New to Dish, Cover due to winter?

[illusion123a]

I just got the Dish yesterday; I have only had cable. I have several questions? What happens if my receiver or dish dies? I got the protection thing for free, becasue I signed up for 18 months. I switched becasue I recenty bout a trailer near the beach, adn there is no cable, but everyone in the park has dish. I plan on only getting that activated next may, does anyone else here have this set uP?
also do those dish covers actually work? I live in Pa and we get a fair amount of snow in the winter. the dish is on my roof, and it would be hard to access during a snow storm, and who really wants to be with out tv while stuck inside during a storm. I would like ot buy one now so i can put it on while its still nice.
Over all are you happy with the service? how bad are the outages?
THANKS

 

[illusion123a]

Also if it makes a difference i have dish player-DVR 625

 

[Charise]

Welcome! There are lots of really knowledgeable and friendly people who post here. Though I can't help with installations, I live in Wisconsin so I do know about snow.

I haven't had a problem with snow collecting on the dish. I had an outage of about 1/2 hour once when we had freezing rain, but never any other time in the winter. Then the ice must have melted. I'll infrequently have some rain fade during really bad storms--maybe 30 minutes worth over the entire summer this year, usually with about 5 minutes of pixelization prior to it going out. Outages last about 5-10 minutes (until the storm cell passes).

I had one receiver go bad during my first year. Dish Network swapped it out at no cost to me. No other problems in over 5 years.

Had one dish for the first 3 years, then used dishmover and had another 500, and when locals were added for my city about 1 1/2 years ago, I got a superdish. No problems with any of the dishes I've had.

Good luck!

 

[WhenYouAwake]

Just had mine installed today and I specifically asked about snow. I was told unless you have a really wet snow that freezes fast to the dish you shouldn't have a problem. The installer lives higher up in the mountains than I do and he said he's never had a problem with snow.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

In northern locations, the dish will likely be in a largely vertical position, so that snow isn't usually a problem. However if you live in a central or southern area that gets snow, like say in higher elevations, then the dish will be pointed "up" so that the dish "pan" is more horizontal. In that position, it is more prone to catch snow and be a problem.

PA could be a problem, as it is a central location and that area is prone to getting more wet snow than a colder climate. Although I haven't heard of many people from that area saying that they use covers.

 

[Drone35]

If you do get a wet snow it will accumulate on the dish and u will lose ur signal, simple brush the snow off if its where u can get to it safely. Otherwise they make a cover for the Dish that u can put on it, hope this helps!

 

[Ray_Air]

Speaking Of Ice On The Dish

I live in lower Michigan and we get some snow and ice in the winter season. I have my dish on the side of the house on a pole about 5 feet off the ground so I can remove snow,etc. from it. My question is, is it safe to spray de-icer on the dish if a freezing rain storm caused the signal to be lost?

 

[Matt]

I live in lower Michigan and we get some snow and ice in the winter season. I have my dish on the side of the house on a pole about 5 feet off the ground so I can remove snow,etc. from it. My question is, is it safe to spray de-icer on the dish if a freezing rain storm caused the signal to be lost?

I have heard from people who live in the cold - they just turn on a lightbulb, which is attached to the back of the dish, you might want to try that.

 

[SatinKzo]

I live in lower Michigan and we get some snow and ice in the winter season. I have my dish on the side of the house on a pole about 5 feet off the ground so I can remove snow,etc. from it. My question is, is it safe to spray de-icer on the dish if a freezing rain storm caused the signal to be lost?

I have lived as far north in MI as you can and got tons of lake effect snow (the wet stuff). Like one use said, my dish we pretty much vertical so snow didn't pile up. Also I have sprayed de-icer with no ill effects on the dish, not on the lnb.
I currently live in SW Michigan and still get lots of lake effect and no have any problems with snow/ice. Not saying it won't happen.

I have also noticed that it does not take long for the sun to heat the dish enough in the morning to get that snow to slide off.

Just my observations and to me, the covers attract attention like and eyesore.

 

[roachxp]

I could swear I saw a snow melting element for dish at the Dishstore.net, but maybe it was somewhere else.

You just attach to back of dish and plug it in and keeps your dish nice and toasty.

 

[bcshields]

Then there's the old "Spray Pam on the reflector" trick to make it harder to stick.

ususally snow isn't a problem... the dish is near vertical. in delaware the elevation of the dish is only 30 degrees, possibly closer to that in pennsylvania.... so you really don't need to worry about too much accumulation.

 

[Van]

I live in the metro detroit area and have my dish mounted to the garage, Ive had one instance of snow building up on the full face of the dish due to a storm that came out of the southwest. Snow melting off wasnt an option due to heavy cloud cover so I brushed it off. The problem with many of these snow covers is the surface is a woven material allowing for moisture to get in and if its a freezing rain/snow mix that can allow ice to build up doing the same thing.

I cant say as to wether the pam trick works, cant see as to how an oil based product will work when it gets cold, same thing goes for wd40, brushing it off if it happens is the best bet just becareful to not wack the dish assembly with the broom or you could end up on here asking us how to retune your dish.

 

[Purogamer]

I'm in ohio and snow is no problem at all. Dish has been covered in snow (up beyond the lnb unit) and had 120+ signal...

Rain is a problem, but not snow. Don't give it another thought. No pam or anything, shouldn't need it. If it gets covered in ice there's nothing you can really do about it, and you won't lose signal anways.

Basically don't worry about it.

People attach lightbulbs to their dishes? wow that's dumb...and the heater things are silly too...

 

[roachxp]

I remember this past winter in NewEngland we had a few strom that put 20 inches of snow on the dish, the stick wet stuff and I now have a superdish which is like a baseball glove wide open the catch even more snow this winter.

I might move the dish up against the fireplace chiminey this fall just is case that thing is alway warm and no snow with in 5 feet of it..

 

[rowemance]

In PA your angle in at about 30 degrees so snow sould not be a problem. But if you find it to be a problem there are heaters you can put on your dish also depending on your dish location you might try a super soaker squirt gun or garden hose. My dish is on my garage roof about 18' off the ground in Cleveland Area (Lot of Lake Effect) I use a super soaker its happened about 5 times in 6 years. The snow has to blow the right direction and the temp has to be about 32 - 33 degrees to stick to your dish and it has to be the very wet sticky snow. You can also spray your dish with Pam cooking spray.

 

[illusion123a]

Thanks for all the imput! Hopefully it will be ok with out a cover, the dish is high on the roof, and we do alot of blowing snow where I am, so hopefully it will just blow off the dish. They had to put it up so high becasue we are surrounded by trees, and our roof is not in the best condition anyway (a very old house, adn we do not want to fix it up too much becasue it actually belongs to my elderly grandfather, adn we will most likely sell with in 2 or 3 years.

 

[SimpleSimon]

People attach lightbulbs to their dishes? wow that's dumb...and the heater things are silly too...

Opinions are like ...

Actually, IF you're in an area that needs it, either answer will work. Just make sure that lightbulb is weather protected. In March/April, I OFTEN have to trudge out and broom the wet, heavy snow off of my dishes. The DirecWay most of all, of course, but that's gonna be gone soon (just got my terrestrial wifi yesterday ).