Snow hood for LNB

[handymantoo]

Do they make or would it be possible to construct a plastic shield above the LNB to reduce snow collection. I don't know much about how sat signals are
transmitted. Would such a device cause a problem?

 

[Dah-Henny]

I don't have first hand knowledge, but I've heard of folks draping a plastic trash can bag over their entire dish and LNB's. They said that the signal wasn't degraded, and the snow fell right off of the bag. Might be worth a try?

 

[Dirtydan]

I use the trash bags, but you can use clear plex-a-glass. You cut a piece between 12" and 14"wide by about enough length to go half way around dish, attach to dish with large paper clips or a weather-proof tape. also cut a piece to tape to the top of lnb so it extends out toward the dish enough to let snow or ice fall off toward the lnb arm instead of over the eyes on the lnb. My nearest neighbor uses this solution with D* and never has outage from snow or ice. Dan

 

[MikeInAlaska]

I've seen a ton of snow shields up here in Alaska, but never a garbage bag over the entire dish, what a hideous sight that would be.

A lot of people cut them from milk jugs, or from sheets of flexible plastic. I guess these would work best with the big 1 meter and 40" dishes we have up here since there are two (or three) arms supporting the LNB.

 

[Dirtydan]

I've seen a ton of snow shields up here in Alaska, but never a garbage bag over the entire dish, what a hideous sight that would be.

A lot of people cut them from milk jugs, or from sheets of flexible plastic. I guess these would work best with the big 1 meter and 40" dishes we have up here since there are two (or three) arms supporting the LNB.

You only put the smallest bag over the dish that will cover, don't cover the lnb, that would cause excess moisture build-up.
Dan

 

[old corps]

I did the "trash bag fix" before the 1st significant snow we had (covering the dish ONLY) and initially thought it worked well. No longer think so. It all depends on the conditions but after almost breaking my neck to clear just a small amount of snow/ice that collected on the bag it is now GONE--the bag, not the neck....... Both times it was really only a small amount of snow/ice that caused me to lose signal. I've had WAY more snow collect on the bare dish in the past that barely decreased signal strength. The black garbage bag itself caused no reduction in signal but when snow/ice froze to the bag it was good-bye signal. Again, it was actually a small amount and my 1000.4 IS peaked and normally has excellent signal strength. I've purchased a small, 4"X5" stick-on 150 watt heating pad made for engine blocks but this old fart ain't gonna be installing it until the roof is snow free (Spring?LOL).
This was just my experience, others may vary...............

Ed

 

[Jonhern]

I did the "trash bag fix" before the 1st significant snow we had (covering the dish ONLY) and initially thought it worked well. No longer think so. It all depends on the conditions but after almost breaking my neck to clear just a small amount of snow/ice that collected on the bag it is now GONE--the bag, not the neck....... Both times it was really only a small amount of snow/ice that caused me to lose signal. I've had WAY more snow collect on the bare dish in the past that barely decreased signal strength. The black garbage bag itself caused no reduction in signal but when snow/ice froze to the dish it was good-bye signal. Again, it was actually a small amount and my 1000.4 IS peaked and normally has excellent signal strength. I've purchased a small, 4"X5" stick-on 150 watt heating pad made for engine blocks but this old fart ain't gonna be installing it until the roof is snow free (Spring?LOL).
This was just my experience, others may vary...............

Ed

Just looked those heating pads up, and they are exactly the same thing as the ice zapper for satellite dishes which has been talked about on this fourm, even the same color, but for less. Wish I had seen those first. Although the ice zapper is two connected to one plug, two of those pads are about $20 less than the ice zapper, on amazon anyway.

 

[handymantoo]

I tried using 4X5 stick on heating pad but metal dish disipates heat too rapidly must use two one for each side. Also 150 watts very hot may burn off paint. I ended up with Ice Zapper 2 which has two heating tapes each about 1 1/2 x 8 inches at 120 watts works perfect, but I found out my problem is snow on LNB not the dish.

 

[handymantoo]

Just looked those heating pads up, and they are exactly the same thing as the ice zapper for satellite dishes which has been talked about on this fourm, even the same color, but for less. Wish I had seen those first. Although the ice zapper is two connected to one plug, two of those pads are about $20 less than the ice zapper, on amazon anyway.

I did look them up before I purchased Ice Zapper but trial and error ( wattage , and size) ended up costing more than if I bought Ice Zapper originally

 

[old corps]

I tried using 4X5 stick on heating pad but metal dish disipates heat too rapidly must use two one for each side. Also 150 watts very hot may burn off paint. I ended up with Ice Zapper 2 which has two heating tapes each about 1 1/2 x 8 inches at 120 watts works perfect, but I found out my problem is snow on LNB not the dish.[/QU

My intention was to power on the pad just long enough to melt off any snow/ice that's causing a problem. I did think about the lnb's causing a problem as well. We've been really lucky so far this winter--very minimal amount of snow. When I had a 1000.2 in my back yard I had several inches of snow build up on the dish and only lost a few points of signal strength. It was easy then to trudge out and sweep off the dish/lnb's if necessary, doing that on my roof is DANGEROUS. I'll still try the pad thing but won't be installing it until my roof is snow free.
Thanks for your input!

Ed

BTW--The pad shipped from Amazon was under $25 'cause I purchased another item which gave me free shipping.