Who's had to clean snow off your dish?

[ClarkGable]

We have 9" of snow blowing around here now, with 25MPH wind and -8. There is snow/ice stuck to the dish, but signal is still good enough to get a picture. We did clear off the LNBs once last night at the height of the storm.

 

[AntAltMike]

I had to service a 1 meter dish on a hotel. I told them over the phone to clean the snow off it and they told me they had, but there was a thin layer of ice right on the surface that they hadn't scraped off, and the other strange thing was, there was actually thick snow on the end of the LNB "mushroom". Last year, I had one of those 1.2 meter Alaska/Hawaii dishes cake up in sticky snow. I might sell these people some heaters, because I really don't like doing midnight service calls.

 

[MikeD-C05]

We've got about a foot of snow but I have ZERO on my EA dish on the roof. I've had 3 small Katz heaters (made for engine blocks,etc., available from Amazon) stuck to the backside for 3 years now. When it starts to snow I plug in the extension cord that runs up to the dish, problem solved. Just wish I'd ran a heat cable around the LNB's arm. The snow is right up to the LNBs but no problem yet.

Ed

I wonder why satellite companies don't just create a dish with a built in heater that works off the power from the receiver off the coax cable. Integrate it and then you could turn it on at the receiver through your settings when you need it. Then the Sat companies could advertise the fact that you don't have to clean your sat dishes off when it snows or there is ice.

 

[Rey]

I've had to three times since noon. Over six inches of expected 10-12" in Indianapolis.

Tampa, Rey...try to resist.

Sure, of course I have :dev never!!

 

[navychop]

I wonder why satellite companies don't just create a dish with a built in heater that works off the power from the receiver off the coax cable. Integrate it and then you could turn it on at the receiver through your settings when you need it. Then the Sat companies could advertise the fact that you don't have to clean your sat dishes off when it snows or there is ice.

I don't think the coax can carry the power needed for dish heaters. Three of these would be 150W. And from the comments, you might need larger ones.

But if it would work, AND there be a small heater at the LNB, I think there'd be a market.

 

[Teehar]

It pays to have your dish in at least super soaker range. I have to spray our dishes at least 4 or 5 times a season.

 

[hudgreen]

Remember, the further north you are the closer the angle of the dish is to vertical which allows the snow to slide off easier.
Has any one tried covering the dish with those window insulator kits? (the kind you shrink with a blow drier).
Seems to me that would work but I dont know how hot that would get in direct sunlight

I have yet to have any problems with snow on dish here but it did go out briefly during an extremely heavy snow fall (huge snowflakes)

 

[navychop]

When I got home Friday I found out that there had been no signal all day. 5 inches of snow had fallen overnight, and when I looked at the dish there was some snow which by then had frozen. Because it was frozen I couldn't knock it off, so I filled a pot with hot water and tossed it by the cup full from the Master Bathroom window until the snow/ice was gone. I was surprised at how well it worked, and how good my aim was.

Time to stop by Grenades R Us and pick up a super soaker style squirt gun.

 

[renegade734]

Still working perfectly!

View attachment 93918

Mine looked just like that last night. I didn't have any problems with the signal, but I thought it would be a good idea to clean it off anyway.

 

[jonyac]

Exactly why I mounted the dish on a post off my deck, walk out on the deck with a pot of hot water and Bingo!! There is no way I would have the dish on a roof.

 

[CubsWin]

Mine stayed remarkably clear here in Illinois, but I wasn't so lucky a few weeks ago and had to climb onto my roof with the spatula.