Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It's Winter

PineRidge · Jan 31, 2004

Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

My DirectWay dish is located on the roof of my home above my office. I guess they can't be installed close to the ground because of the energy that they transmit when sending data, I really don't understand it all. Microwave energy maybe? Anyway I have this nagging problem with snow and ice building up and knocking me off-line when I least expect it. I have tried wax, WD-40, and Pam but nothing seems to keep snow or ice from sticking to the surface of the dish itself. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif The first of the week we got hit with several ice storms and it was impossible for me to get on the roof so I was forced to stand on the ground and de-iced using a garden hose and water.

Does anyone have any experience with the various heat tapes that can be cut to length? I am wondering if I can apply something along those lines directly to the dish to keep the dang-blasted thing clear in the winter time without hosing the roof down in the middle of the winter.

tc35dforme · Jan 31, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

They make a custom fit heater wrap that goes on the dish...don't they?? I know they did for the round ones.

PineRidge · Jan 31, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

<font color="blue"> They make a custom fit heater wrap that goes on the dish...don't they?? I know they did for the round ones.
</font>

I have never seen one and I have searched the Earthlink site to no avail. This is an elliptical dish as shown.

JJT · Jan 31, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

I've never had an ice build up problem on the sat dish, just on the LNB head. I did the hair dryer thing a few times and then hit on the idea to simply rotate the entire thing ~30 degrees to keep any drips off the the receiver. 2 years later and the thing hasn't given me any grief.

Mrwurm · Jan 31, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Mike,
My DirectWay dish never gets affected by snow or ice but you may find some help for yours at Sky Vision .

Sky Vision used to send me a catalog, though they don't anymore. Their catalog used to offer several different types of dish heaters and LNB heaters. You could add one to your existing dish or replace your entire dish with an integrated heated unit. Check out their web site and see if they still offer this kind of stuff.

Mrwurm · Jan 31, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Here's one specifically for DirecWay and StarBand.

Heater

PineRidge · Jan 31, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Jerry thanks for the heads up on the dish heater. Maybe I can put the hose away now. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

moeh1 · Feb 3, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Mike,
you helped me out on some canopy measurments the other day, maybe I can return the favor. There are a bunch of dish covers on the market, turned up one quick look for your system
dish cover

Maybe you'll like that better than running electric up there and leaving it on/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif I know I would. My nephew put something like this on his 18" DSS years ago and is very happy.

sassafraspete · Feb 3, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

We had an ice storm a few weeks back, and I ended up taping my wife's old hair dryer on a fiberglass painter's pole . Looked kinda silly outside my house blow drying my directway. The few time I need to do it... I suppose it would still beat spending $100 for a cover....though your pictures made me think about it. Let me see now....if I had that new boom pole that hooks to the FEL.......

sassafras

PineRidge · Feb 3, 2004

Re: Ice Down The DirectWay Dish It\'s Winter

Marty now there is an interesting way to overcome a nuisance problem. I hadn't even thought that a signal would penetrate a cover before reading the info that you provided me. It makes better sense to me than the heater option anyway. Thanks for the heads up! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif