2013 300h heated/cooled seats
 

The heated seats work fine, is any body getting cooling ? I'm not, I know it's not AC, but should I be able to feel something from the fan in the seats or was it just a waste of money. Anybody else having this problem? Thanks in advance

There are a couple of other threads here on the topic with a lot of input. As you can imagine, opinions vary.

Must be getting a bit warm in Mass. when you finally noticed. Most of us have already figured the ventilated seat on the ES don't do very much.

The heating and cooling in the 2013 ES300h front seats is a joke. We previously owned a 2007 ES350 and the heating and cooling worked PERFECTLY. The heat setting in our 2013 gets way too hot on the first setting. We can't even use it. We told the service dept and they said they had a similar complaint, but both checked out with their "heat gun" according to Lexus standards. Now that it's summer, the cooling in our seats is useless also. I can hear the fan blasting the air out of the backrest but it does nothing to "cool". Our 2007 had the cool air coming out of the bottom of the seat. What's the point of adding it (and charging for it) if it doesn't work according to customer's wishes???

One can imagine the incessant cost-cutting that led to this apparent performance failure. :(

So, here's a weird thing....

I have been on a few test drives recently, including the ES 300h and the Lincoln MKZ. We tried the cooling in both and agreed with your comment. Specifically, the cooling under the legs was really noticeable and pleasant in the MKZ, but barely noticeable in the ES 300h. So, that wasn't a feature I would have paid for in the ES 300h.

But... Then I purchased our car on Saturday. It included the Luxury package. We have had hot weather over the weekend for here in the Seattle area (upper 70's / lower 80's). And you know what - the cooling has been AWESOME! It's pretty subtle under the legs but on the back it's really very noticeable and pleasant. Both my wife and I love that feature now.

By the way, as a funny story, I went out for a ride on my own on Saturday afternoon. I noticed this weird, quiet hissing noise and couldn't figure it out. It didn't bother me - aside from wanting to know what the heck it was :) It took me quite some time of playing with the radio and checking other things before I realized my wife left her seat set to cooling :)

So, anyway, to my surprise, I am really happy with that feature in my ES 300h.

Mark

There are even more threads on this subject on the 2007-2012 forum. The concern and dissatisfaction has been going on for 7 model years.

Personally I was satisfied with the ventilated seats in my 2007 and 2010 ES350 but many owners were not. While the performance wasn't great, I'd rather have the feature than not. I agree that other makes do the ventilation better than Lexus.

Keep in mind that just because you don't feel the air flow with your hands doesn't mean that the ventilation is not working. I live in South Florida and the temperatures for the last couple of months has been in the high eighties and low nineties consistently. When I get in my car in the middle of the day, it is scorching hot in the car. I assure you the ventilated seats do what they are supposed to do.

But no, they do not act like another a/c vent, which seems to be what most owners want.

If they are marketed as ventilated seats then the functionality or naming convention is incorrect. Ventilated seats would suck air in and extract heat from the area between your body and the seat. My 2012 Acura TL did this magnificently. Air conditioned seats would blow air towards the driver. When you're 225lbs (like me) there isn't too much room to squeeze air out of the seats and onto my body... especially if I'm wearing an undershirt with a shirt. Regardless if they're air conditioned or ventilated they don't do much of anything.

"Ventilated seats would suck air in and extract heat from the area between your body"

Really?

^^Same thing I was thinking. :confused:

I wouldn't want my seat cushions sucking in sweat, or any other liquid that got on them.

It's not strong enough to literally move the sweat.

Direct from the Acura website:
Both front seats offer three levels of heating. The Advance Package adds three levels of ventilation. The ventilation works by drawing air into the seats through perforations in the leather, cooling your body. Six levels of seat climate allow you to reach your desired comfort level more quickly and efficiently.


What's the alternative? Having an "air conditioned" seat that is so worthless that it generates this much buzz on a forum?

If it was stated as "air conditioned" seats, that would be different. :)

I can actually feel them working, now that it's 95 degrees with a 70 degree dew point. Much better than nothing. Maybe that should be their advertising tag line. :p

Not to diminish the dissatisfaction with the ventilated seats, but Lexus has sold 250,000-300,000 ES350's since it was launched in MY 2007 and there really doesn't seem to be that much buzz on the subject overall. There are some threads on the topic on the 2007-2012 forum.

I agree they could definitely work better, but as has been said, IMO they are better than not having them.

Plus, one's opinion is heavily biased based on comparisons. Neither my wife or I had been in a car with ventilated seats before I bought my ES 300h last weekend (well, apart from a test drive in a Lincoln MKZ a week or so earlier). We both really enjoy the seat ventilation. So, I wouldn't say it's a disaster.