[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by WanderWheels

However, I have one question to ask - Is the flow from fans in the back significantly lower from the ones in the bottom? For me the flow from the back is negligible. I'm trying to find more about the seat before I can be firm with my response to the Riggear team.

Yes, the back flow is quite subdued but it still cools the seat cover enough to prevent sweating. This is also because the lower back is generally not in full contact with the seat and hence the effect is marginal.

You should be able to notice the difference on a hot day, otherwise, it'll be non-existent.


10 months update (~10000km):

I'll also take the chance to update the thread on how the ventilated seat covers have been performing so far. It has been 10 months since I installed them in my car. Although I don't use the ventilation always, have used it quite a bit on long distance drives.

What has been great?

1. The seat cover continues to work well and cool my body during hot days - you'll notice this to be particularly effective if you are already sweating before turning this on.
2. No issues with discomfort when sitting on the cover and not utilizing it. The seat cover is barely noticeable in terms of feel and hence doesn't bother you while driving
3. The anti-slip back for the seat cover is still very effective - I had my doubts on this and was a bit worried that it'll keep moving around during ingress and egress. However, it sticks properly to the seat

What hasn't been so great?

1. While the button to turn on the ventilation is ergonomically located, the LED indicator is difficult to see while turning on and setting the speed. Since this mod works on the concept of evaporative cooling, it isn't until a few seconds that you start feeling the ventilation. I almost always have to take my eyes off the road to ensure if the product has turned on because the long-press to turn it on sometimes isn't intuitive when you're paying attention on the road. What would have been nice is to change the switch functioning into two levels (Level 1 and Level 2 positions) - Level 1 should have been off and the switching on should be a straight push of the button from Level 1 to Level 2 (depressed) with a noticeable click. The speed controls can then be keyed in at the Level 2 position as a toggle (how it works currently). Long press should release the button back it its original position from Level 2 to Level 1 with a click so that you know the device is off. This would have made the process extremely intuitive.
2. The seat cover will turn off if you stop the car - particularly annoying because I like the Auto Start/Stop function (my usage is very limited in bumper to bumper traffic and hence have this turned on always). I knew this will bother me and it kinda does.

I'll also just callout that there was one instance sometime in Mar'23 when the fans started making loud noises. I turned it off for a while and the problem did not recur afterwards. This is something to be wary of.

I'd still rate this a good 8/10 and a very useful functional mod for your car. Downgraded the rating by 1 point because of some of the areas that it can improve as mentioned above. Definitely recommended to buy.

[Goandiaries]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

I'd still rate this a good 8/10 and a very useful functional mod for your car. Downgraded the rating by 1 point because of some of the areas that it can improve as mentioned above. Definitely recommended to buy.

Considering the already rising temperatures even before the actual summer, I took your recommendation and dived into purchasing this for both front seats. There's nothing new to review as it is already done in detail in this thread. So, providing some extra information here.


There's beige option available with the seller now. However, this beige doesn't really match with the XUV's interiors. It is more on the 'yellowish' side of the beige, while the XUV has more of a whitish interior.


The power adaptor has a 10A glass fuse in it. While I enquired with the seller, he mentioned that the seats draw 2A per seat. I decided to tap power for both seats using the 20A rated cigarette lighter fuse.


Keeping the wires as it is (as seen in the above photo), I used a fuse tap with a 10A fuse and crimped it with the hot line. And soldered the ground wire with a flat terminal connector. Used the heat shrink tube to cover the exposed wires.

Now, even though it is hardwired, the lead from the seats is very small and therefore, I have to bring the wire along the top of the center console. If I have to hide the wiring, I might have to increase the length of the wiring slightly and hide them under the seats with a 3M tape. Need to have enough slack for the forward/backward motion of front seats.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Goandiaries

Attachment 2575674
Keeping the wires as it is (as seen in the above photo), I used a fuse tap with a 10A fuse and crimped it with the hot line. And soldered the ground wire with a flat terminal connector. Used the heat shrink tube to cover the exposed wires.

Now, even though it is hardwired, the lead from the seats is very small and therefore, I have to bring the wire along the top of the center console. If I have to hide the wiring, I might have to increase the length of the wiring slightly and hide them under the seats with a 3M tape. Need to have enough slack for the forward/backward motion of front seats.

Good job on tapping the power from fuse tap.

One observation. The blue insulated spade terminal does not look like the right size for the wire. The wire is small gauge, and the terminal(blue) is large. I suggest using red color insulated spade terminal.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by Goandiaries

Now, even though it is hardwired, the lead from the seats is very small and therefore, I have to bring the wire along the top of the center console. If I have to hide the wiring, I might have to increase the length of the wiring slightly and hide them under the seats with a 3M tape. Need to have enough slack for the forward/backward motion of front seats.

This is excellent! As always, great DIY content from you.

Follow-up question: my hypothesis was that hardwiring it will not let the device switch off when you crank the engine. My biggest gripe with it continues to be the fact that it turns off when you stop and start the engine (while car ignition is on). Does it actually avoid this problem?

[Goandiaries]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

One observation. The blue insulated spade terminal does not look like the right size for the wire. The wire is small gauge, and the terminal(blue) is large. I suggest using red color insulated spade terminal.

Thanks for the input. Do you think I should change the wire gauge as well? Or change the terminal only? The main adaptor wire itself is actually a bit thin, powering up two seats. Or should I change the entire wiring to keep everything uniform?

Is this the terminal you're mentioning? (screenshot from amazon)

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

This is excellent! As always, great DIY content from you.

Follow-up question: my hypothesis was that hardwiring it will not let the device switch off when you crank the engine. My biggest gripe with it continues to be the fact that it turns off when you stop and start the engine (while car ignition is on). Does it actually avoid this problem?

This is how it worked when I used the original adaptor as is in the cigarette port: The power didn't go off during the auto start-stop function of the engine. The power to the seats remained on even after switching off the car. That is, the seats effectively stay on throughout the trip - from start to stop - till I switch the seats off manually. I did not test how long this power supply remains on after switching off the car. This is exactly how it works after hard-wiring it. Regarding your issue, is it possible that the power supply to the cigarette port itself is cut off during the engine on/off cycle?

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Goandiaries

Thanks for the input. Do you think I should change the wire gauge as well? Or change the terminal only? The main adaptor wire itself is actually a bit thin, powering up two seats. Or should I change the entire wiring to keep everything uniform?

Is this the terminal you're mentioning? (screenshot from amazon)
Attachment 2575773

I do not see the need to change the main wire gauge. Because you will have to replace the entire length of the blue wire running all the way into the seat.

Yes, Red is the terminal color I am referring to. Below is the guideline matching the terminal color to the wire dia

Red-> 0.5-1.5 sqmm
Blue-> 1.5-2.5 sqmm
Yellow-> 4-6 sqmm

BTW, where will the ground wire spade terminal go into? Did not understand that from your explanation.

[Goandiaries]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

I do not see the need to change the main wire gauge. Because you will have to replace the entire length of the blue wire running all the way into the seat.

Yes, Red is the terminal color I am referring to. Below is the guideline matching the terminal color to the wire dia

Red-> 0.5-1.5 sqmm
Blue-> 1.5-2.5 sqmm
Yellow-> 4-6 sqmm

BTW, where will the ground wire spade terminal go into? Did not understand that from your explanation.

Thanks for the info. Will fix it once I get the correct spade terminal. The ground wire is stuck to the body frame under the dash panel, just near the fuse box. It is held in place with the help of strong magnets. Have been grounding the dashcam ground wire similarly. Have been working well so far.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by Goandiaries

This is how it worked when I used the original adaptor as is in the cigarette port: The power didn't go off during the auto start-stop function of the engine. The power to the seats remained on even after switching off the car.

Are you saying that the device wasn’t switching off for you with the standard connection to the 12V socket during start-stop cycles?

For me, this is how it works when the car is in Auto Start/Stop mode.

1. When I come to a stop, the car engine turns off but the ventilation stays on
2. But when the engine cranks when I want to move, the device will turn off. I’ll have to manually turn it on again.

The device manual even came with the disclaimer stating that this is how it’ll work. So I’m curious to know if your experience was different.

Can you clarify what’s your before and after experience with the hardwiring?

[Happyrev]

Honda sells such similar ventilated seat covers as an accessory for the Honda Elevate. Has anyone used it on cars other than a Honda Elevate? It will help if there were a comparison between the Riggear vs Honda seat covers.

Thanks

[Mortis]

I e just ordered a different type of ventilated cover that I came across. This one has 5+5 fans on the edges of the cover and a big blower style fan that sits underneath the seat (different from the hanging flap with fan in the front) that blows in air via vent tubes that go between the backrest and base to the lower back and butt area. The sitting area is supposed to be more flexible than the standard plastic panel setup so it might be more comfortable.
Let's see how the cover does just as a fan setup. The main reason I got this was that the blower and vent tubes opens up the possibility of fitting a peltier unit with some creative DIY so that the cooling performance is similar to the OEM systems. Should be here in 2-3 weeks. Oh and it also has a lower back massage function as well which may be a plus on longer trips.

There were a lot of covers available on Amazon but most had insufficient information and different looking covers and they also used pictures of different covers in each of their marketing pics, most of which looked cheap or ugly so I decided to avoid them. The Riggeear one looked decent but black wasn't available and it was pretty much a run of the mill cover from China, the same as the others at a higher price which may come with better support. It was my plan B.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Happyrev

Honda sells such similar ventilated seat covers as an accessory for the Honda Elevate. Has anyone used it on cars other than a Honda Elevate? It will help if there were a comparison between the Riggear vs Honda seat covers.

Thanks

Has anyone tried this? I would be interested as well. Considering it's an official accessory, it should have better quality I assume.

[Goandiaries]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

Are you saying that the device wasn’t switching off for you with the standard connection to the 12V socket during start-stop cycles?

For me, this is how it works when the car is in Auto Start/Stop mode.

1. When I come to a stop, the car engine turns off but the ventilation stays on
2. But when the engine cranks when I want to move, the device will turn off. I’ll have to manually turn it on again.

The device manual even came with the disclaimer stating that this is how it’ll work. So I’m curious to know if your experience was different.

Can you clarify what’s your before and after experience with the hardwiring?

I verified the function this morning again just to make sure. The unit stays on irrespective of the engine status. The manual says it goes off when the ignition goes off in certain cars, but there's no separate disclaimer. However, there's also a point saying some cars supply power continuously even after locking the car, which might drain the battery. At present, mine is running even after locking the car. I haven't tested the amount of time it runs after locking the car.

[deathwalkr]

I bought the Honda ventilated seat cover today. Called the service center and they said they have stock.
Sent my T-Jet to the center and they called shocked to say it could only be sold to Honda cars!
Thankfully my wife drives a Brio so got it billed with that. But they had no hesitation in fixing this in my T-jet
Initial feedback is good though the little bit extra height will take some time to get used to.
My butt and back are happy now in this sweltering heat
5,999 was the price.
Yet to try out the massager feature.

[Goandiaries]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

I bought the Honda ventilated seat cover today. Called the service center and they said they have stock.
Sent my T-Jet to the center and they called shocked to say it could only be sold to Honda cars!
Thankfully my wife drives a Brio so got it billed with that. But they had no hesitation in fixing this in my T-jet
Initial feedback is good though the little bit extra height will take some time to get used to.
My butt and back are happy now in this sweltering heat
5,999 was the price.
Yet to try out the massager feature.

Are there any pictures of your installation? Let us know how the massager feature works. Selling only to Honda cars? Would probably have to ask Honda owners to resell them!

Meanwhile, I am planning for ventilation in 2 of the baby seats as they tend to get hot over intercity drives. The regular ones don't fit within the baby seats unless we modify (read cut and restitch) them. Enquired with the riggear seller regarding the possibility of making a couple of seats, and he was mentioning that India don't have a market for these. He even sent out the following - saying that he will update me if they introduce it.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Goandiaries

Are there any pictures of your installation? Let us know how the massager feature works. Selling only to Honda cars? Would probably have to ask honda owners to resell them!

Sure, shall take a few pics. It fits in very snugly in my t-jet and have faced no issues even while driving spiritedly.

Tried the massager function on a whim and i am not sure if it is helpful or harmful!

Yes, they need a honda car number so that they can punch it in their billing software.

In these hot summer days, it sure is a blessing to have.

I did a 5hr morning drive from 9AM to 2PM across Tamil Nadu and my back was fresh thanks to this.