Preconditioning Question

Hi Jason, I use Barrhaven Honda, I tested drove it 3 times before I bought it. 1st time is by myself, 2nd time my son drove as he will be using the car also and the third time I want to check out a few features that I missed before.

I actually went back a 4th time but that was with a friend looking to get a new car and she bought it right after she tried it out. I was able to get her the same discount as me so she was happy with it. Good luck with your purchase

 

Preconditioning on 120v (even when the car is fully charged) is a hit or miss. I have the app installed on both an iPhone and an Android and when it doesn't work on iPhone i use Android and it works. Also Android sometimes shows that the battery is warming up but iphone app doesn't show any such message.

 

NEVER HEARD ANYONE NOT LETTING YOU TEST DRIVE. ABSURD

 

IT WORKS EVERY TIME FOR ME ON MY IPHONE AS LONG AS THE CAR IS FULLY CHARGED, LIKE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING WHEN YOU WOULD WANT TO WARM IT UP. ONCE STARTED THE CHARGER DOES WORK TO REFILL

 

Aapitten - just wanted to confirm that my car behaves exactly as you describe. While plugged into 120 and charging, app refuses to precondition. While plugged in and charging complete, it will precondition after giving that warning message.

 

Cool, thanks! At least now we know they are functioning in the same way. (Whether it's ideal or not.) I was getting concerned because it sounded like everyone's experience was slightly different.

 

I just tested preconditioning behavior on 240V. After the car was fully charged, I started preconditioning from both phone app and key fob. In both cases, the car requested charge power to be turned back on (green light). This lets the car precondition while still giving you 100% battery charge. In contrast, on 120V, the car does not reenable charging (even though it does precondition if the charge cycle has completed).

Today was first hot day since I have bought the car. I think A/C preconditioning may be even nicer than heat preconditioning! I got into the car with nice cold air blowing on me.

 

How fast does the battery deplete when preconditioning? I assume it varies greatly based on outside temp. I suppose it would always be nice to get into a 70 degree vehicle, but if it’s gonna kill the battery, I may use it selectively or solely when it’s plugged in at home.

 

I can relate my Volt experience.

Preconditioning is limited to 10 minutes on it. If I'm plugged into 240 volts it can make up the energy los in another 10 minutes. Note though that the Clarity charges at twice the current at that voltage so it might even draw all that it needs from the EVSE with no net loss in range.

 

The above would be typical for a 30 F garage, warming to a 70 F set point.

 

Just to confirm, it is okay to precondition the car while it is in the garage, right? In other words it won't be releasing carbon monoxide?

 

That is correct. The ICE can only come on when the power button has been used to turn the car on. In off or accessory mode, the ICE will not run. This feature protects us from carbon monoxide poisoning and Honda from expensive lawsuits. So do not leave the car “on” in the garage unattended.

And after 30 to 60 min in accessory mode in park, it will automatically turn off to prevent the 12v battery from running down.