Great cheap heated seat option!

I saw this heated seat pad on sale Friday for $17 at a local Mills Fleet Farm store and decided to give it a try. Registered it online for warranty, so found this further info on it:

http://www.tranquilease.com/products.asp?category=heat

(Online, it sells for $25, but there is free shipping thru 2005.)

I think it's great. I was a little nervous about the quality (made in China), but the thing is warranted by a Wisconsin company for 6 months. It looks better than decent. Has two adjustable straps that go around the back of the seat to hold it; also, a strap goes over the top (under your headrest) and connects to the uppermost of the two adjustable straps. Then, there are 4 more straps (2 on the front, and 2 more on the back of the seat bottom) that stretch to hold the bottom in place...it's a little tough, but you reach under your seat with both arms (one from the front, one from the back) and hook them together (first you have to unhook the two hooks that hold the cover thingie in the back of seat, as it covers up the joint between the top and bottom parts of the seat, as that's where you have to pass the two back straps through before you can stretch them under the seat).

Sorry about that poor description, but it only took a minute to secure the back, and maybe 5 minutes for me to get those bottom straps on. On the right side, there is a little pocket (I don't use it, it's not very convenient) that holds the remote control (I stick the remote in the cupholder instead). Then there is a wire that you can easily snake into your center console to plug the 12v plug into the cigarette lighter. (OK, "power point.")

Remote has an on/off switch and hi/low temp settings. Cigarette plug and remote both have "power on" LED's. The box advertises the thing as being as hot as factory heated seats, and they weren't lying. The hot setting gets hot quickly (just as fast as my cars that have had factory hot seats), in fact too warm for me...the low setting is great. Also, instructions say it shuts down when it gets too hot, as it should.

Beats spending $250-300 to have an aftermarket heating element installed underneath. I'll remove the thing for summers.

Oh, the box also said something about it providing lumbar support, but it doesn't really do much there...just a bit of padding, but it helps. Also, for those of you who complained that the seat is too low, it does boost you up maybe a quarter inch.

rpm