The resistor heater is for the battery. I just elaborating as I type.

 

[Tooney]

Another indication of heater failure that some of us saw:
An error message on PCM:

The precool/heat error message appears when you go into PCM...AC....tab precool/heat. The line for precool/heat is OFF and to the right of that is "precool/heat: system error".
Also, when you connect the charging plug and use the charging display in the console, the precool/heat button is dark and depressing it gives PCM info: "function not available".

The above can happen when preheat is called for in cool temps. Not sure if error occurs when precooling is needed.

 

[AlexR]

set it to pre-heat to 25+ at 10pm, should be pretty obvious if it cannot get up to temperature.

 

[TXSchnee]

I am in TX, so obviously I do not need the heater very often. Easiest way I have found to check the heater is to turn on the front defroster (demister/defogger), if it is working properly you should feel the heat pretty quickly (less than 2 minutes).

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