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Next Gen Seat Heaters - Worthless
- Thread starter ElectricTundra
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- Model S
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
sillydriver
Member
I think the seat heaters work as well as in the German or English cars I have. The steering wheel really stands out by heating in a flash: it's almost like the car is full of electricity.
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
Credit goes to musicous here: Infrared Camera view of Winter Package (Seat/Steering Wheel/Windshield Heaters)
The seats seem to have a heating element all the way close to the front of the thigh section but I sure don't feel it. The seat bottom is also now nearly as warm as the back.
But I'm sure they're made to Tesla's specs. NO WAY Recaro would short change the front half of the seat if it was specified to include the whole seat bottom. It's just a fancy heating pad, so not sure why Tesla would cheap out here.
Any my comparison with the German cars is, they heat up WAY faster, at least for BMW and VW.
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The seats seem to have a heating element all the way close to the front of the thigh section but I sure don't feel it. The seat bottom is also now nearly as warm as the back.
But I'm sure they're made to Tesla's specs. NO WAY Recaro would short change the front half of the seat if it was specified to include the whole seat bottom. It's just a fancy heating pad, so not sure why Tesla would cheap out here.
Any my comparison with the German cars is, they heat up WAY faster, at least for BMW and VW.
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JenniferQ
Active Member
Canuck
Well-Known Member
Ha! That gave me a good laugh. But even when told the seats are made by a German car seat manufacturer, aus doesn't give up. Instead we're told Tesla told Recaro to "cheap out here"... even though the heating element is cheap! "NO WAY would Recaro short change"... lol...:biggrin:
@aus, those are the standard seats which do heat well, not the next gen that have no heat on the front half of the seat bottom (nor the side bolsters, but that's not unusual). The heat on the standard seats also goes up higher in the back than on the Next Gen
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For others, just to review:
This is a problem with the Next Gen seats. NOT the standard seats.
The Next Gen seat heaters do heat up quite fast and get quite hot. The problem is that this is only the back half of the seat bottom. The front half (and side bolsters) remain cold.
This is not a problem in temps above about 30f - 40f, especially if it's sunny. When the car has been sitting in 18f temps it is a considerable problem. I'm guessing it will be worse on days where the car is sitting out in -18f temps.
Recaro is indeed a German company and make great seats. Keep in mind though that they make a very wide variety of seats with cars such as Ford Escort and Ford Fiesta apparently featuring Recaro seats. I've experienced Recaro seats with much better heating (and cooling, but that's another story) than the ones built for the Model S so they can certainly do better.
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Here are pictures of the back and front seats (next gen), showing the bottom front does indeed get heated... the pictures do not capture the temperature, so it could be they do not get heated enough for you, but they indeed are heated.
On second review... I'll rescind my comment lol... i relooked at my footage and can indeed see another shot that better shows the front portion of the front seats not being heated (I updated my photo to include that image). With everything 'purple' except the heated elements, I missed that at first.
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The whole seat is definitely not heated. The colder the seats are, the more annoying it is. Lack of side bolster is more annoying that the front, IMHO. It's like you're being gripped by a frosty king kong.
Roadrunner13
Member
+1
Indeed, the benefits of being held nice and tight in the Next Gen seats comes at a 'cold grip' price...
which is made felt worse by the temperature difference as the rest of the seat warms up!
Not sure what your point is, but do you really think Recaro just makes a seat and Tesla just takes whatever Recaro gives them? There is NO WAY IN HELL, Tesla didn't specify EXACTLY what they wanted in that seat.
Another example is Brembo brakes. Do you really think they're all made to the same specs for all the manufacturers who have Brembo caliper? I assure you the Porsche caliper is WAY more capable than a Subaru or even a Tesla caliper when it comes to repeated hard stops from speed because that's the way PORSCHE SPECIFIED them to be.
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Suppliers give Tesla high praise for innovation
Above appears to support that Tesla may have innovated too much... Tesla as a customer has a final say and decided that heated bolsters and front of the cushions is not worth the cost and complexity.
Too bad they couldn't figure out the front of the seat gets cold too.
In some Tesla board room: "lets be an innovator, and not warm the front half of the seat. NO ONE ELSE DOES THAT!!"
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