I recently got one from another company yet never received it, but got one instead from wedgiecovers.com. I put it on my dish yesterday, and I was worried that a cover would affect the signal, but thankfully it didn't. Now I want to know, will it really help signal in snow and rain?
Does anyone know if dish covers really work against snow and heavy rain?
- Thread starter edisonprime
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 8
- Views 2K
THINK snow might slide off but rain dosen't build up so it is the rain in the atmosphere that causes loss of signal not an accumulation.
Not speaking from experience - but best guess some snow will slide off that otherwise would not, but some might stick anyway. And if the cover is degrading the signal at all, it might take even less wet snow to stop the signal. (As a side note, dry snow can build up and not block the signal, but if it melts some, the moisture will then block the signal - that is from experience)
As Boba said raid fade is not caused by accumulation, a cover won't help, and as with my guess I suppose could actually exaggerate it.
As Boba said raid fade is not caused by accumulation, a cover won't help, and as with my guess I suppose could actually exaggerate it.
for a while here in the "D" when at&t was selling dish all of there installs had a cover with there logo.
If anything, the cover would give the snow more surface area to adhere to. The rain falling from the sky actually kills the signal. The heavier the rainfall, the greater the chance you'll lose your signal. Snow is less dense than rain. So a decent snowfall won't degrade the signal as much as a similar rainfall. The cover does not significantly degrade the signal. In my earlier days, I placed a cardboard box over the LNB lens in an attempt to stop the signal. It all still came through. I've seen garbage bags and socks over the LNB for protection, and the signal still comes through fine.
I always recommend Rain-X for my customers. The rain and snow slide off the Rain-X treated dish quite easily.
I always recommend Rain-X for my customers. The rain and snow slide off the Rain-X treated dish quite easily.
I always thought it was the dense rain clouds that stopped the signal from getting through, not the actual rain?
I agree. I've seen the signal lost when there was no rain ... but it was coming, i.e. heavy cloud cover to the south (same direction dish points).
If you really did the calculation, I suspect the dish will have more surface area (but the difference will be minimal). The way I see a cover helping -- I don't use one, mind you -- is that it should create a flatter surface, forcing or allowing any snow to slide off easier. The dish, on the other hand, is concave, i.e. a "bowl", where snow can sit and build up.
The main advantage I see of covers is that they can be darker colored and thus absorb more IR radiation from the sun and melt the snow/ice off quicker, the plastic has a much lower thermal conductivity also they are not a hard solid surface so the flexing of the convex surface can also help dislodge accumulations of snow/ice.
