Another approach to cooling the rear facing seats

After a short road trip to the beach with 3 adults and 3 kids in the car, I realized that the trick of cooling the rear seats with just the AC in the car set to pull in fresh air was not enough. The kids were still sweating while everyone else was freezing. I've tried various fans and fan placement with varying success, but kept trying to find that elusive perfect way to cool the rear-facing seats and still be able to use the entire back seat as well. While this isn't for everyone, it might be what some are looking for. Still a work in progress and far from perfect, but better than anything I've set up so far...

http://imgur.com/a/vKWry

I'll add a video to hear the sound level later.

invisik said:

Cool idea. (no pun intended)

Maybe you can consider mounting the blower in the passenger side cubby, to the right of where the white towel is in the photo. I kinda think you could mount it in there and put some black carpet over it for sound-reduction and may then be able to run the hoses all along the right side somehow.....

Looking forward to your next revision!

-m

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I did consider that but when I saw the dead space behind the child seats, I thought I'd make use of it. Also my son will tinker with anything he can get his hands on so specific to my child, it is better behind the seat. But from an air circulation standpoint, it may work slightly better being blown out through that space under the rear support in the fender you mention. I'll play around with it this weekend if I have time.

tomp said:

Zarwin -
Does your system still work well, and any updates you've made to it since your prior posts?
Thanks!

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It does, I was about to install it back in the car for the summer now that temps are getting up there. It's currently sitting on the shelf in the garage. The next addition I'm putting on there for this summer is a speed control knob (variable resistor/dimmer) that my son can use in the back to set it from off up to hurricane mode. At full speed, it is rather loud but moves a LOT of air. I'm hoping that being able to turn down the speed will reduce the noise and it will be a lot easier to let him control it.

I also want to share what someone else came up with, a very good and simple fan solution as an option in a different thread. I think that is an excellent solution as well. The only difference I would implement with their solution is to hard wire a 12v -> USB adapter instead of using the battery so it would work on any length trip.

3rd row ventilation - Page 2

tomp said:

Zarwin,
I've updated the other thread with my variation on your solution. Thank you for your inspiration! How are you holding the hose in place in the 2nd row? And have you had an adult sitting by the air intake - if so, how annoying is that? I'm trying to determine where to position the 2nd row air intake hose.

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Awesome! Love that you are taking it a step beyond what I have done. I never really thought about a step down adapter to put a smaller diameter hose on there, and the length of the hose sticking out allows the kid(s) to point it at themselves, because of course kids would want to do that. I will definitely be taking a look at what you did with the variable speed control, as that's been on my list for a while. Now to your questions...

How did I attach the hose? Well, for the first round with the vinyl hose I actually used a couple of different things, a clip that just clipped it to the seat belt. Of course this is not a solution as the seat belt would need to move to be used, was just for testing. Also played around with a little piece of nylon string, looping it through the latch of the seat by basically closing the seat on it. That would be a more do-able solution but it didn;t last long as I kept tinkering and replaced the vinyl 4" hose with a hard rubber 3" hose. The hard rubber hose I bent (though it took a bit of work to make it stay bent) and just sort of let it drape over the seat, nothing attaching it. Looking at your smaller diameter hose, perhaps letting it drape over the seat down the side a little would be do-able. With the 3 inch, it's a little big to drape down the side of the second row, but a 2.5 might work. This would also help with the next question, annoyance level.

What about someone sitting there? Well for the vinyl hose, I did try it (have someone sit there for a short drive) and while there was a sucking sound it was far less annoying than the whine of children getting heat stroke (exaggeration) in the 3rd row. For the hard rubber hose, I have not had someone sitting in that seat, but it is significantly louder than the vinyl and would probably be unpleasant to sit next to without being able to reduce the speed of the fan (as you have done) or add sound deadening to the inside of the tube (which I played around with briefly, adding strips of fabric to absorb the noise, but have not really gotten serious about it, and it's probably not a good solution as it would impede air flow).

While it is in general, very noticeable and to some degree annoying to someone sitting next to the intake, getting the cool air back there is so much more important.

Also for reference, tomp's post can be found here: Interested in 3rd row seat ventilation? - Page 4

Just finished adding in the blower speed control and changing out the blower for a different one. Update is here:

3rd row cooling part 2 - Album on Imgur