Couple Crazy Questions

[sennister]

OK you guys are going to try and beat me up for asking this but here is goes anyhow.....

Is it possible to paint my dish? Would I loose signal strength? I know it may sound crazy but here is what I'm thinking. I would like to paint it black and then clear coat it to make is smooth so that the sun would heat the dish faster after a snow storm and the snow would be less likely to stick to the dish. I live in Minnesota and we tend to get a lot of snow. When the snow builds up on the dish I loose TV for a few days. I would go out and knock off all the snow but the problem is that the only place that they could mount it to clear my trees is on a tripod on top of my pole barn. The roof of the pole barn is about 30' in the air and it has a steel roof. If you know anything about steel roofs and snow you know that it would be a death sentance to try and go up there. I was so pissed this week I was about to go out there with my shot gun

The other idea I have been kicking around if paint is not an option and my end up doing in the end is to get some of the roof deicing kits that are available. It is basically an electrically heated wire that I may be able to attach to the back side of the dish and heat it that way. I know that there is a company that makes a heated dish for this reason but they are pretty spendy. So I thought I would look into less expensive options first. Besides I don't like how it is controlled by a thermostat. It would be on all winter long and that would be a huge waste in electricity. Hey my utillity bill last month was $480 so I don't want to make it higher. I would want to wire something so I could kick it on when it was snowing and leave it off the rest of the time.

What are your thoughts?

 

[directvfreak]

They make heaters you can put on your dish. That's what I would get. I'm not sure where there sold but someone will know.

 

[joedekock]

You can paint your dish black, but if it is covered with WHITE snow, the black paint won't get the sunlight if it is covered up by that WHITE snow. So its sort of useless.. right?

 

[charper1]

http://www.skyvision.com/store/mi1500067.html

http://www.skyvision.com/store/mi1500101.html

http://www.montanasatellite.com

 

[NVBlue]

Try a hefty garbage (bin) bag. Works great and no loss in signal strenght.

 

[Jimbo]

http://www.skyvision.com/store/mi1500067.html

http://www.skyvision.com/store/mi1500101.html

http://www.montanasatellite.com

charper1,
The Ice zapper idea looks like what I have been looking for , and not finding...

I was thinking about gutter heaters, but they are to long to deal with, or heat tape for like plumbing pipes. But still have not found this to work , due to no way to attach.

Can you remove the sensor ?
I see no need for it to be on when the weather is cold, but not snowing ?
I would like to be able to plug it in when nessasary and shut off when done

Jimbo

 

[charper1]

I live in PHX and do not need, nor know, just helping find the info; sorry!

 

[sennister]

You can paint your dish black, but if it is covered with WHITE snow, the black paint won't get the sunlight if it is covered up by that WHITE snow. So its sort of useless.. right?

Yes I know that most of it would be covered but not all of it. The main thing was the clear coat which would be wet sanded to a much smoother finish than what the dish has now making it harder for snow to build up. As the black paint heats it would also heat the metal and being that metal conducts heat would heat the rest of the dish covered by snow and it would speed the clearing of the snow. I'm not saying it wouldn't get knocked out but the length of time it is out would be reduced. Right now I have been out for a week and it is still not back. If I could get that down to a day or so it would be better.

 

[sennister]

charper1,
The Ice zapper idea looks like what I have been looking for , and not finding...

I was thinking about gutter heaters, but they are to long to deal with, or heat tape for like plumbing pipes. But still have not found this to work , due to no way to attach.

Can you remove the sensor ?
I see no need for it to be on when the weather is cold, but not snowing ?
I would like to be able to plug it in when nessasary and shut off when done

Jimbo

Yep, the gutter heaters are what I'm talking about in the second part of the question. In searches over the last week I had only been able to find the heated dish. At a couple hundred bucks it is too much for something that would be needed a few days out of the year. It is only a problem when we get the wet heavy snow. With the gutter heaters I would also have to work out some means of attaching the wire which I have no idea how I would do so. I'm thinking maybe some sort of epoxy or adhesive. I have used this stuff that is a 50 year adhesive that come is a tube simular to sillicon caulk.

I don't think that we would have to worry about removing the sensor. It has to be powered so however you come up with a means of powering the heating element you could either install a switch on it or make it into an electrical plug that needs to be plugged into an outlet. That way if there is snow in the forecast just go and flip th switch or plug it in.

 

[dragon002]

why not buy a hot shot heated dish, or the heating unit for your own dish???

 

[sennister]

why not buy a hot shot heated dish, or the heating unit for your own dish???

Well the hot shot dish was the only unit that I had seen before the heating kits that were posted above are what I was really looking for but not finding. It looks like the place in Montana (the last link) has the hot shot dish on clearance so I will contact them. I think regular price on the hot shot Dual LNB was something like $200. I was looking for other solutions that weren't that expensive. I would be fine with dropping $200 if I ran into this problem a lot but it only happens one or maybe two snow storms a year. It has to be the wet sticky snow to be a problem. The other reason I would hate to drop $200 on the dish is that I have been conisdering getting a HD DVR and would then need a different dish so the $200 would be a waste. The other thing I should mention is that we just moved into the house and the dish is existing from my In-laws (we bought their house when they retired and moved to FL). We had DirecTV at the last house and they had it here. They have always had problems and I have to go up there and at least swap out the LNB because it is a single LNB and we need a dual for out DVR to use both tuners. So once the snow it gone I will be up there to do some work on it and if I could come up with a solution to these problems at that point in time that would be great.

 

[dragon002]

if the dish is on the roof, bad location, IMHO. move it down to a sidewall of the house. at least you can get to it easier on the couple of occasions per year that you have to.

 

[sennister]

if the dish is on the roof, bad location, IMHO. move it down to a sidewall of the house. at least you can get to it easier on the couple of occasions per year that you have to.

I would love to but with the layout of our lot there is no clear view of the southern sky. The tripod on top of the pole barn was the only way to clear the trees. I will get cable before cutting down 2.5 acres of trees or at least enough trees to open up a view to the southern sky. Besides even if I did cut down my trees I can't cut down my neighbor's. We have some pretty dense mature trees on our lot and surrounding lots. Most are pine so they have coverage all year round.

 

[stevesmall]

OK you guys are going to try and beat me up for asking this but here is goes anyhow.....

Is it possible to paint my dish? Would I loose signal strength? I know it may sound crazy but here is what I'm thinking. I would like to paint it black and then clear coat it to make is smooth so that the sun would heat the dish faster after a snow storm and the snow would be less likely to stick to the dish. I live in Minnesota and we tend to get a lot of snow. When the snow builds up on the dish I loose TV for a few days. I would go out and knock off all the snow but the problem is that the only place that they could mount it to clear my trees is on a tripod on top of my pole barn. The roof of the pole barn is about 30' in the air and it has a steel roof. If you know anything about steel roofs and snow you know that it would be a death sentance to try and go up there. I was so pissed this week I was about to go out there with my shot gun

The other idea I have been kicking around if paint is not an option and my end up doing in the end is to get some of the roof deicing kits that are available. It is basically an electrically heated wire that I may be able to attach to the back side of the dish and heat it that way. I know that there is a company that makes a heated dish for this reason but they are pretty spendy. So I thought I would look into less expensive options first. Besides I don't like how it is controlled by a thermostat. It would be on all winter long and that would be a huge waste in electricity. Hey my utillity bill last month was $480 so I don't want to make it higher. I would want to wire something so I could kick it on when it was snowing and leave it off the rest of the time.

What are your thoughts?

for what its worth RAINEX works great for rain and snow, apply as per directions on the bottle. snow wont stick nor does dirt and rain, i apply it 2x a year albeit i am in s jersey so the weather here is not unusually cold , i dont know how well this product works in your area for its stated purpose but i can tell you it works incredibly well in this area

 

[Jimbo]

Yep, the gutter heaters are what I'm talking about in the second part of the question. In searches over the last week I had only been able to find the heated dish. At a couple hundred bucks it is too much for something that would be needed a few days out of the year. It is only a problem when we get the wet heavy snow. With the gutter heaters I would also have to work out some means of attaching the wire which I have no idea how I would do so. I'm thinking maybe some sort of epoxy or adhesive. I have used this stuff that is a 50 year adhesive that come is a tube simular to sillicon caulk.

I don't think that we would have to worry about removing the sensor. It has to be powered so however you come up with a means of powering the heating element you could either install a switch on it or make it into an electrical plug that needs to be plugged into an outlet. That way if there is snow in the forecast just go and flip th switch or plug it in.

When I was looking into the gutter heater stuff I noticed that 1st it came in long lenths, witch would be expected for a gutter, and found out that it can not touch its self, so placing it on the dish you would have to glue it and hope the glue didn't melt when heated, and the fact that it is long, I thought about cutting it short enough , but you can't do that as you would break the heat element.

So basically it's a no go.

 

[jporter12]

How about a couple hundred watt flood (or spot) light on the dish? If you put it close to the dish I'm sure it would melt the snow in short order, either from in front, or from behind. That would be a pretty inexpensive solution!

 

[VIPERS-PIT]

Yes you can paint the dish. Most NASCAR teams have a dish mounthed to their pitboxes that are painted to match their sponsors colors. It is not the snow that causes the problem but the ice that changes the phisical form of the dish that is the issue.

Heatting it is an option. There are also a few products that can be put on the dish to help this issue.

 

[kds64]

dish skinz from skyvision.com