I’m not certain the heated seats on our new 2020 Xle awd-e are working. In prior cars, I couldn’t stand the heated seats on high for more than 15-ish minutes. With our Prius, I can’t tell the difference between low and hi settings, and am not certain either is actually warming the seat. Before I schedule a service visit ... is the heated setting high setting noticeably hot?
My wife and I have found that our seats get warm, both on the seat (upper legs), and in the lumbar region, but they don't roast us. They warm pretty rapidly, and stay at one temperature, not progressively heating more and more. We do feel a difference between the low and high settings. Perhaps it depends on your clothing, too, where if you are wearing a coat, you don't feel the heat as much as you would without thick clothing. I'd say your seats are working, if you can feel them warm up. You should feel warmth within, say, two minutes.
Know anybody with a thermal imager? The pattern of the heat wires in the seat show up really clearly, an easy way to confirm if it's working.
That's actually a question I have . . . in past vehicles we've had with heated seats, I could turn on the passenger side and it would heat up even if no one was sitting there (which was nice when doing food takeout in the winter). It's taken a turn for the colder in Seattle, and I figured I'd try this with the Prius. I put the passenger side on high heat. After 20-ish minutes of driving . . . nothing. Light was on, but seat wasn't warmer than ambient temperature. Can anyone confirm if the passenger seat gets hot even if no one is sitting in it? I don't have a thermal imager, but I do have a Fluke infrared temperature "gun."
I just checked (2019 Limited) and yes, the passenger-side heated up, with nobody in it. In the driver's seat, I felt the heat in my lumbar area, wearing a t-shirt, in about 25 seconds, at 1 minute, the seat felt warm (all starting from about 60 degrees ambient). I pulled the driver seat fuse, and the heater hi/lo light no longer lit up, so you aren't dealing with a blown fuse.
Thank you for checking this! I had a longer errand to run, and tried this again. Put the passenger seat on high the entire time. The front part of the seat bottom was "mildly warmer" after 30 minutes. I left mine on high the entire time as well, but it was starting to get a little too warm towards the end. So I think the seats are working, it's just that they're weaker than other cars we've owned (this is our first Toyota, and further is a first hybrid). I'm not going to make a special trip to the dealer, but when we're due for our first service, will probably have them take a look at it. Though, before buying the Prius, we were carless, and had been relying on a carshare service called Gig, which is available in Northern California and Seattle. In Seattle they exclusively use Prius XLEs. I'm thinking I'm going to use one again to see how quickly those seats heat up, for comparison. If they're just like mine, then I know everything is kosher.
Comparing my Prius to my previous 2 cars, the Prius definitely heats the least, but also the best. My Audi would only heat on High for 15 minutes for safety reasons. It got roasting hot. But then switched to the lower setting which wasn't warm enough. I had to keep pressing the button to cycler it round to high again. According to my manual, the difference between the high and low setting isn't the temperature, but the area. There's a picture of what is heated on both modes, and the high setting mostly just adds your back. SM-T813 ? ... Is worth noting that I can only feel the heat when I'm sat in the seat. It does turn on without an occupant, but it's like the heat is deep in the cushioning. SM-T813 ?
Doh! I should RTFM, I guess. Our prior vehicle was a Mercedes, and I felt that their heating worked perfectly. On high it was butt roasting and so infrequently used. Typically put it on medium and then switched to low and would leave it there.
Is it VW/Audi that has something like 5 settings? If so I remember driving one and thought that was overkill.
Mine had 2 levels and off, cycled through by pressing a button for whichever side of the car you wanted heading. SM-T813 ?
I must be thinking of a different car then. Yeah, if there’s only two settings and one is flame thrower, that’s not good!
This is the photo you're thinking of. High mode adds thigh warmers and upper chest or shoulder-ish areas (in yellow) in addition to higher heat for the same areas as "low" (red or orange area)
That's the one, only mine is in black and white and doesn't have a description of what the shades of grey mean. I imagine yours is right and I was just making an incorrect assumption about the areas. SM-T813 ?
We don't even get that graphic. The North American manual just tells you how to turn it on/off and that there's a "passenger seat heater" light. Mine is from the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show press release from Toyota Japan. It has a lot of cool stuff in it. Here's the link Press Information | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website Here's the article with all the other pictures and documents Under the Hood of the All-new Toyota Prius | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website
I'm not a fan of seat heaters TBH, can't stand having a sweaty crack, but I can tolerate the Prius on the LOW setting. My new MG EV has only one setting, rump roasting, I have to turn it off after about 5 minutes. The Prius feels much more sophisticated with the two settings.
