How do heated, cooled and ventilated seats work?

When a vehicle can make ordinary features like seats seem exciting, then you know that vehicle is doing something right. For this week’s How’s This Work, we thought we’d take a closer look at one way manufacturers can do just that – make seats seem more exciting than they actually are. We’re talking about heated seats, cooled seats and ventilated seats. What do they mean? How do they work? We’ll fill you in.

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Differences Between Heated, Cooled & Ventilated Seats

Heated seats are pretty self-explanatory. Much like the heated blanket you keep warm with on cold winter nights, heated seats utilize a heating element formed into a long strip between the upholstery and the actual seat. When you flip the heated seats switch, an electrical current heats up the element strip making your seat nice and warm.

Heated seats were easy to crack, but what about those hot summer days when you don’t even want to move for fear of melting? That’s where ventilated and cooled seats come into play. While neither is quite a prevalent as heated seats, they are starting to make a rise in the industry. Both work similarly to heated seats, as in they build things right into the seat beneath the upholstery. In the case of Ventilated seats, it’s just a system of fans. This creates airflow and should cool you down a bit on those hot days.

Cooling seats, on the other hand, utilizing a cooling element between the fans, making the increase in airflow work even better as it blows cold air right through the fabric. If you’re interested in finding out which vehicles are equipped with these, give us a call.