[skarthiksr]

Originally Posted by tsr_83

IN for ventilated seats even though you use beads, for long drives - you can;t run on AC mode always like When you drive in hills, you want to enjoy fresh breeze (or) get uncomfortable with continuous usage of car AC (or) have a 10 year old car like me where you dont want to loose power for AC and add stress to the already tired engine.

Can you please help with some more clarity on this point? I was under the impression that we need to keep AC mode on to get the ventilated seats working. Is it not so? And how does it behave when AC mode is on?

[viXit]

TeamBHP members are among the more elite and sophisticated car owners who see past marketing gimmicks and actually understand what's under the skin of most cars. We don't really value anything as much as a good heart under the hood and a gearbox to complement it. Everything else pales in comparison.

I believe I speak for most members here when I say that it isn't a deal breaker, but is definitely a strong factor that can skew the balance in favor of the car with this feature, when compared to something which is largely similar in other departments.

Give me a ventilated/cooled seat over a sunroof + wireless charger + big useless tablet in my dash any day . I find them absolutely useless in comparison. I end up using these features just for the heck of it.
I'm sure these three features will more than compensate for the cost difference for getting my seats ventilated.

I opened the sunroof only once on a drive on a cold night, only once.
And the wireless charger, no thanks, I don't want to cook omelettes on my phone. Used it just because I paid for it

[AKSarkar1]

I definitely agree with this thread! I think as time passes by such features are going to become more and more standard. I used to live in Germany for a while and given the weather situation over there, heated seats are a must. It's a no-brainer in that sense for ventilated seats to be offered in our condition.

Happy to see that this trend is finally catching up in the Indian market, we must definitely thank the manufacturers who made this feature mainstream, I think it was Hyundai and Kia!

[amitayu]

We first buy leather or faux-leather seat covers for our cars in a tropical climate like ours, and then worry about our bums sweating!

A good seat cover material that breathes is good enough for me, and ventilated seats are a luxury that maybe good to have, but not necessary.

[lemedico]

Absolutely essential, once you've used it, there's no living without it. I'm lucky that I got this off aliexpress.com from pre-ban days. Works like a charm, at the expense of paying extra to sit on those beautiful and comfortable chairs in the 2021 Honda city ZX.
The same ventilation seat is available on amazon India as well, Rs. 8000() compared to Rs. 2500 from China directly.

[SBM3J]

One will need to experience the Ventilated seats to understand what is really missing. Once one have experienced it in our climate, there is no going back.

The other feature everyone here seems to be discounting which I believe is going to be an absolute necessary is wireless phone charger. In my opinion 2-3 years down the line all the high end phones are going to be portless and the only way to charge them will be wirelessly. The car we buy is going to stay with us a lot more than 2-3 years.

as an extension to this, wireless android auto and apple carplay also going to be very important in near future when the phones become portless.

[bvk]

I definitely would love to have ventilated seats. It's just plain stupid that CBUs come with heated seats and not VS.
Have a question. Are heated seats very different technically in comparison with VS? Do they use some heating rods inside the seats instead of having vents connected with AC?

[turbowhistle]

Originally Posted by Mortis

I'm seriously considering a retrofit ventilated seat kit from AliExpress. There are 12V powdered ventilated covers available for sure but I don't know how comfortable it will be with the ergonomics of the seat. The retrofit kits seem more promising in this regard and not terribly overpriced at 10k. Of course you will have to pay a seat guy and electrician some money for the fitting but it shouldn't be more than 15k total for both the front seats

It should be easily doable, just make sure these are ventilated kits rather than just heated ones. The Heated ones are really common and easy to fit. Also the area/size is much smaller than the regular seat to retrofitting into most seats will be 100% possible. Just make sure you get the correct one

Originally Posted by N33raj

Ventilated seats are a better option to have any day than a sunroof which will get opened maybe 5 days in the year. Mine usually gets opened in ventilation mode if i am indulging in one of my vices.

I don't understand why people can't wrap their head around this simple fact, our country doesn't have sunroof friendly weather. I have pano roof on my Mini in Germany and I have never closed the cover on it, it is immensely useful to bring some light into the small cabin. I had the same thought when I was in India for vacation last year and kept open the sunroof cover on our Venue for maybe half an hour max. It is unbearable even in December. It might be a nice party trick in the night but otherwise it's just doesn't cut it. I would take ventilated seats over sunroof everytime.

[vjbox]

How I really wish my car had ventilated seats. Living in a hot, humid, tropical city like Chennai and touring on those hot days in highways, it would be super nice to have one. Sadly mine only has the heated seats and it would be a royal punishment to use it in our weather conditions! For India climatic conditions I would any day take the ventilated seats option in place of sun roofs which has very minimal use or meaning in our dust ridden roads.

[vjbox]

Originally Posted by lemedico

Absolutely essential, once you've used it, there's no living without it. I'm lucky that I got this off aliexpress.com from pre-ban days. Works like a charm, at the expense of paying extra to sit on those beautiful and comfortable chairs in the 2021 Honda city ZX.
The same ventilation seat is available on amazon India as well, Rs. 8000() compared to Rs. 2500 from China directly.

For the benefit of members. Links to the product please ?

[lemedico]

Originally Posted by vjbox

For the benefit of members. Links to the product please ?

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B06XZ6PD9Y/...WD4KK898T1RYCX

[SRM]

Its definitely an important feature for me. While I had anyways finalised Verna as our next car, one of the feature that sealed it for me was trying the ventilated seats during my test drive. It was an instant feel good factor that brought a smile on my face (as I do perspire quite a bit as well). Given the Mumbai heat, its really served well always.

Going forward, it will always be a must-have for me in whatever next car we look at.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by ChevyTeddy

No ventilated seats for me, please.
1. It's an extra non-essential (to the running of the car) feature that requires maintenance and can possibly fail. Failure (foul smell? moisture-induced fabric or metal breakdown?) may be a remote possibility, but the downside if it does happen could involve changing the seat itself - which would be more expensive than a non-ventilated seat.

If it fails, all that happens is that you now have a non ventilated seat. You don’t need to fix it or change it. It doesn’t affect anything. At least you can use it for several years before it possibly breaks down. No maintenance is required. My Passat is nearly 10 years old and I have never done anything. There really isn’t much you can do in maintenance apart from cleaning the seat like you normally do. I absolutely love the ventilated seats and after safety, this is a must have feature for me.

Originally Posted by skarthiksr

Can you please help with some more clarity on this point? I was under the impression that we need to keep AC mode on to get the ventilated seats working. Is it not so? And how does it behave when AC mode is on?

All ventilated seats have is tiny fans that circulate small amount of air through tiny pores in the seat bottom and back. There are usually two fans, one at the bottom and one at the back. They are not connected to aircon and do not actually chill the seat. All they do is circulate a tiny bit of cabin air. If the aircon is on and the cabin is cold then that air would be cold. If you don’t have the aircon on, it still feels good. Just like running the blower without AC in milder weather.

Originally Posted by bvk

I definitely would love to have ventilated seats. It's just plain stupid that CBUs come with heated seats and not VS.
Have a question. Are heated seats very different technically in comparison with VS? Do they use some heating rods inside the seats instead of having vents connected with AC?

The vents in the seats are not connected with the AC. They are just fans circulating cabin air. Heated seats do have small heating rods in them. They also work independently of the aircon system. In Europe it hardly gets hot but it does get very cold. Therefore heated seats are very useful there. When OEMs send over a CBU that sells in small numbers, they don’t want to bother making any changes.

[tsr_83]

Originally Posted by skarthiksr

Can you please help with some more clarity on this point? I was under the impression that we need to keep AC mode on to get the ventilated seats working. Is it not so? And how does it behave when AC mode is on?

You need to keep the ac mode ON to get the ventilated seat working.

[Pashin]

Absolute must have for any car. After having used Ventilated seats, I can't imagine going for a car in the future without one.