Ramblings of a Lad

You’ll come to know that I only write about the topics that really matter on here.

So here we are for my first ever post. The one that inspired it all! Mercedes-Benz heated seats.

Heated seats are fantastic. They are extremely pleasant on a cold morning, and can be incredibly soothing if you have lower back pain. Unless, of course, you are in a modern Mercedes.

In other cars, heated seats are pretty simple. Turn them on, and they heat up. Not rocket science, right?

Take the Ford Focus, for example. You press the heated seat button, and it turns on. There are three levels, with three being the hottest, and one being the coolest. It automatically turns on set to three, and you need to press it either one or two more times to have it on the lower setting (or three to turn it off entirely.)

A lot of cars use that sort of system. Others have a simple button, some even have a dial that you can adjust accordingly.

Mercedes, however, also have a button. But it works slightly differently.

Similar to Ford, when you press the heated seat button, it turns on to level three; with you needing to press the button more times to either turn it down or off.

However, when you turn it on it doesn’t stay on. After 8 minutes, the level will automatically drop to two. After another amount of time, the level will drop to three. And finally, the heated seats will turn off entirely.

Now this wouldn’t be an issue if the seats heated up properly. But they don’t. 8 Minutes is not enough for the seats to heat up fully, and they do not continue to heat on setting two or one – as of course, they stay at a lower temperature.

So typically, after 8 minutes I turn the heated seats off and on again: resetting the timer and giving the seats another 8 minutes to heat up.

I’d say that things are pretty good after the second 8 minutes, but I’d suggest doing it a third or perhaps fourth time to make sure they are at peak heat (should you want that, of course.)

But, god forbid you want to use the heated seats for more than 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, the heated seats will turn off and you will not be able to turn them on again. I know this, because I have tested it for myself on longer journeys.

Of course, this is only for level three – but I don’t personally see any reason to have it on a lower level anyway. If you want heated seats, you want heated seats, right?

So after pressing the button 3 times every 8 minutes four or five times, the seats will shut off entirely, without even dropping to the second or first level of heating. I’m not sure how long it takes for you to be able to use them again, as I haven’t been on a cold and long enough journey to find out. But I can say for sure that it is at least 15 minutes.

Once again, this shouldn’t really be an issue. After 45 minutes, the seats should have heated up plenty. And technically, this is true.

Wait three or four minutes after they turn off though, and the seats will be heated exclusively by your body heat. I’m not sure what’s wrong with the seats- or honestly, if all heated seats are like this. But once they stop actively heating, they don’t hold the heat whatsoever.

So if you have to go on a long trip in a Mercedes, you’d better pray it’s not cold…