Ventilated seats - who's got 'em?

So with the new year, it's time to start pondering the replacement for my current DD, a '13 Elantra coupe.  Probably not pulling the trigger for a few more months (have to sell the toy first...anyone want an '06 Miata?), but time to start poking around a bit more seriously.

I'm getting older, and have no shame in admitting I'm starting to lean more toward comfort and luxury and less toward sport.  Not looking for something completely devoid of any fun, but not willing to make sacrifices I did years ago.  For example, I want heated leather and a heated steering wheel.  Yes, I live in Atlanta, but we still get chilly mornings...it was 13 degrees this morning.  But of course, Atlanta is known for hot and humid summers.  I sweat a lot by nature, which is oh so fun.  I've never had a car with ventilated seats, but they sound incredibly appealing.  I've test driven them, and in that 10 minutes of a drive, I loved them.  But does the novelty wear off after a while, or are they as good as they seem?  Looking to hear with anyone that has long term experience with them.  I'm assuming they just have fans in the seat bottom and blow cabin air through the perforations?

No idea about long term, but I just drove around in a Lexus with one (also in ATL) and was blown away (get it?) by how nice it was after the gym.

Can't wait til these trickle-down a bit to normal sports cars.

I've ridden in a few friend's trucks that had ventilated seats. Word of advice, turn them off if you have to fart.

I have them in my CLS63.  They are wonderful still after 2 years.  

Any chance you can hang onto the Miata for a few more months? We have no place to put another car during the winter 

Parents have them in their '15 Sorento.  They like them a lot- they spend a significant chunk of the year in AZ.  

I've used them, but never on a super hot day.  I'd imagine they're like seat heaters- I always thought those were dumb, until I owned a car that had them.  I'm a convert.

I had them in a Ram truck I rented  5 days and a few thousand miles in the summer  LOVE THEM!  I also tend to, uh, glisten. They had more to so with being able to put a long day behind the wheel than any single feature if that truck.

but yeah, if you fart they simply distribute your stank around the cabin.

We have them in our 2014 Grand Cherokee and for long road trips they are amazing. I agree they're one of those you don't miss them till you try them things.

I use them pretty much any time it's much above 70 degrees, I think my wife has only ever turned them one once when we towed the racecar into Atlanta during August. We've got 98k miles worth of butt time in the seats so far and they still work just as well as the day we bought them.

For me it makes all the difference in being able to do long trips in a leather seat without sweating.

Sonic said:

I have them in my CLS63.  They are wonderful still after 2 years.  

 

Any chance you can hang onto the Miata for a few more months? We have no place to put another car during the winter 

Not a problem.  Still waiting on everything at work to shake out (my coworker delayed retiring by a few months), want to see if that changes the new car budget.  Wasn't sure if anything had changed after the CX5 (or was it CX3?) purchase, but either way you'd have first rights to it before I actually put any ads up.  Even if I'm ready to sell and you don't have physical space, I have no issue garaging it here as long as you need, but we'll cross that bridge if it comes. 

As for farting in ventilated seats distributing the fun, I fail to see the issue...

I've had them for three summers and love them!  My job requires that I spend a lot of time in production plants which during summer in MI tend to be a bit warm.  Combine that with high humidity and my over efficient personal evaporative cooling system and they're great for cooling off/drying off before repeating he process at my next customer.  Like heated seats these are now almost a must for my next car.

Been a bit  chilly here in SE Texas and they're wonderful(heat) on the lower back/butt while in the '10 CTS-V.

The Range Rover had them.  Black with black interior in eastern NC summers was still very comfortable.

My 03 CL600 and s600 both have ventilated and heated seats and heated steering wheels.  They are both dark cars with dark interiors and the ventilated seats are great in the summer.

My SHO has them, and the F-150 I had previously did, too.  IMO, they are a must-have for a DD.  On a hot, muggy Michigan summer day, when I get into my black car with black seats, they are essential.  Oddly enough, I'm more ambivalent toward heated seats, though I obviously have those, too.  My torso is... well insulated, so I don't get as cold there.  But the heated steering wheel has gotten some work in the past couple of weeks, because my fingers do get cold when it's -10 out.

Yes, heated seats are a must and a heated steering wheel would be very nice.  I've had a heated wheel in my Nissan Leaf and loved it.  I've gotten more sensitive to the cold over the years, and now that I'm fully acclimated to Atlanta, I really, really hate the cold.  So the heated seats in my Elantra get used often...though I don't leave them on long, I find it gets TOO hot.  I like them to heat up to mildly warm.  Those are really the three big luxury things I'm looking for in my next car...heated seats (front and rear), heated wheel, ventilated seats.

never owned them personally but every time i test drive something that has them, i love it. 

I'll be the outlier here, I guess. I love love love heated seats, but the ventilated ones feel... wrong. Like maybe I forgot to go potty before the long road trip. 

Margie

I've been thinking of making my own. My friends have this dryer vent looking thing that attaches to the dashboard vent on one end and their kids car seat on the other. I feel like a with fork and some duct tape I could make ventilated grown up seats with one. 

Hmm... I'd like to find a set of these in a junk yard so I can reverse engineer them to work in different cars.

I've never used ventilated seats, but I love my heated seats. Just wish they would come up to temp a bit faster.

Ventilated seats were part of the Silverado LTZ Plus option to get leather buckets, console and rear sub, I could take 'em or leave 'em.  Only used 'em a few times in two years and that was only for a couple minutes to take the heat outta the seat, then the heat was on for my back even if it was 75° out. 

I was the guy who said I'll take every option I can get but I really don't need A/C seats, power rear slider or power folding mirrors. Part of package deal, yea, but I can live w/o 'em. 

Not giving up heated leather buckets tho, never.

I've really enjoyed the ventilated seats in my S80.  It's got a charcoal filter in the system too, so fart recirc is somewhat mitigated.

I've always thought the worst features of leather seats were the lack of breathability and the slipperiness - this improves on both. 

My E55 has em. Love em. Love em enough that I took the backs of the seats off and removed the comically weak 30mm fans and replaced em, with a bit of minor surgery to the  innards of the seats, with 80mm CPU fans that actually move some air. 

After spending time in a Buick Lucerne with ventilated seats during a humid Ontario summer, I can safely say that ventilated seats are the ultimate defense against swamp-ass. The price of admission is worth it, and I know that if I had them, I'd use them all the time (mind you, I do that with every feature on a car. Auto headlights, dual-zone climate control, heated seats, etc).

Retrofitting ventilation into seats is tough because the leather and cloth needs to be perforated. Most cloth seats don't breathe well enough for vented seats to work. 

DrBoost said:

Retrofitting ventilation into seats is tough because the leather and cloth needs to be perforated. Most cloth seats don't breathe well enough for vented seats to work. 

Understood.  But I assume they are essentially ducted from the car A/C system?  Depending on the car, the idea would be to swap in an entire ventilated seat.

But it would still be interesting to take one apart to see if the ideas could be designed into a custom modified seat for a car that is typically difficult to install A/C ducts in.