MG ZS ev SR heater performance.

[Pauli363]

Got our ZS 3 weeks ago. Last night we were leaving our daughters after 10pm and it had got quite chilly. It was literally the first time we used the heater and it was awful. I had the temperature set right up to HI and the air from the blower was barely warm. In the dead of winter it would be useless. I was hoping after a few miles it might improve but it remained awful on the 10 mile drive home. I am used to the heater in a car being capable of almost hairdryer heat. This felt like it was marginally above ambient temp. I tried different functions, blower on/AC off etc, but it was just the same. Anyone else notice this or have come across it?

 

[JCFlippen]

What mode were you driving in? Eco mode reduces heater output by a lot.

 

[Pauli363]

Ah. I remember now reading something about the mode setting affecting some other things. Yes we were in Economy mode. I take it them Normal should be a reasonable heater performance, and Sport even more so?

 

[N2STY]

I would say normal and sports would be the same

 

[Alb]

You'll find it's OK in Normal.

 

[Pauli363]

excellent. Will try that later. I take it the same theory applies to the Aircon performance? Not as effective in economy, ok in Normal / sport?

 

[Alb]

Yes

 

[Pauli363]

Cheers Alb. The benefits of a great forum and member experiences to the fore again.

 

[Alb]

I can't claim great experience of using Eco mode though.
I've used it about twice in the year I've had the car!

 

[Kithmo]

Normal and no AC is warmest but it may mist up without AC on.

 

[Pauli363]

This is my wife's car and I advised her to use Eco where possible. However, if its going to compromise heater/AC performance by that much, Ill get her to choose Normal going forward. She does approx 60 miles a day with work, so no big issue as we have a hypervolt for home charging.
We have both found Eco mode acceleration and torque absolutely fine, but losing the power of the heater is no use to anyone.

 

[JCFlippen]

Normal will be fine for everyday driving - nothing really lost. Normal and Kers 3 for me any day.

 

[hmadsen]

This is my wife's car and I advised her to use Eco where possible. However, if its going to compromise heater/AC performance by that much, Ill get her to choose Normal going forward. She does approx 60 miles a day with work, so no big issue as we have a hypervolt for home charging.
We have both found Eco mode acceleration and torque absolutely fine, but losing the power of the heater is no use to anyone.

ECO is not able to save a lot of power, for the drivetrain, after all, it takes X amount of electrons to accelerate Y amount of pounds.

The ECO mode tries to save range, by reducing the heating and cooling, and it also takes the edge off of accelerating, because rapid acceleration can really eat electrons, compared to a more tempered acceleration.

I would say that unless she drives and accelerates like a maniac, there is very little extra range to be had by using eco.

 

[hmadsen]

Normal will be fine for everyday driving - nothing really lost. Normal and Kers 3 for me any day.

Agree, this is how mine runs every day.

I only used sport a few times when someone needed to be smoked at the lights, and eco i quickly stopped using as it does not add any real extra range, only dulls the heating / cooling

 

[Kithmo]

I once forgot to press the AC button just after I got mine, Summer 2020, it was about 24 deg C out. I just turned the heat setting right down thinking it would automatically put the AC on, it just blew warm (ambient) air through the vents.

 

[Lovemyev]

When you turn off the HVAC just check that it has not defaulted back to recirculation mode.
This will cause the car to mist up quickly, as there is no flow of air into the cabin.
The new face lift model tends to default back to default mode when turning off the heating.
On the original model, there was a toggle button that would display an orange light when the recirc was either one or off.
On the face lift, there is just a symbol on the central info screen.
You have to press the touch button on the screen to redirect the air flow from outside.

 

[hmadsen]

Can you turn on the climate control without the A/C pump on the first gen ZS EV.

All of my previous Climate control cars have had this option, where you basically told the car "I want this temperature" do your best without the A/C pump.

On the Mk2 i can not engage the climate control, without also enabling the A/C pump, which is rather silly.

In Denmark the sun can be out "baking" heating up the dashboard and whatnot while driving, but it is still only 15c outside, so it is possible to keep the cabin at 20c without using the A/C compressor, but as said, i can not seem to get it to do this.

There are 2 seperate buttons on the screen, but it is not possible for me to enable one without the other, so why they put 2 buttons is beyond me.

 

[Kithmo]

Can you turn on the climate control without the A/C pump on the first gen ZS EV.

All of my previous Climate control cars have had this option, where you basically told the car "I want this temperature" do your best without the A/C pump.

On the Mk2 i can not engage the climate control, without also enabling the A/C pump, which is rather silly.

In Denmark the sun can be out "baking" heating up the dashboard and whatnot while driving, but it is still only 15c outside, so it is possible to keep the cabin at 20c without using the A/C compressor, but as said, i can not seem to get it to do this.

There are 2 seperate buttons on the screen, but it is not possible for me to enable one without the other, so why they put 2 buttons is beyond me.

The first gen didn't have climate control as such (not automatic anyway) just electronic temperature control and yes you can turn the electronic temperature control on without AC.
The temperature won't go any lower than ambient temperature and without cooling (AC button) it will be slow to get down to that if the interior and the vents are hot already.

 

[hmadsen]

The first gen didn't have climate control as such (not automatic anyway) just electronic temperature control and yes you can turn the electronic temperature control on without AC.
The temperature won't go any lower than ambient temperature and without cooling (AC button) it will be slow to get down to that if the interior and the vents are hot already.

I find it really strange that i seem to be unable to enable the climate control, but without the A/C on the gen 2 ZS EV.

There are 3 buttons

1. Power on/off
2. A/C
3. Auto

I can turn on 1 without 2 and 3, this will turn on the fan motor and so on, but it does not try to keep the set temperature.

But 2 and 3 are "glued" together, i can not enable 2 without 3 also enabling, and vice versa.

Why i am not able to turn on the Power to the climate control, and set it to auto, without using the A/C pump is silly.

On my last car it was fully possible to have this if you accepted that it could only do so much, dependent on ambient outside air temperature, and amount of sun.

On the previous one it was also possible, this was even called "eco" climate control mode.

 

[Kithmo]

I would just set it to your preferred temperature in Auto and let the car do the rest.
If it's the same as my old Prius it will switch AC on and off automatically.
Note, even though the light on the switch is always on, it may not be using AC all the time.
Usually and on previous cars I've had with auto climate, after you set climate control to Auto, touching any other button takes it out of auto mode and you have to manually set everything else.