Cooled Seats

[thedrumm]

I am desparate for cooled seats. With the vents in my 2005 Elantra GT not able to aim down far enough to cool the seats with the a/c, (start the car ahead of time & crank up the a/c) I need a way to cool the seats. I have no idea how it is done on the cars that have it available.

Any Ideas?

Thanks,
Ted

[hyunelan2]

Cooled seats in models from BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, and Saab use internal fans to blow air onto you, helping to keep you from sweating on hot days.

To do this, you would need to physically install fans inside the seat. I would do some internet searching and see if you can find any pictures/descriptions/diagrams of how they mount these fans in the seats.

It's not like it would be refridgerated though, simply blowing ambient air on you from underneath.

[yevRPS]

you could probably reroute the vents that blow air to the feet of the passangers in the rear to go up into the seat and then get pererated upholstry. this is def doable but sounds like a lot of work

EDIT: look what i found http://www.firststreetonline.com/product.jsp?path=-1%7C7863%7C11498&id=31877

[exsailor]

Just my 2c worth.
If you are really desperate with hot seats, you could always throw on one of those seat cushions made out of wooden beads. They don't get hot (or cold in the winter)

[kylemorg]

The only way to do actual cooled-surface seats would be to put a compressor-cooling unit in the car, similar to an air conditioner, that recirculated cooled water within the seats. It'd be similar to the CPU coolers for PC.

We have chillers here in the lab that do that, but they're about a foot square by 1-1/2 feet high and draw several amps at 120VAC...

[subvibe99]

That show Pimp My Ride on MTV had an episode where they installed small fans into the seats to provide the cooling feature that you're looking for. Just like with any a/c you could route tubing off of it, to virutally anywhere you want. Maybe a combo of fans and a routed tubing for the main system would really do the trick. - Subvibe

[SilverBullet]

The creation of some ducting to route the back passenger floor ducts towards the front of the car and and up to the seats should be all you need, this way you have temperature control and no individual fans to wire. I don't know however, if the blower is strong enough to make air from the back passenger vents shoot through the seat. Just an idea...

If you need extra fans, some quiet high cfm computer case fans should do the trick ;).

[Roydjt]

you could probably reroute the vents that blow air to the feet of the passangers in the rear to go up into the seat and then get perferated upholstry. this is def doable but sounds like a lot of work

You know, I always thought the vents under the seats were utterly useless, for me at least. The GT leather is perferated, but the foam behind it is pretty dense. I wonder if something like this is do-able.

-Roy

[yevRPS]

that option was discussed before and i think it was said that there isn't enough air volume coming out of those vents to be forced past the foam of the front seats. IMO this is still an option but it would require some modifications to the seats. something like creating annother layer between the leather and the foam and directing the air there. i guess you could also direct the air to go between the leather and the slip cover if you have one. with either one side airbags is something that needs to be taken into consideration.

[thedrumm]

Unfortunatley, I have had knee surgery & will be laid up for a few weeks, but I am going to get on this as soon as I am healed.
One of these has to work!
Thanks,
Ted

[kylemorg]

Uh... there's one big problem with trying to get air through the seats. The seat foam is made of CLOSED CELL foam, guys... no air is going to get through that foam.

For those of you unfamiliar with foam types, closed-cell foam is foam made up of an elastomer with closed air spaces in it, like bubbles in a milkshake. in open-cell foam, like most foam mattress pads and like the foam air cleaners on some lawnmowers, the air bubbles have ruptured and you can blow air through the foam.

Closed cell foams also make better insulators against heat and cold (think neoprene wetsuit -- very dense closed cell foam). Since the seats are closed cell foam, all a fan is going to do is cool the bottom of the seat.