[Dolby109]

Hey guys. I got my FiST last friday and so far I like it more and more. The only odd thing so far is the heated seat (at least on the driver side anyway). There have been a few cold mornings when I decided to just use it instead of wearing a jacket. The thing is it heats up pretty quick and gets hot, and then after maybe 30 seconds of being hot it shuts off and doesn't put out any heat for 3-4 minutes. Then it will kick back on again and get hot for another 40-50 seconds.

Am I right in assuming this is not normal?

 

[dalejrthecat]

Yes. That is normal.

 

[rodmoe]

Yup working good

 

[DjDevilCloud]

It feels like it's burning my you know what sometimes.

 

[Dolby109]

So...why does it act this way? Why doesn't it just get hot, then go to like a lower warm setting and stay till you turn it off?

 

[mongoose221]

Because we bought the hooned up "low end" Ford dude. Could be a Honda fit with no engine , no heated seats, no leather, no anything

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[DjDevilCloud]

I am a little surprised it does not have a high and low setting.

 

[mongoose221]

I am a little too dj, but with all the other fun stuff we get for the price beggars can't be choosers

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[DjDevilCloud]

I bet it could be done with a switch pretty easily.

 

[Dolby109]

I agree. The expensive part is the heating element in the seat, making some complicated system to turn it on and off randomly probably cost them more than it would have to just leave it on, and having a 2 stage switch would have been cheap as well.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I am going to order a bunch of these for our RV, best switch for the money I have found, by far.

PWM, pulse width modulation, meaning it does not have a heat soaking issue wasting energy and getting hot, I bet it will work on the heaters if the amperage is correct then you get a linear variable heat range.

https://www.pca.com/newproducts/12vdimmer.cfm

 

[DjDevilCloud]

Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

[RAAMaudio]

Our 07 V8 4Runner has variable heat seats, I can look to see what they did for that to work out if needed.

 

[RAAMaudio]

The 4runner switch setup gives 5 settings but a bit costly for parts and some serious effort to get them to work......

The PMW switches are only rated for 5 amps, we need something a bit higher rated, probably 10.....

 

[betterthansx]

I am a little surprised it does not have a high and low setting.

These companies literally engineer these cars to fractions of a penny. Having an option such as this is clearly too expensive.

 

[DjDevilCloud]

I bet thats why my Acura was 70 grand new!? 20k was adjustable seat heaters

 

[RAAMaudio]

Of course at the manf level it would be far less expensive but they all seem to use a fairly sophisticated way of controlling seat heater settings, at least the manfs I looked into. This is probably due tor a few reasons, safety, conserving battery power, reliability, cost for certain, and now more than ever, weight control as they have to meet strict fuel consumption guidelines....

I have been looking into PWM motor controllers which would work for a seat heater and they are fairly bulky and costly.

A rheostat could work but it will just absorb some of the current thus creating heat itself.

I have been looking at other ways to lower the voltage to the elements but have not come up with a good idea yet but may be overlooking something pretty simple, I have a ton of projects in the works so can only spend so much time on this.

 

[jayroddrumz]

I think when i was looking around in my manual it said the heated seats had 2 settings. hi and low. one light or 2 lights on the button. but in the ST there is not 2 settings. So i wonder if maybe the titanium fiesta with heated leather has a different switch or set up?

 

[RAAMaudio]

I will look into this.

Thanks
Rick

 

[Whiplash306]

Bumping this somewhat old thread as I'm hoping someone might have come up with an answer to these awkward heated seats. There has GOT to way to keep these things on and continuously warm until turned off…..