car seat retrofit heaters?

[pybyr]

I'm engaged to a wonderful woman who is warm in all the ways that count, and who hates to be cold (thankfully, among her many wonderful qualities, she also doesn't mind helping with wood).

Her current vehicle (Dodge Nitro) does not have seat heaters, whereas her prior vehicle did.

I have found "kits" that one can retrofit into a seat after appropriate temporary surgery, and also ones that go "on top" and are held in with straps.

Anyone have any tales of success or woe on installation or use of various makes or models of these? Makes or models to steer towards or away from?

I'm a die hard DIY-er but am a little gun shy of digging into a modern car seat without being concerned about whether it will go back together intact and/ or without a multi-hour swear-a-thon. If there is some "trick" to make the disembowelment and reconstitution of the seat go smoothly, I am all ears.

Thanks!

 

[heat seeker]

This might not be workable, but can you get a seat(s) with heaters from a junkyard? You'd still need to do the wiring and switch, but the results should look good and just swapping seats sounds fairly easy to me.

 

[pybyr]

This might not be workable, but can you get a seat(s) with heaters from a junkyard? You'd still need to do the wiring and switch, but the results should look good and just swapping seats sounds fairly easy to me.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm in sufficiently deep in the boondocks that there won't be much in local salvage yards of this model/ age vehicle... there are relatively few salvage yards around and the few that are around tend to have vehicles that are pretty old and tattered...

 

[velvetfoot]

I retrofit (surgery) seat heat into my old New Beetle with leatherette seats. It turned out fine. It was the kind with the flexible conductive cloth-no wires. The cloth can be cut with scissors. Taking the seat apart was dicey, but it turned out ok. The cloth-type seat heat seemed to heat up slower than the other cars I've had with the wire kind.

 

[Renaissance]

I have taken apart a few seats to repair broken heater elements. Hog rings can be replaced by zip ties in most cases. OEM heating hardware might be your best option for a clean and reliable installation.

 

[snowleopard]

What about just putting in one of those fan heaters under a seat? I've seen them used very successfully. I know you're about to commit to love, honor, and keep her butt warm, but if this would fix it, why not give it a whirl first? Or if she's really set on having a warm seat, how about using one of the ones that plug into a cigarette lighter?

 

[velvetfoot]

I actually bought a hog ring pliers and the rings.
Chances are, even if you could successfully tie in to any car network or whatever, and bought all the stuff (dash stuff too), it'd be way expensive.

 

[pybyr]

Thank you for all the suggestions. Just ordered a kit from https://www.heatyourseat.com and I guess I'll find out how it goes!

 

[velvetfoot]

Wow, they offer three different technologies.
Which one did you choose?

 

[pybyr]

Wow, they offer three different technologies.
Which one did you choose?

Went with the wire heat element, Hi/Lo version.

 

[velvetfoot]

Not that it'll be a factor for you, but I've read in the past that kneeling on VW seats with heat could cause the wires to short out.
There were reports of pants afire.
I try not to kneel on the seats with heat now.
Hope everything goes smoothly.