Ventilated seats, how do they work (ducting etc.) ?

[todd308]

Does anyone understand how the ventilated seats work?  Where in the intake/exhaust is, ducting etc? 

 

I'm trying to figure out why mine don't work worth a darn in my 21' but worked okay in my 20'. 

 

I can clearly hear the fan running when I start it on both seats, but they really don't move any air through the seat even on high.   Even on high with the AC on foot so it's blowing cold air under the seat itself you can barely feel them in the seat bottom, and not at all in the back.  In my 20' even just turning them on full blast without the AC under the seat would be freezing your nuts after a couple minutes. 

 

What I noticed is on the underside of the seat, for drivers seat, on the left rear under the seat there's a round squishy pad, I assume this is the intake for the fan.   However to the side of that there is a lot of air blowing out toward the middle of the seat and it looks like perhaps it should have something attached to it.  Especially since it seems like it should be blowing air into the seat, not under it.   I tried to get a picture but it's almost impossible since there's not enough room under the seat to focus, but it feels/looks like something perhaps connects to it that's not there. 

 

Tried looking up the part info, but the drawings don't really have much detail, tried searching for images but I don't see anything that looks like what's under my seats. 

 

 I did find an acadia 2021 ventilated seat blower, and it kind of looks like this.  Minus what I assume is a filter that goes over the bottom. 

 

 

There's a port on one end that has an arrow for airflow (circled in red), but is that supposed to connect to something?  On my truck it appears to just be unconnected and blowing air freely under the seat.   Passenger side is the same way. 

[redwngr]

I can't really answer your question, but when the ventilated seats are turned on on our 21 sierra there is an immediate 'cool' sensation from the dryer air being pushed thru the seat. (assuming the ac has been running for a little bit prior to switching the seats on)

 

We also have a 20 acadia with ventilated seats. 

Effectiveness of the seat ventilation is also good (and about the same as pickup).

 

I don't notice the airflow comming thru the seats, but definitely feel the cooling sensation that it causes

 

Our Acadia has the auto control on heated and ventilated seats so the functions will come on without needing to operate the buttons. 

 

 

 

I'd guess that auto feature will come to pickups before long....

 

For those curious about this function on the Acadia, this is the section from the Acadia manual about the auto function:

(It's for while it's running down the road, as opposed to just during start-up like in pickups)

 

Auto Heated and Ventilated Seats

 

If the vehicle is equipped with auto heated or ventilated seats, and the engine is running, this feature will
automatically activate the heated or ventilated seats at the level required by the vehicle's interior temperature.

 

The active high, medium, low, or off heated or ventilated seat level will be indicated by the manual heated
and ventilated seat buttons on the center stack. Use the manual heated and ventilated seat buttons on the center stack to turn auto heated or ventilated seats off.

 

If the passenger seat is unoccupied, the auto heated or ventilated seats feature will not activate that seat.

 

The auto heated and ventilated seats feature can be programmed to always be enabled when the vehicle is on. If equipped with a heated steering wheel, the auto heated steering wheel activation will follow the heated seat auto activation and
the heated wheel indicator will follow the state of the steering wheel heat.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by redwngr

[todd308]

Auto for those items (steering wheel, seats (heat/vent) is interesting, not sure if I'd like it or it would be too much, but you can always turn it off.  I know the pickups will do the heated/ventilated seats if you autostart it as long as the truck is at a certain temp and it's engaged from the infotainment menu settings.  However like most of the indicators when the truck is autostarted they don't illuminate on the dash.   I can say I do wish the steering wheel had more than one heat setting like the seats do. 

 

It's just very odd because clearly by the arrow on the fan it airflow is going the right way, and the fan is running (at least the lower fan, no idea about the upper one in the seat back) but there's basically zero airflow, at least barely enough to notice even with the cabin cooled down with AC.   In my 20' after a couple minutes you'd be turning it to a lower fan setting because it was too cold.   I've also been really careful what I clean/condition my seats with and how much after reading horror stories about guys plugging up all the holes with seat cleaner/conditioner.   I've tried a stiff brush on them, and also vacuuming them to make sure the holes were clear. 

 

 

[Eodwoz]

I don’t know the functionality & specs, but I am in my 2nd 22 LTD. the first was as you described your older truck-kept the jewels cool. My current truck hardly has an airflow at all, especially the seat. It is better on the seat back, but nothing like my first truck. I have even taken it to the dealer & was told the seats are within spec

[todd308]

Yeah that's my thought, if I take it to the dealer they are just going to say "well the fans are spinning it's fine!"  Not to mention that we've seen a lot of horror stories about dealer techs not putting the seat covers back on right/tight and they end up being way too loose. 

 

It will be the same as when I took it in because the HUD bounces more and is slightly blurry compared to my 20' model, guy took a look at it and said "well I can read it, it's fine". 

[Steve Martin]

I agree.  I had a 19 LTZ and like you said, would have to turn it lower after a bit.  My 21 HC hardly can tell it's on and seems much lower.  It's almost like setting 3 on the HC was setting 1 on my LTZ.  It's pathetic output.

 

[bdallas]

Some systems pull air through the seats creating a wicking effect to make you feel cooler.

Other systems blow air through the seats.

 

It appears that these suck.  (Pun intended)

 

 

[todd308]

Yeah I dug into this further today and I think they must have changed the design from 20' to 21' at least in my AT4.  My 20' definitely took in air under the seat and pushed it through the seat.  You could lay a piece of paper on the seat and it would "float/flutter" with them on high.   I just tried this in my 21' and it sucked the paper to the seat, passenger seat is the same way.   So they either changed the design or mine is wired backwards and the fan is running the wrong way. 

 

What I can say is my 20' the blew air through the top of the seat was MUCH more effective than my 21' that sucks it through the seat and exhausts it out the bottom. 

 

There's definitely something amiss, I posted the same question on a couple of the AT4 facebook groups and others have already chimed in that theirs definitely blow air up through the seat, 21' models verified.   So either something wasn't wired right, the fans were a "covid" manufacturing QC victim, or GM changed the design during the year (perhaps due to part shortages).  Could be a manufacturing issue, they use the same part in both seats so maybe a batch of them were wired wrong. 

Edited June 4, 2022 by todd308

[bdallas]

The Chevrolet support page on ventilated seats indicates that they either push or pull the air through.

I understand you have a GMC, so maybe this doesn't apply.

But maybe it's by design.

https://www.chevrolet.com/dos-template-library/search-results/content-display.html?documentId=CSP12

 

"Ventilates the seats. These seats have a fan that pulls or pushes air through the seat — the air is not cooled"

 

 

[todd308]

Yeah it just seems interesting that some push and others pull (even across 21' GMC AT4's)  Not sure why they did both, parts issues etc.  What I can say is that the push version works 10x better than the pull version.

 

I'd be tempted to wire mine in reverse to see if they would push, but the upper fan in the seat back is also pulling so I'd imagine getting to that one is not going to be so nice.

[Eodwoz]

Something is definitely off. My first 22LTD definitely pushed the air, being my 1st vehicle with cooled seats, definitely a new found favorite. My current 22LTD appears to push air out of the seat back & pulls the air on the seat. Both driver & passenger seats operate the same???

[todd308]

Yeah that sounds really odd that you have one fan doing one thing and the other fan doing the opposite.   I wonder if they got some batches of badly wired fans/harnesses.   On mine yeah both the seat surface and seat back pull air in, on both seats and exhaust under the seat.   Which isn't too surprising because the fan module/part number appears the same for both sides.  No idea if the upper fan in the seat back is the same type of fan or something different.