I do not feel very much cooling with my ventilated seats. After 25 minutes of driving on a very hot day with them on max, it is not unusual for the bottoms of my legs to be sweaty, especially at the outer edges of the seat. Is this the best that I can expect, or could there be something wrong with mine?

 

The effectiveness of the ventilated seats is dependent upon the cabin air temperature (that is what is being pumped through the seats) AND how much air can be moved through the seat perforations. If most of the holes in the perforated leather are being blocked by thighs, butt and back, there is nowhere for the air to go and little chance that the seat will cool effectively.

 

Ventilated and Cooled seem to be different execution depending on manufacturer.

I believe the Acura ventilated seats simply pump ambient cabin air into the seats.

I test drove a Grand Cherokee Summit with cooled seats. It actually has A/C ducts feeding directly into the seats. It was wonderful. The air flow was far greater than Acura's ventilated set up.

 

whats wrong with yours is that you live in So Florida

 

What is wrong with mine is that my 2006 RL only got heated seats. Ventilated seats came with the Canadian model.

So even the ventilated seats of the RLX will be a step up!

 

Tampa - are you forgetting that I used to have a 2005 RL?

my RLX feels like it is blowing cooled air in the seats
I really have no use for it where I live, but been working on a project near Sacramento where it is hot (but dry) and have tried it a couple times

 

I haven't tested the RLX seats but I have tested out the TLX seats. I bet they are very similar. No the seats don't blow as hard as some other's I've sat in. In fact you can barely feel them. But them did seem to cool. For best results I think you need to set the main vents to blow down, not just up. Best to have air blowing from the A/C vents down on the floor, this way the cool air gets picked up better by the seats.

 

Ditto, my Infiniti has cooled seats and it was fantastic during the summer, my A6 has vented seats and basically they are useless.

 

My '13 ZDX has them and they're very nice.

 

I think it also makes a difference on what you are wearing and if the material is breathable or not. I feel the cooling more with workout cloths compared to my jean shorts. Opting for the advance model just for the cooled seats would not be worth the extra $$$, only as a bonus to the other tech.

It feels like the fans suck air from the seats. The system might work better if the fans would blow air into the seat? Then you could use the underseat A/C duct to blow cooler air into the seat.

 

^ I was just going to say the same thing. it really depends on the type of clothing material you are wearing.

I turn on the ventilated seats every day I drive and I can definitely say it helps make my drives more enjoyable by keeping the general temperature of the seat cool, versus warm, making me less "restless" when sitting for extended periods of time.

I'm also usually either in business dress pants, jeans, or work out clothes. I definitely feel it with business dress pants or with work out clothes. jeans, not soo much, but that's to be expected.

 

My 2010 Advance MDX is very good too. If you put the passenger seat cooler on, when nobody is sitting on it and wait a few minutes, you will notice that it is cool to the touch. I therefore conclude that it blows through the seat, not sucks from the seat.

The MDX is the best that I have used and the Audi A6 is the worst. (wifey = MDX, Mine = A6).

 

Either way given a choice I will take "cooled" over "vented" any day as there is a huge difference. My M37S cooled seats were almost icy to sit on and allowed the car to feel cooler quicker when hot out as well as to allow me to keep the cabin a tad warmer since cool air was hitting my legs, thighs and lower back.

 

My thoughts are by having ventilated vs cooled seats, the ventilated will remove heat and moisture by sucking the air through the seating. If it was cooling (blowing air) the moisure would remain which follows the principle design of an AC system - removing moisture from the air to aid in cooling.

 

For whatever one old moron's opinion is worth, I felt the seats in my RLX did well for me on the 100-plus degree days this past summer.

My only complaint would be that the fans make a little too much noise when they're on highest speed.

 

If it makes you feel any better, the ventilated seats in BMWs suck too

This is one option that hasn't been perfected yet...other than the Jeep is sounds like

 

Ventilated or Cooled? It's semantics. Unless there is an A/C coil in the seat then the seat has no way of cooling. Both systems use the main A/C for the source of cool air. The switch only changes the amount of blow or suck depending on the design.

 

With the cooling seats in my RL I noticed that it only works when the AC is on, making me thing that they aren't just ventilated seats but AC cooled, or at least they were. I tried turning the cooling seats on without the AC on and nothing, flip the AC back on and within a couple minutes my butt is feeling nice and chilly.

I've tried a few cooled seats before (the only one I can remember what it was in right now is my moms 06 Expedition) and I thought it was pretty useless in there. But these work pretty good IMO.

 

‘18 RLX SH - tried the ventilated seats and couldn’t feel much, if anything at all. AC was turned on at 73f (the AC system works great btw, it chilled the cabin rather quickly and I didn’t even have the fan speed on max). Searched to see if it was only me but apparently this is par for the course for the Advanced package. I’m very disappointed. Was looking forward to getting my butt cooled off.

 

I think the ideal seat cooling scenario for any car with that feature is to cool the seat before you get in the car. That is, if you get off the course from a game of golf, for example, and you start the car, blast the A/C, and have the seat coolers on max, then wait a few minutes...You can then get into the nice, cool car with nice cool seats. If, in the same scenario, you try to get in the car and drive immediately, the seat cooling feature will take a long time to "cool your buns", but your buns will be well toasted to begin with.

For situations where the car has not been sitting in the sun, but in your garage on a warm day, for example, then I find driving with the seat cooler on is more than adequate to keep my butt cool.

All of that said, I probably drive less than anyone on the forum, so I will certainly defer to RLX owners with more experience in the use of the cooled seat function.

 

I use it every chance I got. Works well

 

Acura perforated seats do a pretty good job alone keeping you backside from getting too hot. The added ventilation does help to keep your backside a little cooler. To me, the ventilated seat work well enough to where you don't even think about it when driving (like the auto climate control adjusting to keep the cabin the same temp). The RLX vent seats are a little bit more noisy compared to the MDX vent seats.

 

I have used Ventilated seats extensively in my Mustang & TLX and its a day and night difference, TLX you will get a felling that there is some airflow going on that too mostly on the lower seat and almost nothing on back side but on Mustang I could feel that ac is running through the seats. I had similar experience with Kia Stinger (it was like Mustang) and latest Accord (it felt like TLX, could barely feel it in the TD)

Only advantage of TLX was that the seats heating and cooling works in tandem with Auto Climate control, so if the car felt you needed heating or cooling in seats it would provide it without you setting it up which was nice.

 

strange. I feel nothing - that’s what’s making me question whether it works. like not even a little bit of cooling.

 

Even if you don't feel the air circulating under your butt, you should definitely hear it. It's super loud on the RLX. I had ventilated seats on my Lexus GS, it wasn't this loud. If you hear and feel nothing, time to take it in for service something is not working right.

 

i’ll have to try it without the music on. I love this Krell system. Had Harmon Karden on my Volvo and this is just as good if not better. Gotta be honest never heard of Krell before.

 

I tried mine over the weekend. I definitely felt the cooling and could hear the fans. They are noticeable (wouldnt call them "loud"). The ventilated seats work best when the cabin is cooled with AC, as you can feel the cold air hit your butt. It works. Would I prefer cooled/AC seats? Yes. But I'm not complaining that much.

 

If you have thick clothing on the wind won't penetrate your outfit. Best way to test, bareback while no one is around

 

sadly it works. I say that because I could hear it and feel the slightest bit of breeze on my backside by wearing a very light t shirt. if that’s the best this thing can do i’m very disappointed. had it on max too. The ventilated seats on my Kia Sorento does a better job.

 

what year rlx? I'd like to hear one, the factory bose system in my daily cls6 has had it. time to upgrade speakers, not sure if I wanna mess with the look. probably need to get a new head unit too I guess.