Any way to DIY air conditioned seats?

As the title says, does anyone know of a way to DIY air conditioned seats like in the Benzes and other such expensive cars? Has anyone see any threads on this yet?

Is it as straightforward as running some flexible hose to under the seat and someone routing some flexible tubing or hose through the seat?

Wet towel?

Easy route is synthetic clothing, cheap knockoff underarmor compression undershirts are great. I've got a couple T shirts made of similar material that are good too. This coming from a guy with a black car with broken AC, who sweats like crazy at the drop of a hat.

Applying aluminum chloride Certain Dri roll on antiperspirant to large areas of your body is also an option.

As for actually conditioning the seat, I do wonder how that's done from the factory. Open cell foam? Holes in the closed call padding? I doubt any tubing is present in the cushion, you'd feel that. However it's done it's cheap enough for Ford to pull it off, so it can't be that hard. I'd take air from the conveniently placed vents under a lot of seats that normally give floor heat to the back seat.

I'm sure one could figure it out without that much trouble once you've invested in a set of hog ring pliers and get good at re skinning the seats. You just need to seal the backside of the seat, supply it with conditioned air, and somehow make the cushioning reasonably air permeable.

I know it's not the same, but a DIY cool shirt setup is pretty easy and cheap. A cooler, a bilge pump, an old t-shirt and some plastic tubing is basically all you need. A friend of mine used to use his for the trip TO the track. :)

codrus wrote: I know it's not the same, but a DIY cool shirt setup is pretty easy and cheap. A cooler, a bilge pump, an old t-shirt and some plastic tubing is basically all you need. A friend of mine used to use his for the trip TO the track. :)

same concept, but instead of a shirt you get one of those seat cushions that have the wire framework and put the tubing inside of it.. should probably work pretty well..

or teh google found me this:

http://www.sharperimage.com/si/view/product/Cooling+Car+Seat/202753?p=plist2470005&gmkt=true&p=plist2470005&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Shopping+Campaigns+High+Priority&Keyword=&device=c&creative=67438558703&cm_mmc=CPC--Google--Shopping+Campaigns+High+Priority-_-67438558703&network=g&matchtype=&adpos=1o4&creative=67438558703&mkwid=9yexfoC1|pkw||pcrid|67438558703|pmt||pdv|c|slid||&gclid=CjwKEAjw3PGtBRCWgajpu_uY9hYSJAAICRalv_LRHUif_qa2kU4jxY_xKmZoEkuhpF7xguKqJSnRmBoC-kXw_wcB

My 2004 Expedition had cooled seats. But I didn't pay enough attention to exactly how the air was ducted through them.

Lots of little holes in the leather I remember.

When you fart in an air conditioned seat, you blow fart all over yourself.

I don't know if this might help your endeavor to DIY it, but I seem to recall that at least the Porsche cooled seats actually pulling the air circulation through the seats, rather than pushing. I've also heard that sheep skin seat covers work well.

Maybe go get a pair of seats from the junk yard that have AC in them already. Then you can either fit them to your car as is or take them apart and see how they were made.

My in-laws Ram truck has them. I'm not sure I like the concept. It feels a bit like an air enema to me.

I had some experience with the Mercedes SUV air conditioned seats from 8 or 10 years ago. The foam cushions were molded with pockets for small fans. IIRC there were 6 fans in the cushion and 8 in the back (it may have been 4 and 6). The fans blow air through perforated or loose weave upholstery.To do that to an existing seat would be complicated, especially a full foam seat that has no suspension and sits on a stamped steel cushion pan. Most automotive urethane foam is closed cell, so there have to be air passages molded in.Best way would be to take T.J.s advice.

T.J. wrote: Maybe go get a pair of seats from the junk yard that have AC in them already. Then you can either fit them to your car as is or take them apart and see how they were made. My in-laws Ram truck has them. I'm not sure I like the concept. It feels a bit like an air enema to me.

My wife's kia has them as well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like how they feel

nepa03focus wrote:

T.J. wrote: Maybe go get a pair of seats from the junk yard that have AC in them already. Then you can either fit them to your car as is or take them apart and see how they were made. My in-laws Ram truck has them. I'm not sure I like the concept. It feels a bit like an air enema to me.

My wife's kia has them as well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like how they feel

I'm the opposite. They are one of my favorite features about my F-150. My wife insists on having them in her next vehicle.

My wifes work Expedition has them and they are amazing. I was wondering how they work too.

I like them if I'm not sweating/hot already. If I am, it just makes all the hot/humid air around my bum cool down and the condensation collects near the danger zone making it very uncomfortable.

The cooled seats were one of the "most" have options for my wife when we were looking at SAAB 9-5's a few years ago, it was actually a pain to fine one with those seats and a stick. Anyway, from what I can tell the seats are not really cooled, they just have fans in them that pull air through them from top to bottom.

If you can find some cooled seats in a JY it should be fairly easy to do, all you would need is a switch to turn on the fans.