Real world experience: seat a/c noise, heat vent to back, no rear a/c

[mrsullivan]

In my test drive, we had the seat a/c on in the front. It was very loud and I could feel the heat venting out of the seatbacks in the back of the cab. Combined with no a/c vents in back, I am interested in real world feedback for those that carry kids/passengers in the back. I live in Texas and have two sons that will ride regularly in the back. For such an otherwise perfect interior design, the combination of these 3 things - noisy a/c seats, venting hot into back, and no rear a/c vents - seems like a pretty huge miss by GM. Like deal-killer type miss for those of us in the south. What is your experience? During my test drive, the heat never stopped venting out back. Some online have suggested that when the cab cooled off, that air would be cool, that was not my experience. thanks

[GTD]

Yeah lack of common sense by so-called engineers, lol. My old 03 Silverado had the rear vents in back of console when I got my Denali I looked for them to be there but they wern't to be found. I guess it's just he get less for morr thats been shoved down out throats.

[MikeNH]

Can't speak for the seat venting to the back but the lack of vents in the console is irrelevant. Air comes from ducting under the seats and every crew cab pickup of the last generation I rode in has been plenty cold in summer and plenty warm in winter.

[Jeff48]

I'm in Texas too. My air coming into the back seat is also warm at first. Once the cabin is cooled, it isn't that noticeable. Also, using the remote start to cool down the cabin before getting in helps. I thought it was a deal breaker as well, but ended up not being a big issue at all.

[TxTruckMan]

There are AC vents under the front seats for the rear. Not the best, but better than nothing.

 

As for the cooled seats, it's a "passive" cooling effect. There's no actual cooling going on, the fan just draws the heat away from the front of seat and whatever's in it. The fan will only slow down from using the lower setting, not from cooling off. I think there was a TSB to remove the direct ducting to the rear vents and let it exhaust naturally through the bottom and back if you're that concerned about the rear pasengers.

 

Also, I wouldn't call it loud, at least not from the front. Especially if you have the radio on or an exhaust installed. You can hear it in the loudest settings when it's quiet, but is that really normal? To me they're still more than worth it. Will you have passengers in the rear 100% of the time? It doesn't turn on automatically.

[pm26]

If there is no actual cooling, then they should call these seats "heated and ventilated" seats. "Cooled seats" is misleading as it suggests that arctic temperature air is being blown up one's rear end.

[MikeNH]

 

If there is no actual cooling, then they should call these seats "heated and ventilated" seats. "Cooled seats" is misleading as it suggests that arctic temperature air is being blown up one's rear end.

 

 

So you are saying GM removed the Peltier cooler?

 

It was my understanding this is how some of the newer GMs are. I know for sure the Vette is strictly just vented, not cooled. I still disagree about the AC, I can't see the 2014s being different than a GMT 900 and I've been in the back of one of those in Houston in July and that's about as bad as I can imagine most parts of the US getting.

[soltys]

This was one of the reasons I order the "Tri-Zone Climate Control" feature for my truck when I placed the order because the stealership assured me that this ment back seat ventilation - just like in the Ford and Dodge. When the truck arrived - nothing. I was pissed off and ended up buying the truck because it wasn't a big enough factor at the time - now I'm wishing I would have put the boots to the dealerships a little more.

 

Don't get mislead, sure there's vents under the seats - but they're no where near as effective as an actually controllable vent. I haven't had the opportunity yet to use the a/c in my truck but in the -40 and below winter we had this year, reat seat vents to get the air moving more quickly to the back would have help. I'm only assuming that on a hot day, I'm going to feel the same way about the A/C