Aftermarket plug-in heated seat pad

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ZenCruiser @ Aug 8 2006, 08:04 AM) [snapback]299547[/snapback]</div>

I have installed aftermarket heated seats and leather interior. The company was called ASC (914)633-1550 Ask for Tony and tell him BobZ sent ya

 

Most "leather" seat cover companies will do whatever you ask them - for a price. Both these will use cloth if you want and do heated seat covers:
http://www.autoleathers.com/HTML2/AL.MAIN.FS.html
http://www.leatherseats.com/

 

You'll want to be careful with any sort of pad that plugs into the outlet in the car. Remember, those outlets are fused at 15A (for both of them). i only mention this cause heating units of any type are historically power hungry beasts that require a lot of current.

 

yeah! My 2005 has the cloth fabric, and last fall I picked up a heated seat pad at Fleet Farm. I think it was on sale for $20 or $25. It's great! Black, doesn't look bad. I took it off for the summer. Has a couple stretchy bands that you click together underneath the seat (that was bit of a challenge on the second one, closer to the center console), and a couple that go around the seat back. It stays in place pretty well. I used it a lot last winter, as I live in Minnesota. No problem with fuses or anything like that. I believe the pad has its own fuse too.

The cigarette lighter plug easily reaches into the center console, and it has a separate control, with High and Low settings. Heats up fast, actually faster than my wife's former Accord that had factory heat (probably because the heat is just going through fabric instead of leather). I'd recommend it highly. I will find the receipt tonight and post the brand and website, if any, tomorrow on this thread.

Now my wife just picked up a 2006 Prius last week that has the leather package. She won't go for the aftermarket pad, no, no, I've gotta get seat heaters professionally installed for her. It's about $250/seat, and two installers told me they might not be able to put in the butt heater on the passenger seat (but they can put the element in for your back) because of the airbag passenger sensor. Won't know for sure until they have leather off.

 

Zen, I found my stuff on the heated seat cushion that I bought for my 05 Prius, and like a lot:

1. Brand is Tranquil Ease, made by Raffel Comfort Science, LLC out of Saukville, WI. The instruction brochures lists a website of www.raffel.com; an one-sheeter glossy advertisement that came with it, promoting the seat heater as well as travel pillows, etc. lists a website called www.tranquilease.com.

2. My notes show I bought it (at a regional store in MN called Fleet Farm) on sale for $16.95, and that it was sold online for $24.95. That was probably on the tranquilease.com site, because that's where I registered it for the 6 month warranty.

3. The glossy ad listed a promotion code of LC10 that is supposed to give you 10% off your next order. No expiration date listed, so you might try that.

It gets pretty hot...I usually start off with it on High, but can't leave it there for very long without kicking it down to Low.

Rob



and, by the way, I am pretty sure that you can have aftermarket heat added to your cloth seats; you don't have to go to leather. About $250/seat.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(onerpm @ Aug 9 2006, 05:39 PM) [snapback]300424[/snapback]</div>

If you have side air bags, make sure those straps won't interfere with the airbags functioning properly.