Topic: No A/C in you Jeep? New fan-cooled seat cushions aren't bad

[chrisfranklin]

I don't have A/C in my Jeep (maybe a good thing since there's no compressor to sap the power of the mighty squirrel team under the hood).   

Whether I driving with the top off or on, I get bad sweat on my back driving my Jeep. And this is happening 6 months out of the year for me in So Cal.  Short of bringing a change of shirts, showing up somewhere looking like I haven't just dug a ditch is no easy feat.

I've looked at new and used A/C setups for YJs.  But anyway I am cutting it, I'd be looking at putting a big investment in money/time in to an accessory for an vehicle with 150,000 miles on the OD. 

So, I read a few reviews and decided to give one of those seat cushion/fan setups a http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/smarthome-seat-cooler-blessed-summertime-relief-190908.php

Good news is that, yeah, it does fix my sweaty back problem in the 70-80F range.  But the quality aint the greatest (seat straps came unstitched).  And I think it probably works the best if you don't weigh that much
(more you weight, the more airflow up and down the cushion is restricted; probably works ideally if you are a 100-120lb person; closer you push to 200lbs and over, you probably see airflow go down.  I ended up taking off the plastic cover over the fan to increase the air flow and that did seem to help.  As for operational lifespan on the thing,who knows?

I may give this other product the coolorheat cushion a go:  http://www.coolorheat.com/datasheet-sc.pdf. 

The cool or heat seat might fit the bill a little better.  It uses a water circulation cooled by an external fan.  Probably doesn't have an issues due to driver weight.  Also, you apparently have to remember to shut the thing off or it dies after 12 hours of continuous running (sounds like this product is in its beta test phase given the presence of this kind of user inconvenience).  Reviews I've read suggest that it is slow to cool, taking 10-20 minutes, but that once it gets going it can feel like it is getting too cold?!  Reliability/quality  of the product?  Who knows.  But I might give it a shot out of necessity or if the fancushion fails. 

If you are reading this and have A/C in your Jeep, you can kiss my (blank) 

 

[bigchelis]

I second water cooled seat cushion seems more realistic, since I have not been under 200lbs since high school.

very cool, no pun intended!

[Jeffy]

My Mastercraft Rubicon seat is a suspension seat as as such breaths really well.  I've driven I-5 many times no problems.

[chrisfranklin]

I may give the Rubicon seats a go if the air or water cooled cushions don't provide at least a years worth of effective use. 

I'd junk my stock seats, but I actually installed some OEM spice surfaces I purchased on EPay last year, so the darn seats look stock and brand new! 

[Rokcrwln]

Try one of these Misty Mate coolers. It may not reduce your sweaty back issue, but it definitely works to keep you cooler in the Jeep.
I used one in my Jeep when I lived in Vegas and now I use it in San Antonio. I just strapped it to the role bar. The mist is fine enough that it doesn't soak you.

http://www.cloudtops.com/misty_mate_personal_cooling.htm

[chrisfranklin]

I ordered one of the CoolorHeat seats a little while after I orded a fan-type seat a few weeks ago.   The coolorheat seat has better construction, better design, better mounting, a lot better cushioning and is just an all around nice concept. Cooling and heating are both solid, though not exactly immediate (but a lot better than nothing at all).  It also comes with an adapter to run it off household current.  Wouldn't be a bad idea if the CoolorHeat outfit designed a version that combined water cooling with the air cooling strategy of the fan-based seats. More complicated, but doable

[jfrabat]

I'll just stick to the AC; I can always turn it off and save the power, but when the heat gets going (like it does here in Miami), I say "forget about mpg" and turn the thing on!

[chrisfranklin]

I added a couple of drops of a surfactant -water wetter - I had sitting around in to the resevoir on this coolorheat seat.  And it did seem to cool slightly better after that, not that it worked that badly before.

The only problem with this seat is that the heat transferred from your back to the water cooling arrangement is never really evacuated from your enclosed Jeep.  The heat just gets released in to the air from the pump casing.  I guess you just keep the windows down on hot days and let it out that way.