DIY seat heaters

[arnolddeleon]

Any thoughts on how to keep rear seat heaters from being left on? Dash mounted indicator light or switch?

arnold

[palmermd]

What do you mean about power? I tied into the fuse block. I'd be interested to hear what Phil did.

I did not buy a plastic tool, but got things apart with minimal evidence remaining.

Bill

I tied into the power for the cigarette lighter style power outlet. 20a fuse feeds only that, so it seemed adequate to power the 50w each seat heaters. As long as I don't have anything using the power outlet at the same time I should be ok.

[ht2]

The 26th.

26th is fine for me.

[ht2]

Any thoughts on how to keep rear seat heaters from being left on? Dash mounted indicator light or switch?

arnold

Nissan's solution. Bad design compare to OP's solution but visible from driver and rear passengers.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6763&p=149154#p149154

[lemketron]

I'm thinking I might go with the one with the variable switch as I've also had issues in the past where low was too low and high was too high... Is this a different model of heater than everyone else is using, and if so, does it still work ok in the LEAF? How does the power consumption differ between the two?

+1.
I ordered one from e-bay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/heated-seat-2-s ... 2a15f649d5
I think heat pad is almost same 27±3W/each pad.

Awesome, thanks!!
Anyone see any reason not to order this one (aside from a possibly longer delivery time)?
They're $80 for a pair, same price as the "hi/lo" ones.

[Electric4Me]

Any thoughts on how to keep rear seat heaters from being left on? Dash mounted indicator light or switch?

arnold

Nissan's solution. Bad design compare to OP's solution but visible from driver and rear passengers.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6763&p=149154#p149154

Sorry that I hadn't responded to this sooner.
When I want to confirm that the rear switches are off (after dropping the kids off at school) I can easily reach back and feel if the switches are rocked away from the off position. I can also look at my hand and see the red or green light illuminating it.

That said, if they were on they'd only be consuming 65W each max.

If you found an appropriate place to mount an LED in view of the driver you could wire it with a couple of diodes (and likely a resistor) to both switches. This would illuminate if either was turned on.

Bill

[Electric4Me]

I'm thinking I might go with the one with the variable switch as I've also had issues in the past where low was too low and high was too high... Is this a different model of heater than everyone else is using, and if so, does it still work ok in the LEAF? How does the power consumption differ between the two?

+1.
I ordered one from e-bay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/heated-seat-2-s ... 2a15f649d5
I think heat pad is almost same 27±3W/each pad.

Awesome, thanks!!
Anyone see any reason not to order this one (aside from a possibly longer delivery time)?
They're $80 for a pair, same price as the "hi/lo" ones.

I can't speak to how the wiring would work because I haven't looked at it, but I can say that there are times that I toggle back and forth between Hi & Lo to be comfortable. A variable set sounds great.

Edit: at 54W these would be slightly cooler than the ones I installed.

[ht2]

I'm thinking I might go with the one with the variable switch as I've also had issues in the past where low was too low and high was too high... Is this a different model of heater than everyone else is using, and if so, does it still work ok in the LEAF? How does the power consumption differ between the two?

+1.
I ordered one from e-bay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/heated-seat-2-s ... 2a15f649d5
I think heat pad is almost same 27±3W/each pad.

Awesome, thanks!!
Anyone see any reason not to order this one (aside from a possibly longer delivery time)?
They're $80 for a pair, same price as the "hi/lo" ones.

I haven't received mine yet so I am guessing but switch is little bigger so we have to shave hole a little bit to fit.
I hope it's similar to this one.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6810&p=157538#p157538

[lemketron]

I ordered one from e-bay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/heated-seat-2-s ... 2a15f649d5
I think heat pad is almost same 27±3W/each pad.
...
I haven't received mine yet so I am guessing but switch is little bigger so we have to shave hole a little bit to fit.
I hope it's similar to this one.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6810&p=157538#p157538

It sounds (from the ebay description) like this particular model has a thermostat (?), as though it maintains a particular temperature. If so, that might be better than an "always on" hi/low.

At 27 watts (+/- 3W), it appears to be within 10% of the hi/low version if I'm remembering correctly that they are 60 watts total per seat...?

I think I'm going to wait until the first (BayLeaf) install party so I can hopefully test out one of each before I decide.

[ruckus]

I purchased the Wet Okole drivers heated seat cover. It comes with a clunky 3 level switch with cigarette plug. I ordered the OEM Nissan seat heater switch, and was going to use series/parallel to adjust intensity, but...

If I install the two heat pads (seat back and butt) in series, and if one fail, the whole thing turns off. However, if they are in parallel and one fails, will this overheat/overpower the other one?