Heated seat button
Switches the electric heating in a seat on and sets its level.
What pressing it does
With the engine running, each press changes the level. Hyundai's Tucson cycles OFF → HIGH → MEDIUM → LOW → OFF and turns off if you hold the button for more than 1.5 seconds. SEAT's Ateca goes straight to the highest of three levels, and each further press steps down until no LEDs are lit. The number of lit bars or LEDs shows the level.
Check your car's manual: makes and models differ in what a button does, which positions a switch has and whether it works with the engine off, and your owner's manual is the authority for your car.
- What it looks like
- A seat seen from the side with wavy heat lines rising from it
- Also labelled
- Seat warmer; Seat heating
- Standard
- None — a maker's symbol, described here from 2 makers' manuals: Hyundai, SEAT
What to check in your car's manual
How many levels your seats have, whether the heat lowers itself over time, and whether the rear seats have their own buttons.
Where makes differ
Hyundai steps HIGH down by itself — to MEDIUM after 30 minutes and LOW after 60 — to prevent low-temperature burns, and can switch the driver's seat on automatically from the climate settings. SEAT instead remembers the driver's last level if the engine is restarted within about 10 minutes.
No regulation defines it
Neither the UN R121 table nor FMVSS 101 Tables 1 and 2 lists a heated-seat control, so its symbol is the maker's.
Good to know
- Both manuals warn that seat heating can burn people who cannot feel heat or pain properly; SEAT says such people must never use it, and Hyundai lists infants, children, the elderly and people on drowsiness-causing medication among those who should take extreme care.
- SEAT says not to switch it on when the seat is empty, covered, fitted with a child seat, damp, or when it is above +25 °C.
Other buttons under “Seats, mirrors”
Sources
No regulation defines this control, so it is described from 2 carmakers' own owner's manuals, each read on the date shown.
- Hyundai 2025 Tucson (general market, English web manual): Seat warmers — Engine running; OFF-HIGH-MEDIUM-LOW cycle; automatic step-down after 30 and 60 minutes; hold 1.5 s to turn off; burn warnings. checked 2026-09-25
- SEAT Ateca owner's manual, UK English, edition 06.21 (model year 2022), PDF: Seat heating, p. 152-153 — Three levels, first press highest; LEDs; last level restored within about 10 minutes; do-not-use cases and burn warnings. checked 2026-09-25
Written in our own words; the manuals cover their own models only.