Ventilated Seat air movement test

[Congo Line]

I find the whole concept of ventilated seats confusing, regardless of the direction of the fan. Wouldn't the air pass through the holes in the seat that are not covered by your behind? How does your body get exposed to the air at all if the perforation beneath it is blocked?

Cooling would also occur via convection of heat away from the seat/skin interface. As long as air is moving within the seat, then it's pulling heat from the area.

 

[RossRAllen]

I found out from my Service Center that the underwhelming airflow (suction) through my seats is comparable to other Xs they had in the shop.

So, while I feel the seat ventilation is inadequate and a design shortcoming, my seats are "normal."

Very disappointing. More on all this over on the Tesla Motors forum.

 

[ModelX]

I can't even really tell when the ventilation is on, guess I'm not alone.

 

[Monkey]

I was not impressed with the ventilated/ cooled seats when I got my X. But I will say that I like them now. It was 100°F yesterday and they most certainly made a difference. It's odd, they didn't seem to do much when temps were in the 80's, but totally noticeable as we've gotten hotter.

That said, I wish the fan setting could go to 4 or 5. Pulling air in isn't such a bad design, just wish it moved a bit more air.

 

[CmdrThor]

Regardless of test results, this is a crappy poll.

 

[Aljohn]

No, polarity will not change the direction of airflow. IMO. This is all DC electrical.

Actually on AC the polarity will not change the direction of the motor (hot to neutral). DC motors are polarity sensitive.

 

[loganintx]

My ventilated seats work great. I can feel my legs cooling down within 3 seconds of turning it on.

 

[Dazureus]

My ventilated seats work great. I can feel my legs cooling down within 3 seconds of turning it on.

I too can feel my legs cooling down. I think the issue here is expectation vs. implementation. Maybe people were expecting chilled seats rather than ventilated seats, or they were expecting the seats to figuratively and literally blow their skirts up. I still contend that I can feel the cooling effect through jeans, on the backs of my knees and lower thighs when I turn the fans on. These are areas that aren't strongly pressing up against the seat. I have a lesser cooling on my butt, but I do feel it when I shift around a bit. It works as a ventilated seat, but it's not an A/C seat.

 

[phren0logy]

The air movement of the seats of the X is substantially inferior to my previous car, a 2013 Kia Optima.

 

[Maaz]

Was in the display model X at Santa Monica and the cooled seats were already running when I got in, and the seat was nicely chilled. I could definitely feel the difference. And no climate control was on.