Hey Doc, are your heaters still working? Mine worked fine for the first couple of days, but now they only get luke-warm.

I think mine still work, but frankly, they never really got very warm and always took at least 5 minutes to start to feel warm. The company sent me a replacement controller (the electronic box between the switch and the pads) when I complained about the long time it took to get warm and the replacement takes just as long. Also, there was never a dramatic difference between low and high in my opinion...was there a difference in yours?

Try to measure the amount of current flowing when they are running. I used an ammeter in the place of the in-line fuse and measured only 3.2A on both the high and the low settings. The people at the company don't really know if that is right or not, as I find their technical knowledge to be generally non-existant. They claim such great support but in reality know nothing about the product they sell...like so many people today, it is all hype.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

Mine pull .006 amps when both heaters are set to high.

I put the same set in m my 300SD and they would get very warm - you could definately feel them.

I'm not really interested in spending another $150 to do someone's product testing for them.

The heaters in my 300TD are built into the seat covers and they draw about 6 amps per seat. The hi/low is probably best described in my Trooper though. High is labeled "Heat" and low is labeled "Keep" - simply flip it to Heat to warm your butt up, and once at the desired temp flip it down to Keep. The function is no different than the high/low settings in the 300TD, just the label is.

At 0.006 amps that's only 0.072 watts. That has to be an error as a .072 watt heater won't do squat.

-Tad

__________________
1995 G320
2003 C230 Kompressor Coupe
2005 ML500
2007 ML350

Sounds like something is definitely amiss with yours, if you are measuring it correctly then they are absolutely not working at all with that little current being drawn...their literature says it should be on the order of 4-5 amps but make sure you are sitting on it when you measure it since some have a pressure switch that only allows the heaters to work when you are in the seat. If you still get the same reading you should probably contact them about it and see what they say. They sent me a link to a page where I ordered the replacement part and it was mailed out no charge. Here is the page with the replacement parts:

http://www.heatedseatkits.com/rma/

Good luck!

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

I'm up to 4 sets of seat heaters with no winners.

I bought the autowarm.com seat heaters and they don't work. The elements are the same style as the ones I put in my 300SD that got hot, but these top out around 85 degrees. They do pull about 4.8 amps, which is within spec.

There is a black control box on these newer heaters that have a circuit inside. Does anyone want to guess with this does? My old heaters did not have this box and they worked good; the new ones have it and they suck.

I am now out $300 trying to find seat heaters that work.

Have you tried just putting 12V directly to the heater elements and not using the control box? They do say on their site that the elements can be powered directly this way.

I'd return them if I were you, if they are not satisfactory. The company supposedly stands behind what they sell.

Mine still work the same as they did at first...they take roughly 5 minutes to start to feel warm and achieve toasty warmth in about 10. Good for longer trips but for around town stuff that's kind of long.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

I got the original set (out of 3 sets total) working this weekend. One of the connectors had a bad connection. Of course, I did not see it until I had the whole shebang out of the car.

At least on my car, the padding stitched to the seat is about 3/8" thick. It takes about 10 minutes before I can feel the heat, but it gets very noticeable. One solution would be to remove the seat cover completely and cut out the padding, but I'd rather have the little extra cushion and wait the extra time for the heat.

Not sure what the deal is with the kits from heatedseatkits.com. I hooked it up on my workbench and let it run for 30 minutes; the bottom element never heated up and only 1/2 of the back element got warm.