I tried the cooled seats out the other day and i must say i hardly felt anything. When you sit back your body blocks the openings so it does not work too well. As you lean forward and expose the holes, you start feeling some breeze but it is not too cold. Is this common for everyone or is there something wrong with the ventilation ?

And the heated seats, to the contrary, get super warm very quick, im convinced you can get 3rd degree burns if you put that sucker on high and sit for 10 minutes.

 

Typical of the ventilated seats. They help keep you from sticking to them as much, but that's about it. Same discussion on the RX forum. Some people have tried different techniques to force more air up the seats but with very marginal improvement.

 

Some vehicles have "cooled" seats. The ES does not have cooled seats. They are ventilated seats, which means that they are just recirculating air that is already in the cabin.

There have been a number of threads here about the ES ventilated seats. On previous ES generations, there was more air flow, in particular, from the seat bottom. With the 6th generation ES, there is very little air that comes from the seat bottom, and the air flow that is there comes mostly from the seat back, which is the opposite of what happens when you use the seat heaters. On a hot and sticky day and when the ambient air in the cabin has been cooled from the AC, there is a cooling effect that can be felt on your back and arms, but it is definitely not the same as what comes from cooled seats.

There have been threads on this board, too, in which people have explained how they got more air flow from the ventilated seats. Generally, they have fashioned some sort of deflector that they placed under the seats to force more air through the seats. Some have also claimed that, by closing the vents to the rear seats, more air is forced through the seats.

 

I am proof that you do not get 3rd degree burns in 10 minutes. I love those heated seats on chilly mornings (which is 90% of Canadian mornings, natch)

 

I recently watched a CNET review of the ES and Brian Cooley complained about the heated seats. It's actually quite funny (go to 3:17):

 

Talk about getting toasty. Great for the Canuks.

 

i will try closing the rear vents and see if that increases the air flow. But if i have the A/C on and the outside air temp is 90 degrees, where is the air coming from that goes into the seats ?? Because it is neither cold like the A/C and it is not hot like the outside air. So is the air that goes in the seats air conditioned at all ??

 

i thought my bum was overly sensitive but the guy said the same thing in the video lol so i guess im normal

 

It is just recirculating air that is already in the car. The rear seat vents do the same thing. In fact, if you follow the "duct work" in the vehicle, you will see that the duct that feeds the ventilated seats branches off of the duct that feeds the rear seat vents. That is why some people believe that you get more air flow through the ventilated seats if you close off the rear vents. By blocking flow to the rear vents, you are forcing the air that otherwise would go through those vents to go to the seats.

Also note that, if the system is recirculating air that is already in the cabin through the seats, that air is never going to feel as cold as what is coming out of the dashboard AC vents. The air coming out of the AC vents starts out at about 45 degrees, but, once it gets into the cabin and mixes with the air already there, the air temperature in the middle of the cabin ends up being around 70 degrees (or whatever you have it set to), and it is air at that temperature that goes through the ventilated seat system.

 

I'm not gonna complain. Living in southeast Texas, any air is welcome.
I remember my 99 Buick Regal, leather seats that stuck to my legs. Yuk.

 

Don't even need the heated seats for a 3rd degree burn. Just a few hours under the hot sun is enough. Got a burn line on my leg one summer, and that is why I am all for seats that are ventilated/cooled/what have you.

 

My dad has a 2015 ES, the cooling seats seem to work pretty good.