How do the cooled seats work?

Is it active cooling or just circulated air.

I believe that there are several mini fans inside the seats, thats how the Benz system works, and I would imagin that fans work much better. I don't know for sure though:cheers

My friend had a Mercedes with air conditioned seats and it wasn't really that impressive to me...

Troy,

I worked on the seating program on the XLR. The seats have forced air ducts on the backside of the seats. The air is channeled through the foam from the B to the A surface (seating contact surface). Then the air travels through channels on the seating surface of the foam. Then the cold/warm air blows against the trim cover. This year the new Ford Expedition/Merc Navigator uses a very similar concept.

Thanks Dwayne! Great info.

Where is the air drawn from? Is it cooled/heated air?

Great info Bigblock:cheers I would have guessed fans would work better, whoda thunk it:cool

I heard that there are a lot of little fogger nozzles located on the cushions...like the ones that cool off the vegetables at the grocery store...:D No but for reals...do yall think it would really be worth it? I can see how heated seats would help out...but cooled seats??? I'll have to try one out first...:thumbs

Originally posted by BigBlockVette
Troy,

I worked on the seating program on the XLR. The seats have forced air ducts on the backside of the seats. The air is channeled through the foam from the B to the A surface (seating contact surface). Then the air travels through channels on the seating surface of the foam. Then the cold/warm air blows against the trim cover. This year the new Ford Expedition/Merc Navigator uses a very similar concept.

:cool :cheers

I can see how heated seats would help out...but cooled seats???

Heated seats are good for winter beaters.
Cooled seats are more useful on a summer toy.

Originally posted by BigBlockVette
Troy,

I worked on the seating program on the XLR. The seats have forced air ducts on the backside of the seats. The air is channeled through the foam from the B to the A surface (seating contact surface). Then the air travels through channels on the seating surface of the foam. Then the cold/warm air blows against the trim cover. This year the new Ford Expedition/Merc Navigator uses a very similar concept.

That's cool. <--- Look a pun! :D

Originally posted by Nomad
That's cool. <--- Look a pun! :D

:lol

Originally posted by Jinx
Heated seats are good for winter beaters.
Cooled seats are more useful on a summer toy. :iagree

cooled seats in leather seats should are a great thing. i hate getting out of my car on a 95 degree day and have the back of my legs and back all sweaty.

the cooled seats in the xlr felt great on warm muggy day.

the seats have a module which is basically a heat pump.
depending on the polarity to the module, it will either
create heat or absence of heat (coldness). a fan is used to
circulate the air through ducts. it takes a little time to
produce results. the module is efficient though, 100 watts,
- 7amps at 14 volts..


hot :mad and cold :thumbs

We have a Linclon Navigator with the cooled seats so let me put my 2 cents in.

The air coming from the seats is cold. I can only assume it comes from the A/C system, but I don't know. I can tell you this, thought... when she first sat in the cooled seats, if felt so cold that she had to look to make sure the seat wasn't wet!

I do know that the air cooled seats on the Mercedes is cabin air only and not piped in from the A/C system.

People told me that because the Navigator seats with the heating and A/C are so expensive to fix, that it was recommend to purchase an extended warranty. I say this because I'm guessing that would be a good idea for the XLR also, especially since it is a first-year model.

A source at GM tells me that:

"The heated/cooled seats are independent thermo-electric units in each seat, capable of generating warm and cold air on their own, they are not just recirculating fans."

:cool

The following is from the "Cadillac XLR 2004" brouchure dated July 2003,

"Monitoring ambient conditions with a kind of fanaticism, ceramic discs embedded within the contours of XLR's seatbacks and seat cushions continuously adjust surface temperature, keeping it up to 20 degrees F above cabin readings, or roughly 15 degrees F below. (XLR remains the only roadster to cool the air first rather than merely ventilate its seats.) During extensive environmental testing in Arizona, XLR was left parked in the sun to bake for hours. When started, its seats cooled in a scant two minutes."