Max heat setting for V70 heated seats?

[Chris Mayhew]

I couldn't find anything in the archives about this. If I missed
something please feel free to point me towards the relevant
discussion.

Anyway, I have a 2004 V70. I was told by the dealer that the seats can
only be turned up to 109.5F. That seems paltry and the seats are not
as warm as the '89 245 or the 2004 Accord I own.

Am I at the limit? Am I not? Is there a way around the limit or
another fix?

Thanks.

 

[Roadie]

I couldn't find anything in the archives about this. If I missed
something please feel free to point me towards the relevant
discussion.

Anyway, I have a 2004 V70. I was told by the dealer that the seats can
only be turned up to 109.5F. That seems paltry and the seats are not
as warm as the '89 245 or the 2004 Accord I own.

Am I at the limit? Am I not? Is there a way around the limit or
another fix?

Thanks.

You may want to have the heaters on your V70 checked if they are not
warming up the seats. On my 2004 V70 the high setting takes the chill
off pretty fast and a minute or two of sitting captures enough of that
radiated heat that it is borderline uncomfortable and the seat heater
gets turned off.

I'm thinking that a maximum temperature beyond 10 degrees above normal
body temperature would get uncomfortably hot very quickly. The idea
behind seat heaters is to raise the seat temperature from some very
low number to body temperature. Not to boil water.

 

[Chris Mayhew]

You may want to have the heaters on your V70 checked if they are not
warming up the seats. On my 2004 V70 the high setting takes the chill
off pretty fast and a minute or two of sitting captures enough of that
radiated heat that it is borderline uncomfortable and the seat heater
gets turned off.

I'm thinking that a maximum temperature beyond 10 degrees above normal
body temperature would get uncomfortably hot very quickly. The idea
behind seat heaters is to raise the seat temperature from some very
low number to body temperature. Not to boil water.

Well, they work, if by that you mean hitting the switch makes the seat
less cold. I cannot feel anything I would call heat either sitting in
it or putting my hand on it.

"Too hot to touch" is roughly 160F. I was able to find heated seats on
line that went to about 135F.

The seats were originally set at 98F, which is just silly. The dealer
cranked them to 109.5F. What am I to do now, take the car back in, get
charged an hour's work only to be told they *do* work?

 

[Joerg Lorenz]

I couldn't find anything in the archives about this. If I missed
something please feel free to point me towards the relevant
discussion.

Anyway, I have a 2004 V70. I was told by the dealer that the seats can
only be turned up to 109.5F. That seems paltry and the seats are not
as warm as the '89 245 or the 2004 Accord I own.

Am I at the limit? Am I not? Is there a way around the limit or
another fix?

AFAIK your Volvo-dealer is able to adjust the max heat of your seat
heating. It is adjustable in the series you own. At least my
owners-manual says that for my 2005 V70 D5.

Thanks.

Your welcome,

Joerg

 

[Roadie]

Well, they work, if by that you mean hitting the switch makes the seat
less cold. I cannot feel anything I would call heat either sitting in
it or putting my hand on it.

"Too hot to touch" is roughly 160F.

That is the temperature for cooking most meat. Hardly comfortable.

I was able to find heated seats on
line that went to about 135F.

Heat output is cumulative when you are sitting on the seat. It builds
up and that seat would get very hot, indeed dangerous if temperatures
were held to that level. I doubt that you would find a seat that
heats to 135 degrees let alone 160 degrees to at all comfortable.
Think about what happens to your body once the outside temperature
begins to approach and exceed body temperature.

The seats were originally set at 98F, which is just silly.

That's human body temperature which would seem to be about the right
temperature setting.

The dealer
cranked them to 109.5F. What am I to do now, take the car back in, get
charged an hour's work only to be told they *do* work?

Yup.
They do work as designed. Seat heaters are designed to do little more
than take the chill off the seat bottom raise it to body temperature.
Why anyone would want a seat to be radiating heat at 160 degrees is
beyond comprehension.

 

[Chris Mayhew]

On Dec 10, 8:55 pm, Chris Mayhew <[email protected]> wrote:

Yup.
They do work as designed. Seat heaters are designed to do little more
than take the chill off the seat bottom raise it to body temperature.
Why anyone would want a seat to be radiating heat at 160 degrees is
beyond comprehension.

I wasn't aruuing for seats that hot, just giving some temp
comparisons.

The questions still remains why my seats are not as hot as the Volvo I
owned before this one or the Honda Accord I currently own. Neither my
wife nor I find them satisfactory.

 

[eastender]

The questions still remains why my seats are not as hot as the Volvo I
owned before this one or the Honda Accord I currently own. Neither my
wife nor I find them satisfactory.

We've also found the haeted seats in our 2001 V70 not as good as an S40 we
had before. How do you turn the heat up?

E.

 

[Roadie]

I wasn't aruuing for seats that hot, just giving some temp
comparisons.

The questions still remains why my seats are not as hot as the Volvo I
owned before this one or the Honda Accord I currently own. Neither my
wife nor I find them satisfactory.

I can't tell you much about model-to-model differences. But I don't
know how you could accurately compare the temperature output to a car
that is no longer with you. There are too many variables.

Does both the low and high heat setting work on your car seats?

 

[Chris Mayhew]

know how you could accurately compare the temperature output to a car
that is no longer with you. There are too many variables.

I can tell you which felt warmer. That's pretty easy to differentiate.

Does both the low and high heat setting work on your car seats?

Yes. The single light setting is barely noticeable to my bare hand.
The double light setting is noticeable but tepid.

 

[Roadie]

I can tell you which felt warmer. That's pretty easy to differentiate.


Yes. The single light setting is barely noticeable to my bare hand.
The double light setting is noticeable but tepid.

They are not designed to be instantaneous hand (or seat) warmers.
They are designed to radiate a certain amount of heat that is held in
by your rear end covering the entire seating area. Heat is trapped
and builds up usually within a minute or two. A more precise if less
sales oriented description would be that they are chill removers.

 

[Stephen Henning]

We've also found the haeted seats in our 2001 V70 not as good as an S40 we
had before. How do you turn the heat up?

My '01 V70 heated seats are the first ones that had two levels of heat.
That is the only adjustment: high, low, off. I find that they are very
hot, my wife says the aren't hot. I wear a short coat and my trousers
are the only thing between my leg and the seat and it gets uncomfortably
hot. My wife wears a long coat, so she never feels the heat.

Heated seats are actually intended to take the chill out of the seat and
provide a neutral surface, not heat up your body. Of course the heat
is much more important with a leather seat than with a fabric seat.
Leather gets hot in the summer and stays cold in the winter. Fabric is
neutral all year long. It seams that Volvo heated seats have a thermal
switch that detects when the heat is getting too high and turns them
down to a low setting. That is entire an empirical observation. I have
never taken one apart and seen the thermal switch.

 

[John Robertson]

maybe the fat tissue is different as well my passenger seat rippled because
of too much heat now its fine after use with out the heater on

 

[eastender]

Heated seats are actually intended to take the chill out of the seat and
provide a neutral surface, not heat up your body.

I'm not that bothered - it's just that the S40 seats were much warmer and
faster to heat up than our V70 (both cars have leather seats).

E.

 

[Roadie]

I'm not that bothered - it's just that the S40 seats were much warmer and
faster to heat up than our V70 (both cars have leather seats).

E.

The S40 seats are a lot smaller....

 

[eastender]

The S40 seats are a lot smaller....

And I think our bottoms have got bigger...

E.