This is my first car with heated seats. I can't tell if this is normal or not. The seats take forever to feel warm and even then, they aren't that hot, just mildly warm. (Car running, High setting, 10-15 minutes). I expected something different - get in a cold car, enable the heated seats and within a few minutes, have a nice warm tushy. I didn't expect the car's interior heater to outpace the seats. Is this normal? Is it because they're new and need time to "break in"? I don't want to make an unnecessary service appointment.

 

The high setting does take a while to heat up, 10-15 minutes sound right. However, you're supposed to flip the switch to low once you feel the heat, otherwise it will just cycle on and off on the high setting.

 

kgbaggent....There is nothing wrong with your RDX. Sadly, Acura has never really had strong seat warmers in any of their products. I have had a few Acura products since 2005 and ALL have had the same results. Its not just the seat, I find that the "heaters" don't pump out alot of hot air and they do tend to take a while to warm up. Funny how the little Hyundai warms up sooooo quick and spits out such a hot blast of air....

 

Wow..I haven't had that experience with my past CRV heated seats, my current '12 Accord Cpe, nor my 13 RDX. The seats are heated by electric wire grids just under the leather padding. Mine have never taken much over a couple minutes in high mode to know you have a warm bottom. Pretty much the same in all the vehicles I mentioned above. 10 to 15 min. is unacceptable to me. Mine have never taken that long.

That being said...maybe what one person's warm butt is not the same for someone else!! Ya think?? LOL!!

 

Last week I took my RDX in to have a couple of accessories installed and after they finished they washed and vacumned it. I was driving away and noticed my seat was warm and looked and noticed that they had obviously bumped the seat warmer button. I could feel it after just a couple of minutes. It wasn't hot but I definitely noticed a difference. Can't remember if it was on hi or lo cause I just pushed it off real quick. I think when it is really cold out the heats may feel warmer in a relative sense.

 

I am not sure how much time it takes to warm up but one thing for sure, compared to other vehicles I have owned in the past, the Acura seats do take a little longer for sure but most importantly, don't give out as much heat. They warm up quicker than 10-15 min but I often find that by the time the seats get warm, by then, the vehicle is already warmed up and I have generated enough heat transfer to the seat (not through "natural" gas) *lol* I agree with you though, some butt need more heat than others.

I also find that it can be related to how cold the outside temperature is. In the days when I would work a graveyard shift, coming out at 7am and being tired and cold with an outside temperature of -30C, I wanted as much heat output as possible from my 2009 TSX but it never seemed to be enough...Luckily, now that I work regular hours, I never have that problem anymore

 

The Germans have the best (hottest/fastest) seats.

 

I agree that Honda / Acura seats are slower than some others. We had Nissan and a Mazda and they were slow. The fastest was a Toyota Venza and they were very fast.

 

'05 CRV seats warmed within ~7-10 minutes, similar with my '08 TL. Get reasonably warm in single digit temps. Have not had occasion to test in similar weather with new RDX and will be happy if we don't have to.

Inadvertently switched heated seat on a few weeks ago and it caught my attention pretty quickly.

 

Turns out to be a self inflicted wound. When I was installing my radar detecter to the fuse box (see other thread , apparently I hit/moved/pushed a pin behind the fuse box that reduced the voltage going to the seats. The seats weren't getting enough "juice" to make them effective. The seats warm up within a few minutes now. Wife's bottom is very happy and all is right with the world.

 

Compared to my 2007 RDX, the 2013's seats do take take noticeably longer to get warm.

 

I found the same thing, my MDX seats take longer than my A4 seats, just thought that is the way it is.

 

It's an Acura design philosophy: "We will warm no seat before its time."

 

I don't know I have had Acuras for 20 years so nothing to compare against so I am good with what I have.

 

Since the fix, my seats are very quick to warm up and get very hot (on high).

 

Now that we've had some colder weather here in Chicago area(about 26-35 degrees F), I've used the heated seats a couple of times and found them to warm up quickly enough and warm enough. Past car was an Infiniti with heated seats and I think the RDX seats warm up a little quicker actually.

 

Glad you found the problem.

 

I have had heated seats in the last few brands I have owned and I agree the Acurea seat warmers are not great. Odd that they seem to be having a hard time figuring this out

 

The drivers seat is plenty warm for me, but the passengers seat is much weaker. Anyone else notice this?

 

I have the opposite. In the High setting, they can almost get too warm/hot for me. I have to put in on Low. Yes, they take time to get there, but so have other heated seat cars I've driven.