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FIRE, FIRE, was.. RE: Home made seat heaters

Jeff comments:

>From: Jeff Moser <jrmoser@domain.elided>
>Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 23:20:26 -0400 (EDT)
>Subject: RE:  Home-made heated seats for my BMW!
>
>Richard,
>
>>From your description of what you have put into your seats, may I say, You
>are about to start a major electrical or seat fire in your car!
>
>The problem that will soon occur as the seat is used, is that the enamel
>will wear away where the wires cross over the seat springs, thus creating a
>short circuit to ground.  If this short happens in the right place, you will
>melt/burn something, maybe the whole car.
>
>I seriously advise you to abandon this idea.
>
>Jeff Moser

I avoided commenting on this idea when I saw it, but had exactly
the same throught as Jeff.. plus since there is horsehair in the
seat pads - it makes a nicely combustable sandwitch.. should make
for a REALLY hot seat.

Richard - I would suggest that you abandon this experiment in place
(no need to remove it - just don't ever think of using it). The
factory heaters are usually nichrome wire, and encased in special
cloth thingies (tech-term), and have a layer of insulation between
them and any metal parts. The enamel covered wire you used is almost
certain to wear through the enamel insulation somewhere, and since
I didn't see mention of a fuse in the circuit - things could get
quite hot.

BMW wasn't the only manufacturer to use heated seats - if you
really want to add your own, you may want to haunt some more
junkyards and look at seats from Volvo, Mercedes. Audi, etc...

Best, and sorry to pee on your parade..



=======================================
Don Eilenberger
Spring Lk Hts, NJ, USA
deilenberger@domain.elided
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