Do Heated Car Seats Drain Battery?

Heated car seats give you the happiness of always rushing into your car when it is cold outside. The anxiety to rush into your car during freezing temperatures happens in extremely cold areas.

So, upon getting into your car, at that moment, your car must be cold inside. So warming up the entire car is going to take a longer time. But when you use the heated car seat, it gives you instant warmth within minutes.

When heating yourself with a heated car seat, the question that may be going through your mind is, does this heated car seat drain the Battery?

There are a few answers to this question, depending on the state of your car.

That is;

• When your car ignition mode is on, and the heated car seat button is on, the answer is YES.

• Switch your car on, and at the same time, your engine is running, then the answer is NO.

When your car is off completely, the ignition mode is off; even if your heated car seat is on, it won’t drain the Battery.

Therefore, this article is going to explain these three situations.

What Is a Heated Car Seat?

A heated car seat is a built-in technology that warms up a car seat within minutes. It uses electricity from the car battery and converts it to heat energy with the help of a resistor or heating coil.

There are two types of heated car seat models. The internal(in-seat) models and the external models.

1- The internal or in-seat models are heated car seats built into a car seat’s internal or interior part. You can switch on/off these in-seat models using an on/off button.

Switching on or off the seats depends on the occupant on the seat, like when they want to warm up or not. Removing these in-seat models is not easy because they are within.

2- The external models are heated car seats with heating elements within them. These models are easily installable and also removable. Equally, they are controllable using an on/off button as well.

How Heated Car Seats Work

Heated car seats are a built-in technology that works out like magic. It warms or heats a car seat and its occupant.

The working of this technology is not different from the technology in hairdryers, water heaters, and even heated blankets.

This heated car seat technology has three main components that work together in most cases. We have the resistor, heating coil, thermostat, and relay switch button.

• The resistor or the heating coil is the main component in the heated car seats. This resistor or coil is a long strip of wire that receives and resists electricity.

So when you turn on the heated car seat button, electricity flows through the coils. The coils resist the electricity and, in turn, produce heat. This heat then passes through the seat cushion and gives the seat’s occupant some warmness.

• The relay or switch button is another component in the heated seat technology. This component helps supply or turn off electricity flow from your car battery to the coil.

• Lastly, we have the thermostat component. The work of this component is to control or regulate the heat temperature. The thermostat is there to regulate the heat temperature automatically to prevent overheating.

The thermostat deactivates the relay button when the coils heat up to the set temperature. On the other hand, the thermostat activates the relay button again when the seat cools down.

When the thermostat reactivates automatically, it permits electricity to flow from the Battery to coils and heat the car seat and its occupant. It is good noting that some manufacturers don’t include the thermostat in the heated car seat system.

So it is up to the seat’s occupant to turn on the relay for heating or off to cool down the heater.

How and When Heated Car Seats Drain Battery.

Heated car seats depend on the car battery’s electricity to produce heat for the seat, which eventually warms up the occupant.

However, since heated car seats convert the electricity that flows from the Battery into heat, it will drain your car battery when your car engine is not running.

In addition, in a situation where your car engine is not running, but at the same time, the ignition switch and the heated car seats are all turned on. Switching on the ignition key will lead to energy consumption and, therefore, drain the Battery.

To prevent this, always make sure your ignition switch isoff. Even if your heated car seat button is on, your car battery will not be draining. Your car battery will not drain because the ignition switch turns on/off every flow of electricity from the Battery to every operating car system in most cases.

How Heated Car Seats Don’t Drain Battery

You are looking at the situation where your heated car seats don’t drain the Battery. You should know that when your car engine is running, the car battery is recharging and replacing the energy into the Battery.

Therefore, the heated car seats and any other electric system in your car keep consuming the electricity needed from the car battery.

As the engine, since the energy that your heated car seat is consuming is replaced through the car charging system, heated car seats cannot drain down your Battery.

In addition, when the ignition switch is in an off position, your heated car seats can’t drain the car battery. The ignition switch is the on/off switch that connects the electricity flow from the Battery to the entire car functioning system.

Switching off the ignition button will cut electricity flow from the Battery to the heated car seats. Even when the heated car seat button is on, the car battery will not be draining down.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, one can say that, yes, heated car seats drain batteries, and on the other hand, no, heated car seats don’t drain batteries.

These two situations depend on the state of your car.

Is your car engine running? Then the car battery is recharged and supplies electricity to your heated car seats. Therefore, the Battery is not going to drain down.

Is your car engine off, and the ignition switch is on? Then the car battery will drain down because electricity flows to the heated car seats when the ignition mode is active.

We can end up saying that this is how to prevent your car battery from draining down.

When your engine is running, you can allow your heated seats to be on; there will be no battery draining.

Always deactivate your ignition mode to stop electricity flow to the heated car seats.