View Poll Results: Cooling Seats - Are Your Seat Backs Working Properly?
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Cooling Seats issue and TSB feedback
06-22-2018, 09:44 AM
#5241
Senior Member
Dang, I was thinking just the opposite... Im in a Ford rental weekly for work and was pleasantly surprised recently getting an 18 Expedition and felt the cooling was far superior (quicker and colder) than my ‘15 150 with the kit.
Has anyone heard from Tim lately? I emailed him a couple weeks ago about my zipper woes and haven’t heard back, likewise I hadn’t seen him chime in lately.
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Livoniabob (06-22-2018)
06-23-2018, 10:32 AM
#5244
Senior Member
As always, Bob is correct. The 18s have what is termed "Ventilated seating", just like most other brands today.....no longer referred to as cooling.....there is no TED to actually transform ambient air into cooler (by maybe 15-20 degrees)...remember it never WAS a HVAC-like system.... just conditioning ambient air to a point that is was somewhat cooler..... and yes, I do believe the pre-2015 design was superior because, for one thing, the seats/cavities were slimmed down to achieve weight reduction..... they also initially eliminated the intake and exhaust ducting to the TED in the seat back..... and the TSB only addressed re-adding an intake "sock" to solve part of the problem.
Ventilation in the 2018s, on the other hand, is achieved by sucking air from the interior into the seat back and bottom, giving the occupant some sensation of "cooling" because of air moving past the occupant body, but that is it!!
As to the heating part, the TED has been replaced by electric heating pads bottom and back.
I assure you that Tim is NOT working on any solution for the revised 2018 design and his kit(s) for the TED in the 2015-17 optimizes that system.... sorry, it is what it is....smile.... AZPLAT
Ventilation in the 2018s, on the other hand, is achieved by sucking air from the interior into the seat back and bottom, giving the occupant some sensation of "cooling" because of air moving past the occupant body, but that is it!!
As to the heating part, the TED has been replaced by electric heating pads bottom and back.
I assure you that Tim is NOT working on any solution for the revised 2018 design and his kit(s) for the TED in the 2015-17 optimizes that system.... sorry, it is what it is....smile.... AZPLAT
06-25-2018, 03:01 PM
#5245
Finally installed my kit. I wasn’t expecting much change due to the overall design of the seat as stated in this thread. Held off getting the kit figuring how much would it really improve operation...especially considering there are a fair number of only slight improvement reviews mixed with all the positives. Ultimately picked it up deciding what the heck, I’ll try it.
My 16 was built with the sock. The bottom will cool ok but the backs of both seats I’ve only ever felt an ever so slight hint of cooling after like 20mins on 3 maybe a couple times. Every other time I feel absolutely nothing from the backs. I was expecting to feel a little something with the kit, and hopefull that it would match the bottom for consistency. I’m happy to report that not only does the seat backs performance match the bottom, the backs actually cool down a little quicker too! Turned out to be money well spent! Hopefully this helps with anyone on the fence like I was.
some install notes...no problems with the zippers which seem to be the most dreadful part....also tried to seal up everything I could to eek out everything I could since the overall system isn’t great. I put a small bead of silicone around the surfaces that mate with the ted and allowed to mostly dry before installing to keep as much airflow going where intended as possible, and also wrapped some F4 tape (stretchable silicone/rubber tape basically) around where the hoses attach to the plastic pieces. Thought about even throwing some pipe insulation around the exhaust hose but I didn’t have any handy and didn’t go that far. If I had to guess, none of that probably made any difference, but I had that stuff on hand, and again, wanted to extract all its potential. Everything went quick and smooth except for a run to harbor freight after realizing I didn’t have small enough torx bits when it came time for those screws. I did break 1 tab each on the teds popping the intake/sock off tho.
Thanks for making these kits available Tim! You pretty much single handily allowed us to salvage decent operation of these poorly designed seats with them.
My 16 was built with the sock. The bottom will cool ok but the backs of both seats I’ve only ever felt an ever so slight hint of cooling after like 20mins on 3 maybe a couple times. Every other time I feel absolutely nothing from the backs. I was expecting to feel a little something with the kit, and hopefull that it would match the bottom for consistency. I’m happy to report that not only does the seat backs performance match the bottom, the backs actually cool down a little quicker too! Turned out to be money well spent! Hopefully this helps with anyone on the fence like I was.
some install notes...no problems with the zippers which seem to be the most dreadful part....also tried to seal up everything I could to eek out everything I could since the overall system isn’t great. I put a small bead of silicone around the surfaces that mate with the ted and allowed to mostly dry before installing to keep as much airflow going where intended as possible, and also wrapped some F4 tape (stretchable silicone/rubber tape basically) around where the hoses attach to the plastic pieces. Thought about even throwing some pipe insulation around the exhaust hose but I didn’t have any handy and didn’t go that far. If I had to guess, none of that probably made any difference, but I had that stuff on hand, and again, wanted to extract all its potential. Everything went quick and smooth except for a run to harbor freight after realizing I didn’t have small enough torx bits when it came time for those screws. I did break 1 tab each on the teds popping the intake/sock off tho.
Thanks for making these kits available Tim! You pretty much single handily allowed us to salvage decent operation of these poorly designed seats with them.
Last edited by C17chief; 06-25-2018 at 03:03 PM.
06-25-2018, 04:18 PM
#5246
Finally installed my kit. I wasn’t expecting much change due to the overall design of the seat as stated in this thread. Held off getting the kit figuring how much would it really improve operation...especially considering there are a fair number of only slight improvement reviews mixed with all the positives. Ultimately picked it up deciding what the heck, I’ll try it.
My 16 was built with the sock. The bottom will cool ok but the backs of both seats I’ve only ever felt an ever so slight hint of cooling after like 20mins on 3 maybe a couple times. Every other time I feel absolutely nothing from the backs. I was expecting to feel a little something with the kit, and hopefull that it would match the bottom for consistency. I’m happy to report that not only does the seat backs performance match the bottom, the backs actually cool down a little quicker too! Turned out to be money well spent! Hopefully this helps with anyone on the fence like I was.
some install notes...no problems with the zippers which seem to be the most dreadful part....also tried to seal up everything I could to eek out everything I could since the overall system isn’t great. I put a small bead of silicone around the surfaces that mate with the ted and allowed to mostly dry before installing to keep as much airflow going where intended as possible, and also wrapped some F4 tape (stretchable silicone/rubber tape basically) around where the hoses attach to the plastic pieces. Thought about even throwing some pipe insulation around the exhaust hose but I didn’t have any handy and didn’t go that far. If I had to guess, none of that probably made any difference, but I had that stuff on hand, and again, wanted to extract all its potential. Everything went quick and smooth except for a run to harbor freight after realizing I didn’t have small enough torx bits when it came time for those screws. I did break 1 tab each on the teds popping the intake/sock off tho.
Thanks for making these kits available Tim! You pretty much single handily allowed us to salvage decent operation of these poorly designed seats with them.
My 16 was built with the sock. The bottom will cool ok but the backs of both seats I’ve only ever felt an ever so slight hint of cooling after like 20mins on 3 maybe a couple times. Every other time I feel absolutely nothing from the backs. I was expecting to feel a little something with the kit, and hopefull that it would match the bottom for consistency. I’m happy to report that not only does the seat backs performance match the bottom, the backs actually cool down a little quicker too! Turned out to be money well spent! Hopefully this helps with anyone on the fence like I was.
some install notes...no problems with the zippers which seem to be the most dreadful part....also tried to seal up everything I could to eek out everything I could since the overall system isn’t great. I put a small bead of silicone around the surfaces that mate with the ted and allowed to mostly dry before installing to keep as much airflow going where intended as possible, and also wrapped some F4 tape (stretchable silicone/rubber tape basically) around where the hoses attach to the plastic pieces. Thought about even throwing some pipe insulation around the exhaust hose but I didn’t have any handy and didn’t go that far. If I had to guess, none of that probably made any difference, but I had that stuff on hand, and again, wanted to extract all its potential. Everything went quick and smooth except for a run to harbor freight after realizing I didn’t have small enough torx bits when it came time for those screws. I did break 1 tab each on the teds popping the intake/sock off tho.
Thanks for making these kits available Tim! You pretty much single handily allowed us to salvage decent operation of these poorly designed seats with them.
06-25-2018, 05:32 PM
#5248
Dunno. I put a few extra touches on while installing the kit as described above, but I doubt it resulted in any significant difference vs normal install. Routed intake tube thru the wire hole on the lower flap, and the exhaust side I routed down the side under the metal frame, then compressed it and worked it thru the slot at the bottom enough where it isn’t blocked by the bottom of the seat cover and lower flap J hooked together, which leaves it unobstructed (except the compressed section going thru the metal slot) and sort of pointed towards the base of the center console. Nothing unusual vs other people’s install. Maybe my bottoms just don’t work as well as other people’s? Bottom def cools but certainly not freeze your nuts cold or anything no matter how high and long it’s ran.
06-25-2018, 08:04 PM
#5249
So what's the deal with the 18s: Do they perform like most other cars or not? I don't know if other cars suck air or blow air, but I knew they just do either one with ambient air, therefore the name 'ventilated'. All I want to know is you don't sweat like a freaking pig when ventilation is on the max setting (3 bars), like on all my other cars. Because I've owned 2 cars that ventilation was useless: A Lexus RC-F and Audi S6. Hope these are comparable to most other cars such equipped, which work as advertised. Thanks.
06-25-2018, 09:07 PM
#5250
chief: I did my install the exact same way as yours...Not sure why but my bottom cools way more than the back...I wish there was a way to maybe route the intake tube into a vent to pull in colder air from ac and maybe cooling would be increased way more. I dont mean the leg vents either as i did this and in the summer haveing leg and front vents suck..Maybe a way to route the intake vent to pull from the rear passenger middle console vents?
Honestly these cooled seats work way better than the lexus ventilated seats but I have tims fix on 16 model...The lexus just blows air but its not cool...
Honestly these cooled seats work way better than the lexus ventilated seats but I have tims fix on 16 model...The lexus just blows air but its not cool...