What is the best color to paint your dish?

[PopcornNMore]

Did anyone ever paint their dish white?

I talked to an RF engineer at my work yesterday and he said that I should be able to paint my dish any color, not just dark colors. He said sunlight should not affect the signal at the feedhorn and did not agree that satellite dishes need to be a dark color.

Sony's DBS satellite dish was white if I remember correctly. Do light colors really shorten the life of your LNB by making them hotter? Now I am tossed between painting my dish black or white.

 

[PSB]

As long as its a non metalic paint then anything goes. I just painted my 40" Primestar Matt Black.......

White will work fine......both the Hot Dish and Fortec Dish are white, and I have never had ANY LNBF trouble. I use black coz I like it!

 

[DaveJohnson]

I don`t remember where I got this picture but it looks cool.

 

[PSB]

I don`t remember where I got this picture but it looks cool.

What are you talking about! I dont see any satellite dish

Looks like a picture from the UK, I have seen this done before. GREAT PICTURE thanks for posting it!


These guys have a similar product!

https://www.satelliteskins.com/

I asked them for a sample to give away here............but

 

[bryan27]

I wonder if a mirror coating would be good camoflauge, I guess you'd have to be careful you don't blind some unlucky pilot with the reflection.

It sounds cool, but not a good idea unless you want to melt your LNB. Think of it this way. In other parts of the world a mirror coated 1 meter dish is used to concentrate the sun's energy on to a focal point to cook foods by pointing it directly at the sun. These mirrored dishes can boil water in 5 minutes.

March or October rolls around. This is solar transit time. When the sun, the satellite, and your cute mirror dish align the sun's energy will then focus on your dish's focal point, the LNB and cook it

In the late 70's and early 80's when dishes were unpainted solid spun aluminum it was common practice during solar transit time to point the dish away from the sun for about 15 minutes and then point it back when the sun passed as your LNB could be damaged.

 

[PopcornNMore]

So Bryan, do you believe it will be ok for me to paint my dish a flat white color?

 

[Stefan]

White is fine. You just don't want it to be too shiny or have a mirror like finish. There are plenty of white dishes out there especially alot of large dishes. In fact, I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to paint my grey primestar dishes white. Why? Because a white dish would probably be alot cooler in the hot summer sun. Not being subjected to as much heat might help the fiberglass these dishes are made of to last longer.

 

[PSB]

Thats very true, I paint my dish matt black for much the same reason. Seems 7-8 months of the year here in MN. its winter so being black the dish attracts the suns rays and melts any ice or snow the may have gathered on it.......

 

[DaveJohnson]

Pete here are a couple more neat pictures of a painted dish.

 

[PSB]

Thanks Dave, I LOVE painted dish! Nice pictures!

 

[sikma]

I think I'll try flat white. I'll have to save up though, I've got D500, D300, and 2 P*'s

 

[PopcornNMore]

Sikma, I will post pictures as soon as I have mine painted flat white.