Pending snowstorm first one since I've had dish

Sometimes you just can’t keep up. In November 2014 when we had our ‘Snovember’ you just couldn’t keep up with snow that falls at rates of 4 or 5” per hour. Woke up on Day 1 of the storm with 30”. Cleaned out the driveway on Day 2, only to get 30 more inches on Day 3. 70 inches of snow in four days for me, other areas got hit harder. It made for a pretty dangerous few days in my corner of the world. Not too far from me some poor guy died when he got trapped in is his car because he chose to pull over and was either asphyxiated to death or froze to death and no one even knew for a few days because his car was completely buried. Total of 8 or 9 people lost their lives because of the storm.

Last year on this site, when I brought it up I was called lazy for not clearing off my dishes. When I had other things to worry about, like cleaning out my driveway and not having a heart attack from overexertion. People generally have no clue how dangerous these situations can be. These high amounts of snow are no joke. Being inconvenienced by loss of a TV signal or power shouldn’t even matter. If I’m lazy for not setting my alarm to go off every few hours in the middle of the night and not trudging through snow that came up to my neck just to clear off a satellite dish, then so be it.

Point is, if the snow is heavy enough and falls at a rapid rate, there’s not much you can do. Mine are mounted on the back of my single story house. Where I have the X is where my old Dish Network dishes were located. They were completely mangled and hanging off the roof. You can see my two DirecTV dishes peeking out from the snow at the end of the house. Although you can't really tell, they essentially collapsed. The arms and LNBs were just about flush with the slope of the roof and the masts were bent. If I remember right, the dishes got snowed in the Wednesday of the storm, and a DirecTV tech wasn’t able to get out here until the following Saturday. To even suggest it was possible to clean them off with a broom or water gun is laughable.

Stay safe, it's only TV.

Thankfully you made it through. We usually only get blizzards this bad every few years.I'm not worried about going out every few hours to clear it off. If I lose it I'll stream netflix as long as my internet isn't out as well I'm more just talking if it piles up on the roof like yours did for too long since it has been too cold for snow to melt here. We had a much smaller snow storm yesterday and snow piled right up on my dish but I didn't lose signal but I plan to clean it off in the morning before the bigger storm comes in.
 
I'm not worried about going out every few hours to clear it off.
Don't clean it off until it goes out, that is, if it goes out. You'll be surprised - it probably won't impact you as much as you think. I don't think I have ever cleared my dish of snow.
 
We got 7 inches here and its dry powdery snow. Didn't clean the dish off and we still have signal on all the satellites here. No problems. When we get wet snow I have to clean it off even when we get a bit less.
 
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Don't clean it off until it goes out, that is, if it goes out. You'll be surprised - it probably won't impact you as much as you think. I don't think I have ever cleared my dish of snow.

I believe ya, so far we have about a foot and the signal strength on both satellites is ranging from 56-59
 
I didn't check SS but we still have reception with nearly 2' of snow. It must be very light/fluffy snow.
 
I have over a foot of snow and still watching tv . If it goes out than I will have to go snow blow the drive and shovel . That will suck .
 
I got on the roof & sprayed mine with non-stick cooking spray yesterday afternoon. Usually prevents the freezing rain from sticking. The dish is still clear, but like folks are saying, being a very powdery, dry snow is probably helping.
 
I would never suggest using cooking spray! I have had to clean that crap off of many customers dishes before I would service. Next summer you will have rancid vegetable oil smell and a tacky surface that everything will stick to (dust, dirt, dead bugs, etc.). Seriously nasty and not fun to clean-up!

Better results with products like RainX or RainShield. Don't forget to apply to the LNBF cap face. Water sheeting across the face of the feedhorn will take out the signal faster than any signal loss from the reflector.
 
I haven't measured, too much snow to walk thru to get a good clean measure, and I have a wicked cold. At least 20", probably more.

I have a hot Chai, have DayQuil'd myself, and I think it's about to beer.
 
20 inches of light snow . Still snowing heavy and so far so good we have a lot of wind and it blew most of the snow off the dish . A big ass tree branch came down right next to the dish so tomorrow I will have to see if any damage to the roof. Also I adopted a puppy from the spca in July he was from Alabama this is his first snow fall and he loves it . He was supposed to be a lab but we think he is a hot dog mix .Forrest loves running in the snow . Run Forrest Run
 
The dish made it through without any signal loss, at one point the went from the reflector to the LNB and later the wind gusts blew it off completely. All in all I was very happy compared to my original assumption it would go out regardless of what type of snow. Thanks guys for all of the suggestions though. And thankfully we lucked out this time. I haven't enjoyed digging out but the dog has been loving the snow.
 
BTW- how are you dog owners doing? Or more precisely, how are the dogs .....
We haven't looked for her yet...

We think the snowdrift with the yellow snow at the bottom and the intense whimpering sound coming from it might be a good place to start...

Gotta take a nap first though...








I'm sure she'll be fine...