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Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:56 pm
by pjm007
Thought I might start this one by asking a question.

Have forum members thought (assumed?) that "Pre-conditioning" works on the XC40, somehow in connection with a thing called a Parking Heater?

Put another way, that you can use the Volvo On Call (VOC) App on your Phone to e.g. warm up the car on a cold morning, or ventilate on a warm day? That is without using another feature of the VOC app, which is called Remote Start? I ask because that is what I have always assumed.

I mentioned last night in a post on another thread that I couldn't get pre-conditioning to work. I can get Remote Start to work. I am now getting indications from my dealer, to be confirmed or not, that the XC40 (FE or other) may not come fitted with a Parking Heater. It may be an option, which as yet is unannounced and unavailable. The message is that you can probably only pre-heat the car by using Remote Start and therefore need to have the engine running on the drive in order to warm it up.

I may have assumed the wrong thing, but the fact that the App (in the version I have for an XC40) and the Central Console both refer to Parking Climate and Parking Heater features which apparently may not exist on the car, is at best confusing.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:10 pm
by Andy S
Have to admit that I thought that it was similar to what I had on my F Pace, in that I could use remote start to get engine running, and then set temperature/climate controls as conditions dictate.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:46 pm
by AlexK
My understanding was that the parking heater isn’t offered in the UK, it’s generally reserved for countries with a colder climate than ours.

Remote Start should still be available, but I believe its purpose is to achieve a ‘comfortable’ temperature in the cabin, i.e. I don’t believe the app offers the ability to set a desired temperature.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:50 pm
by AlexK
Also, the Parking Climate function is, I believe, designed to activated from inside the car with you still sat inside it; believe it’s designed to retain a comfortable temperature if you’re sat waiting for someone, or if you’re leaving the car for a short time and want it to still be warm/cool when you return.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:27 am
by pjm007
Had it confirmed by my dealer this morning. No parking heater in an XC40. So preconditioning doesn’t work and both the App and the Central Console are misleading.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:46 am
by AlexK
Presumably as Remote Start does work, you can still start the car using the app, which will cause the climate/defroster to come on?

So the piece you can't do is schedule a timer, is that right?

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:33 am
by Sputnik
That’s a huge let down! It’s one of the things I was really looking forward to. The demo on the app shows it well and also my dealer told me this is will be a thing.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:11 pm
by pjm007
AlexK wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:46 am Presumably as Remote Start does work, you can still start the car using the app, which will cause the climate/defroster to come on?

So the piece you can't do is schedule a timer, is that right?
Remote start works but I haven’t checked out what happens to the heating/cooling when you use it. I think temperatures are totally out of the user’s control and presumably it warms or cools depending on prevailing outside conditions and cabin temperature.

Timers do not work.

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 5:49 pm
by Boomer
pjm007 wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:11 pm
AlexK wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:46 am Presumably as Remote Start does work, you can still start the car using the app, which will cause the climate/defroster to come on?

So the piece you can't do is schedule a timer, is that right?
Remote start works but I haven’t checked out what happens to the heating/cooling when you use it. I think temperatures are totally out of the user’s control and presumably it warms or cools depending on prevailing outside conditions and cabin temperature.

Timers do not work.
I am totally and utterly confused by all of this now. [Well not quite as I get the parking heater bit and that not being available in the UK]

pjm007, would you mind sharing what "Remote start" actually does in your XC40? Does it start the engine or something else?

I was under the impression that it was illegal to start/have running an unsupervised vehicle and so wasn't expecting an (remote) engine start to be available through Volvo on call (aka this is disabled in the UK). Remote by definition failing the "supervised car" test. Instead our UK "Remote start" would merely be an battery run background "heating" limited to 15 mins.

TIA

Re: Pre-Conditioning & the mystery of the Parking Heater

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:16 pm
by wakey
I’ve emailed my dealer for a definitive answer and expecting a reply in the morning. One of the BIG plus points when I ordered was preheating and cooling, if it’s not available I won’t be a happy chappy.

On the launch night I got the impression that the vehicle will preheat or precool whilst unattended and is controlled from the OnCall app. They also said it would run for a maximum of 15mins