[obermd]

Since I'm driving my wife's Clarity periodically (2018 with less than 5,000 miles) I'm wondering how to preheat the car more quickly on cold winter morning. Here's an example:

Yesterday we had about a quarter inch of ice on both our vehicles (2017 Volt LT and 2018 Clarity Touring PHEV). I started the precondition on the Clarity and went out about ten minutes later. The cabin was warm but there had been no heat directed at the windshield to warm the ice for scraping. I started the Clarity and put the car in defrost mode when I started to scrape ice. After 20 minutes of scraping I gave up and turned the car off. I turned my Volt on and after five minutes I had the car ice free and the inside was way too hot. Now I know the Volt uses a resistive electric heater so I understand how it gets so hot so fast. My question is how do I get the Clarity to have a more reasonable pre-heat time, especially for the glass?

Note - I used the same ice scraper on both cars.

 

[2002]

When you run defrost make sure that temp is set to HI and turn on recirculation (you have to press the defrost button first prior to pressing the recirc button otherwise it reverts to fresh).

The Clarity won't go into READY mode while charging, and READY mode is the only way to have control over the heater. The drawback with heating the car in READY mode however is that you are reducing your EV range since you aren't charging.

Preconditioning is limited in the amount of heat (and AC) that it will put out, it ignores your preset temperature, and as you noted it does not let you run defrost. However at least you can precondition using grid power. So you probably should do the combination like you were doing, first run preconditioning for fifteen or twenty minutes or whatever, that will at least take the edge off of the cabin temperature. Then start the car and turn on maximum heat with defrost. Only thing is if the outdoor temperature is cold enough, setting heat to HI might cause ICE to start up.

Clarity does use a resistive heater, like the Volt it heats up the coolant loop that goes into the heater core (during that time this part of the cooling loop is cut off from the rest of the cooling system).

 

[obermd]

Thanks. I think the difference in the resistive heater is the Volt blows air directly over it and the Clarity uses it to heat coolant fluid.

It's too bad the Clarity won't go into READY mode while plugged in. The Volt will do this but won't let you shift out of Park. This preserves EV range while heating.

 

[ClarityDave]

When you run defrost make sure that temp is set to HI and turn on recirculation (you have to press the defrost button first prior to pressing the recirc button otherwise it reverts to fresh).

The Clarity won't go into READY mode while charging, and READY mode is the only way to have control over the heater. The drawback with heating the car in READY mode however is that you are reducing your EV range since you aren't charging.

Preconditioning is limited in the amount of heat (and AC) that it will put out, it ignores your preset temperature, and as you noted it does not let you run defrost. However at least you can precondition using grid power. So you probably should do the combination like you were doing, first run preconditioning for fifteen or twenty minutes or whatever, that will at least take the edge off of the cabin temperature. Then start the car and turn on maximum heat with defrost. Only thing is if the outdoor temperature is cold enough, setting heat to HI might cause ICE to start up.

Clarity does use a resistive heater, like the Volt it heats up the coolant loop that goes into the heater core (during that time this part of the cooling loop is cut off from the rest of the cooling system).

I was checking a Honda parts source on the internet and found that there appears to be an engine block heater for the Clarity (P/N 08T44-SNA-102). Any thoughts?


https://www.hondapartsnow.com/acces...=&extra1=4 Door PLUGIN&extra2=KA CVT&filter=()

 

[Trolle]

I am not sure if those block heaters get the engine coolant hot enough to do much and still the engine would have to be started to circulate the core and I guess it does not allow that in preheat mode?

I wonder if this type of defrosters actually work and not even sure if the accessory cigarette socket gets powered during the preheat?

https://www.amazon.com/Windshield-Car-Heater-Defroster-Cigarette/dp/B07JZ3NMWG