Ventilated Seats

[jwilli47]

I have a 2020 Limited Explorer with ventilated seats. Now that it is warmer, I switched them on the other day. I can hear a fan running but do not feel any "cooling" when sitting on the seat. Just curious. How much cooling effect should I be feeling? Do these seats have a cooling element or just a fan circulating air? Just tying to figure out what my expectations should be.

 

[SteveAZ]

We live in Phoenix and use them Every Day! They work fine

 

[jrgoffin]

They draw air through them to pull moisture away from your body rather than blow cold air on you. I don't dig them as much as those in my '14 Sport, but they are better than nothing. Have something similar with custom Recaro seats in my '03 Cobra: there are two small fans that resemble those in a desktop computer that move the air.

 

[Spacey]

I live in Southern California and they are my favorite feature of the car, after the engine. I don't know if they suck or blow, but somehow cold air is being circulated through the seat. I can definitely feel it, so if you can't I'd have it checked out.

 

[Dale5403]

I have only turned mine on once so far. Could tell they were cooling down in a few minutes.

 

[ProudestMonkey]

The effect is noticeable more quickly when the vehicle interior is cooler. I find that it takes much longer to feel the cooling when the vehicle has been parked outside for an extended period on a hot day. Cooling begins much more quickly if the vehicle was parked in a garage.

 

[peterk9]

I have a 2020 Limited Explorer with ventilated seats. Now that it is warmer, I switched them on the other day. I can hear a fan running but do not feel any "cooling" when sitting on the seat. Just curious. How much cooling effect should I be feeling? Do these seats have a cooling element or just a fan circulating air? Just tying to figure out what my expectations should be.

I found an article that mentions this;
4. Cool New Ventilation Feature
Comfort is not just about the right level of softness — it’s also about being at the right temperature. Rather than pushing cold air through seat perforations like older models, Ford says the new seats will draw warm air away from your body, cooling you down more naturally.

https://www.cars.com/articles/u-mad-4-reasons-the-2020-ford-explorers-seats-wont-leave-you-butthurt-403707/

Peter

 

[jwilli47]

That’s interesting. I was expecting a “cold” seat on a hot day but it sounds like it’s just moving air away from your body.

 

[blwnsmoke]

The cooling seats work much better on theb20 then the 11 we had and the 15 F350 I have. Yes they dont blow cold air but the pulling of body heat from you works very well and gives you the cool feeling because of it.

 

[jwilli47]

I’m probably going to get them checked out this week. I can hear the fun running but I feel nothing while sitting in the seat.

 

[jhu8]

I’m probably going to get them checked out this week. I can hear the fun running but I feel nothing while sitting in the seat.

I had a similar issue in my 17. Basically the tubing duct that connects the fan to the seat air intake became misaligned and therefore most of the air being pumped into the seat wasn't actually going into the seat. Even though the 2020 doesn't work exactly the same way, definitely sounds possible.

 

[jwilli47]

I just got my vehicle back from the dealer. Dealer states that they seats are working as designed. As stated earlier in this thread, the fan under the seat sucks warm air away from your body instead of blowing cold air. The cooling seems very subtle as compared to the heated seats to where they are very noticeable. The jury is still out on the cooling feature. I will have to use them throughout the summer to see if they really make a difference. At this point, I'm glad I didn't go out of my way to ensure my vehicle had this option because at this point I would be disappointed.

 

[SteveAZ]

I just got my vehicle back from the dealer. Dealer states that they seats are working as designed. As stated earlier in this thread, the fan under the seat sucks warm air away from your body instead of blowing cold air. The cooling seems very subtle as compared to the heated seats to where they are very noticeable. The jury is still out on the cooling feature. I will have to use them throughout the summer to see if they really make a difference. At this point, I'm glad I didn't go out of my way to ensure my vehicle had this option because at this point I would be disappointed.

My wife and I were talking about the seats today after having used a loaner XLT without the AC seats. We both missed them so I guess we'd have to say they work but we miss the 2016 Platinum seats. My wife aways said they made her feel like she had piddled her pants. She didn't

 

[Jset]

I took mine to the dealer because the driver side cooling seat would basically feel like it shut off randomly and not be working at all. They replaced a module or something. Seems to have fixed the intermittent issue, but they still don't cool as well as my 19 Cherokee trailhawk I got rid of for the ST.

 

[FreeFal311]

I'd like to add an observation that I am having with my 2020 to this discussion and see if anyone else is experiencing this. I activated my ventilated seats while driving a couple months ago, and I heard audible fan whine, which I expected and believe to be normal. And, I felt some cooling on my back. But, the cooling effect was a little underwhelming. After about 15 minutes of driving, I noticed a distinctly electrical wind up noise repeating itself every 2-3 minutes or so. I thought it was my rear seat entertainment system making noises for a while, although, it did sound distinctly like an electric fan trying to start - I've heard similar noises from PC fans in computers I've built over the years. Anyway, it turned out to be coming from the ventilated seat module beneath my butt. It wasn't turning on, and it sounds exactly like the fans struggling to spin up. But, here's the rub. They always come on consistently when I am either not in the seat or when I shift my weight up from the seat some. When I am fully seated, the module seems to fail to spin up about 30% of the time or so, and it seems to me that the weight of my body is somehow creating too much resistance for the fans. One key take away here is that back of the seat always kicks on and provides some cooling. And, frankly, I would have never noticed the system wasn't working at full capacity if I hadn't heard that electrical whine. But, with the under seat module working, the cooling effect is much better.

 

[peterk9]

Despite temps in the mid 90's the last week or more and more to come, I haven't used the cooling seat function yet. I'll try to remember to turn it on the next time.

Peter

 

[Dale5403]

I've used mine 3 or 4 times in the past week. I don't hear the fan running at all. But I can tell the seat is cooling.

 

[peterk9]

I've used mine 3 or 4 times in the past week. I don't hear the fan running at all. But I can tell the seat is cooling.

I've never heard them in my previous vehicles either.

 

[FreeFal311]

The fan noise isn't obvious while driving. The motor and road noise will drown it out. Just poke your head down under the driver's seat while the ventilated seats are running, and you should hear it. Cycle them on and off.

Both my driver and passenger seats make the same whine. I'm ****, so I hear it. Now, it's possible my fans are just bad and particularly noisy. It might explain why my butt disables one of them. But, I'd be shocked if anyone has electric fans that make NO noise at all.

 

[Dale5403]

Just tried that with mine. Didn't hear the fan at all with it on hi.