Oc Steve

Ok so I had a 2016 with cooled/heated seats. Seats also had massage.
My 2021 platinum has the same.
they have greatly improved the ventilation on the seats. I don’t know if it’s different on standard (non massage seats) but they get cold! They don’t make you feel wet and they actually work unlike the 2016 version.
The 2021 version is a bit louder though but you won’t notice much with radio on or conversation going.

garryrussell

I live in Colorado and the seat heater on high will cook your butt even on the coldest days.

Blackcloud

The ventilated seats blow conditioned air (colder than ambient temperature) out through the perforations in both the seat pan and the back.

I consider them greatly improved over my 2010 Platinum, which also had ventilated seats, because the perforations were just in the center section of the back (and seat bottom), while my 2021 KR has added perforations in the side bolster panels as well.

Before, I would block the perforations just by sitting in the seat, so there was very little cooling air flow. In the new KR, the cool air still flows out the side panels because I do not block those perforations when I lean back. Occasionally I will lean forward briefly, to allow a little cool air to flow out of the now unblocked holes to cool my back. I would not be without them in Arizona.

Sorry, D3, I have no solution your issue.

AZPlatinumEB

The ventilated seats blow conditioned air (colder than ambient temperature) out through the perforations in both the seat pan and the back.

I suggest you try a simple test.... place a thin sheet of paper near the seat while the vent. is in operation. Unless they have CHANGED the design of the 2021 (I have not personally sat it one) they PULL air into the seat from the ambient air in the cabin, creating the cooling phenom using only fans inside the seat cavities. It is good that they added additional lateral perforations to increase air flow across the entire seat surface.

Prior "Cooling" seat versions used a TED to either lower or raise ambient temp in response to the setting. They discharged that air through the perforations..... using two units (TED devices) for pan/back to truly condition air for either function in each.

In 2015 Ford mucked with the design and removed both the intake and exhaust ducts to the TED as a "weight and space saving" move for the highly modified 2015 seats (noticeably thinner).. creating dramatic "hot spots" for un-expelled exhaust air from the TED..... we finally got them to half-fix THAT!!!

Ventilated seats as used in most/all mfg. vented seat offerings, per my experience, do NOT condition the air temp in any manner other that the cooling sensation of air motion past your body. I doubt that there is any longer any type of unit in the seat to condition the air as you suggest as Ford engineering abandoned the TED unit entirely for design and weight purposes. BTW, they use conventional "electric heat pads" to provide the heating vs. using heated air from a TED. (TED= Thermal Electronic Device)

I worked this issue in the 2015+ TED vehicles along with a fellow Forum member (SEATGURU) directly with the Ford Seat Complete engineering team to develop and field test (in our personal vehicles) the TSB they developed to fix their original poor design in the 2015+ vehicles, so I DO have some experience in this subject, but I will look specifically at a 2021 unit to confirm that what I said above is still correct...... AZPLAT

13adger

pretty sure you can fee the air blowing out. I’ll check to confirm, but they certainly feel like the fan is pushing and the air is definitely colder than cabin and temps seems to be synced with the HVAC ****. But I’ll confirm later today

Jus Cruisin

As I assumed in post# 10 and azplatintum did in #14. The seats SUCK air. I just went out to verify. Turn on the ventilated seats, it will hold a paper to the seat back and hold it down on the bottom. Just like my Ram and my 2016 F150 King Ranch.
They don't cool the air, they pull your warm body air away from you. Both posts #13 and #15 are wrong.

13adger

Just checked by putting a receipt from the gas station on the seat back and bottom.
I can confirm the seatback does pull air into the seat the receipt will get stuck to to it, but cannot confirm the same for the seat bottom the receipt is unaffected. Doesn’t float/flutter and definitely don’t get sucked in like the seat backs.
They seem to have less airflow than the back when not sitting in them. when sitting you can definitely feel airflow.

AZPlatinumEB

Bingo!!!! Thanks 13adger & Jus Cruisin !!

Further..... there is absolutely NO connection between the seats operation and the HVAC operation other than ambient cabin temps..... I know the insides of the pre-2021 seats like the back of my hand since SEATGURU and I worked with Ford to correct the 2015-2019 versions to eliminate the hot spots and actually "cool" like the pre-2015s.

BTW, since the TED was eliminated from the design, the SEATGURU fix will NOT apply to ventilated seats, but they DO apply to almost ALL of Ford's "cooling seats" in Mustang, Lincoln etc. as they used the same flawed design......AZPLAT

Blackcloud

Well, that certainly sucks - or blows - or something. I tried the test using an extremely light strip of paper and it did not move one way or another when my seats were on max. The fans are loud and it sounds like air is blowing somewhere.

AZPlat, do you know if there was ever a time (like for my 2010 Platinum) when they actually blew chilled air, or have I been faked out all along?

Whatever it is doing, when I sit in the seat on a hot day, it certainly cools me off.

AZPlatinumEB

LOL BC...... Yes in the "Cooled Seats" prior to 2015 they indeed used a TED to expel cooled/conditioned air through the perforations..... as thy still did 2015-2018.... although the latter design got honked up when they slimmed the seats in 2015 to save weight etc.... they "updated" the pre-2015 design but removed both the intake and exhaust ducts from the TEDs and had to replace the intake duct (aka the sock) as part of the TSB and later production changes.

IMHO the pre-2015 seats functioned better ( I had both a 2011 and 2013) but if you installed the SeatGuru product by Tim W. he provided both an intake and exhaust duct to optimize the 2015-2018 seat performance.

In 2019 they dropped the TEDs entirely in favor of conventional "Ventilated" seats using heating pads for heating and airflow sucked into the seats to give the sensation of "cooling"..... as other manufacturers do on their ventilated seats....

Hope that helps..... smile..... AZPLAT