Heated seats- Where to get power????

I installed leather seats with seat heaters in my truck last year, but I never hooked up the heated seats. Well it is now getting into the 20's at night and it is time to heat the seats so my junk does not get cold.

My question is this: Where do I get the power from? Can I jump it off another fuse and just add a little bigger fuse to make up for the additional current draw?

Where did you steal power from????

Thanks

 

i'd run a new wire from the battery (with an appropriately-sized inline fuse inline) through a relay to the seats. then I'd power the low-power side of the relay through something switched with the ignition so you can't forget to turn them off! maybe hook into the defroster motor?

 

This is what I did with the kit that I used.
Here's the writeup
http://www.lieblweb.com/heatedseat.html


So depending on your setup and the power it'll draw...will depend on what you need to do.

 

Edit: Okay, if the heaters are like the previous poster's kit, maybe I'm wrong about the current draw.

Edit 2: Having read through the install notes at the previous poster's link, I have only one concern. They don't say or don't know what size wire on what circuit serves the unused fuse socket location they found. I would be bothered by that, and would then run a dedicated circuit. If you want it to cut off when the engine is off, I would use a relay controlled by an accessory circuit.

 

I just tapped into my cigarette lighters for my wet okles..

 

We used a volt meter to test the slots and made the decision to use that paticular slot based on what we needed. I honestly don't remember what the numbers are. It works just fine for my kit.

Using a volt meter is very important when making the decision of what slot to use in any fuse box.

 

A volt meter only tells you how many volts the circuit has at that point, and will read the same at almost any point in the vehicle electrical system. You'll see about 13.8 volts (engine running) on any tiny wire or thick one unless it's overloaded.

It's current capacity that matters, and that can only really be found by examining the size of the wire in the complete circuit. You *can* check by putting the circuit under load and looking at voltage drop, but that's a fairly technical process. It is best to look at wire gauge to decide how much current a circuit can handle.

 

My husband works at an electronics company and builds circuit boards - so he knows how to troubleshoot & read circuits (so to speak). He did the wiring install.

The OP needs to do his own troubleshooting process to find out what will work for his application no matter what suggestions are thrown at him.