Toyota Prius Heated Seats: What To Know
2016 Toyota Prius Kārlis Dambrāns from Latvia — CC BY 2.0
These days, heated seats have become far less a luxury and more of a standard for a lot of vehicle manufacturers. The newest Toyota Prius comes in 7 different trim levels. The first lower 3 trim levels do not come with standard or optional heated seats, but the last four higher trim levels do come standard with heated seats. Since these are a pretty common luxury people enjoy, let’s go over Toyota Prius heated seats: what to know.
As much as heated seats are a great luxury to our back and buttocks, they can pose dangers to our skin, so it’s nice to know a little bit about what they can do good, but what harm they can cause you as well. We’ll also go over what you can do with heated seats that aren’t working, and what you can do to install aftermarket heated seat functions if your vehicle doesn’t have heated seats from the factory.
Toyota Prius Heated Seats: Low and High Options
If you own a newer Toyota Prius that comes with a set of SofTex-Trimmed heated front seats, then your controls for them will be on your center console - one button per side, and each will have a Low and High setting.
The best way to use these settings is to set your seat on High until your starting to feel warm enough, and then set the setting down to Low. This action should elevate any troubles with you getting too warm and toasty. And if you get too warm on Low, obviously you can just turn the heat off.
If you want your seat warm before you get in your Prius. If you have a remote start, all you have to do is try to remember to leave the heated seat on, most likely on Low, before you leave your vehicle. The reason you want to put it on Low is sometimes we take longer than we think we will to get out to our vehicles when they’re are running, and if it stays on High for too long, your seat might end up getting too hot. You can always click it up to High when you get in.
GET THE SAME INSIDER INFO THAT DEALERSHIPS USE
The CoPilot app is the smartest way to buy a car. Built using the same technology that dealerships use, we’ll show you everything you want to know about each listing - like how long it’s been on the lot, or if there are similar vehicles at a better price nearby.
Potential Dangers Heated Seats Could Cause
Most heated seats for vehicles heat up to 86-113-degrees, some can be a lot more potent. Some of those seats can heat up to 150-degrees Fahrenheit or 120 in as little as 10-minutes. This could cause you to receive 3rd-degree burns.
Most people would feel this before it happens, but not everyone. If you have diabetes, neuropathy, and or some other paralysis problems, 3rd-degree burns can be all too real. You can also suffer from something that is called Toasted Skin Syndrome, (yes it’s real). Too much time toasting your buns on heated seats and your skin can start to darken and redden or become discolored over time on your back, thighs, legs, and buttocks.
The best way to avoid these types of injuries is to be mindful of yourself and what kind of clothing you’re wearing. The temperature outside won’t make much of a difference in what kind of injury is possible, but what kind of clothes you have on and whether you are on a leather heated seat or a cloth heated seat will.
The more layers or the thicker your clothing are, the less chance you will expose your skin to potential danger. And leather seats will raise the potential of harm to your skin whereas cloth seats tend to pose less danger.
IS GAP INSURANCE WORTH IT?
Gap insurance can prevent you from making payments on an already-totalled car, but is gap insurance worth it? We break down what gap insurance is, if it’s worth it, and more - simply and with plenty of examples.
Installing Aftermarket Seats in Your Toyota Prius
Please don’t try to put in aftermarket heated seats in a lease vehicle, the dealership won’t be happy. But if you own your Prius and it didn’t come with heated seats, you have some options. There are companies out there that sell heated seat kits for specific vehicles.
Don’t go with just any kit. If you’re not sure if a company is a reputable company, then you should seek out some professional advice.
Also, because of the dangers that can occur from improper installation of these aftermarket products, you should never attempt installing them yourself unless you have professional training. The dangers that could occur are spontaneous seat fires and or burns to your skin from the result of the regulator not shutting the heat off when the seat reaches its peak heat level.
If you were wondering how much it would cost to purchase a heated seat kit for your Prius and have it installed, here is an estimate. Expect to pay somewhere between $350-$500 per seat. Also, a lot of variables come into play when it comes to pricing like the material of the seats and other options the seats have on them like lumbar support.
What You Can Do to Fix a Non-Working Heated Seat
Like any set of car components, heated seats sometimes break and need repair, and sometimes it’s a small repair and sometimes it’s a big repair. If it’s a smaller repair, you might be able to skip going to the auto shop and possibly save some time and money.
Fixing Your Toyota Prius Heated Seats: What To Know.
Check Fuse: The first thing you can do is check the fuse box. A lot of times this can be a quick fix for a lot of small problems in your car. If you don’t know where your fuse box is, you can locate it by using your owner’s manual. In the owner’s manual, you will not only be able to locate the fuse box, but also locate the exact fuse that the heated seats are using.
Do a little bit of reading in that portion of the Prius owner’s manual and it will tell you how to pull the fuse and what to look at to determine if the fuse is bad. Fuses are super inexpensive and readily available at any hardware, auto parts store, or any place that has an automotive section e.i. Walmart, Meijer, Best Buy’s car audio section. If this was the problem, you just saved yourself a lot of aggravation, time, and money by avoiding taking your car to an auto technician.
Check Plug and Connections: Found underneath the seats, the car wiring harness will connect to the heated seat wiring harness. These two plastic connectors can come detached. For some reason, people think that under their seats is a great place to put their trash and or hide things, but this action can jar the connector lose. If you can reach them, put them back together (they will only go in one way) and your seats should go back to working properly.
THE BEST USED SUVS UNDER $10,000
We looked into price, reliability, features, and more to create this list of the best used SUVs under $10k on the market today. Take a look - some of the best used SUVs have gone mostly overlooked or forgotten.
Watch Your Back Side
Heated Prius seats are nice, but you have to make sure you use them with caution. They may seem harmless, and for the most part they are, but they can still cause 3rd-degree burns, and there are potential fire hazards that come along with heated seats.
Get a Curated List of the Best Used Cars Near You
The CoPilot car shopping app is the easiest way to buy a car. Tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll search the inventories of every dealership in your area to make you a personalized list of the best car listings in your area.
Only looking for newer models? CoPilot Compare is the search engine for nearly-new cars. Only see cars five years or newer with low mileage — CoPilot Compare is the best way to find off-lease, early trade-in, and CPO cars.
The best part? CoPilot is built using the same technology that dealerships use to buy and sell their inventories, so we have more info on each vehicle than competitors. CoPilot doesn’t work with dealerships, so there are no sponsored posts or other shady practices — just the most info on the best cars. Check out our About Us page to see how CoPilot works.
_Hybrid_liftback_(2016-04-02)_01.jpg){kind=link}