Air conditioned car seats - do they exist/actually work?

Jeeebus

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
9,181
901
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Given that it's mid-March which means it is already 85+ degrees on a daily basis, I find myself questioning the full usefulness of my Accord (that's right - big time lawyers roll with the Accord).

I know there are some cars with air conditioned seats, but do they actually work well? And is there some resource for identifying what cars actually have them? My Accord has heated seats which is somebody's idea of a sick joke in South Florida.
 

AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,695
117
106
Mostly luxury cars. My friend's Lexus GS has it. My mom's old S-Class had it.

It's amazing during hot days.
 

allisolm

Elite Member
Administrator
Jan 2, 2001
25,195
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Air conditioned car seats - do they exist/actually work?

Yes and yes. They are sooooo nice during FL summers.
 

V00DOO

Diamond Member
Dec 2, 2000
3,817
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Yes, it keeps my balls becoming bat wings during hot days. I think all it is, using existing a/c cool air to redirected underneath the seats.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
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Yeah, I have them in my car, and they work. From what I can tell, air condition seats seem to pipe in cooled air from the AC system. If I also had to guess, these cars don't use heating coils for heating the seat. The source of the cooling is interesting to note because it means it doesn't kick in immediately.
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
They're pretty awesome. The rental company I used to work for had a few Lincolns with them. They work like an air hockey table. An air duct runs into the seat and vents through small holes in the leather, gently chilling your ass.

Ford uses the same technology for heated seats, which sucks in the winter as you don't get any warmth until the engine heats up.
 

WaTaGuMp

Lifer
May 10, 2001
21,207
2,506
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Since when isn't a vehicles regular AC not enough? My work truck gets cold enough to make pop cycles.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Ford uses the same technology for heated seats, which sucks in the winter as you don't get any warmth until the engine heats up.

They only use it when the seats also have cooling. My Taurus's front seats are cooled, so they use the air-based heating, but my rear seats are heat-only, which means they use the commonplace coil system. It really isn't too bad when it comes to getting to a good operating state. I had coils in my Altima and Fusion, and they both took a while to get to a good temperature. Although, if you're someone that likes to waste gas, you can just use remote start to warm your car up and negate that issue completely. :p
 

Rage187

Lifer
Dec 30, 2000
14,276
4
81
My heated seats only work if someone is sitting on them. So, cold mornings I suffer for 5 minutes or so.
 

glenn1

Lifer
Sep 6, 2000
25,383
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Had a couple rental cars with that feature previously. My wife liked it and I hated it so YMMV, I could easily see it being like cruise control where either you use it never or all the time.
 

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
7,951
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My Ferrari California had them, and so did my Porsche Cayenne and they worked great.
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
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I think it's hit or miss if you actually need them. When your car gets cooled down using the normal AC, the seats typically become room temp....which is 72 or whatever you set the AC to. Maybe the commute home you might want them, but only if it's short enough.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
454
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I want them. There are a lot of cars with climate controlled seat options. I had to go one more trim level up in the 2014 GC to get them, and it just wasn't worth it. Some days it'd be nice though =/
 

Jeeebus

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
9,181
901
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I think it's hit or miss if you actually need them. When your car gets cooled down using the normal AC, the seats typically become room temp....which is 72 or whatever you set the AC to. Maybe the commute home you might want them, but only if it's short enough.

Mostly for coming back to a car after court and entering the festering heat zone of hell in a full suit and tie - I would imagine anything helps at that point.
 

dyna

Senior member
Oct 20, 2006
813
61
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I had a seat motor(controls seat positioning) go out in my Nissan. The car was still under warranty and they told me it was a gray area whether or not it should be covered. In the end they did cover it but without warranty they wanted to charge $1,000. There are 3 motors under both front seats. So 6k to fix them all if they all happen to go out.

These features will cost you an arm and a leg to get fixed if they ever break.
 

inachu

Platinum Member
Aug 22, 2014
2,387
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2015 mustang has cold seat settings :) Not just on and off but variable levels :)
 

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
1,575
126
I had a seat motor(controls seat positioning) go out in my Nissan. The car was still under warranty and they told me it was a gray area whether or not it should be covered. In the end they did cover it but without warranty they wanted to charge $1,000. There are 3 motors under both front seats. So 6k to fix them all if they all happen to go out.

These features will cost you an arm and a leg to get fixed if they ever break.

It's really just a fan in the seat.