NeverWet product to prevent rain fade

[dare2be]

The product would help with snow sticking to dish.

So would heat strips.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

OK, I just did an experiment with my 3LNB EA pole mount dish. 61.5 sat, transponder 23. SS was 55-56 dry, dropped down to 53-54 when soaking dish with hose. The stream was directed over the LNB so the loss was probably maximized.
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You hose makes bigger and more concentrated drops. While rainfade can happen between the LNB and the DISH in very heavy rain, the majority of the rainfade happens in the sky. Its not uncommon for rainfade to wipe out your signal and its not even raining on your property yet.

 

[oldengineer]

You hose makes bigger and more concentrated drops. While rainfade can happen between the LNB and the DISH in very heavy rain, the majority of the rainfade happens in the sky. Its not uncommon for rainfade to wipe out your signal and its not even raining on your property yet.

Exactly why I posted this. I've had a few wipeouts this year because of storms passing south of us when we never got rain here.

 

[JM42]

Its not uncommon for rainfade to wipe out your signal and its not even raining on your property yet.

That's the way it is with the storm patterns here. Half the time I have rain fade, by the time it actually starts raining at my house the signal is back.

 

[HDRoberts]

While I doubt it would help rainfade (as others have mention, that's more about water between the sat and dish, not dish and LNB), I do wonder if it would help prevent snow/ice buildup that sometimes causes signal loss in winter.

 

[StevenD]

Go check out youtube. It seems the stuff wears off pretty quickly.

 

[Tony S]

As others have said, this product will do very very little to prevent rain fade. Save your money if you are buying it for that purpose.

The product might help snow to slide off a little easier, but you will have to reapply it at regular intervals. It would be easier just to brush off the snow when necessary.

 

[Jim S.]

Rain-X helps with snow somewhat, and is probably a lot cheaper than NeverWet.

All the informal reviews I've ever read of NeverWet have said that the coating is particularly fragile and they have no idea what practical purpose it might have.

 

[DishSubLA]

Yes, the raindrops can result in rain-fade, but most often it isn't the rain drops but the density of the cloud as it moves between the reflector and the satellite. This was confirmed on a Tech Forum by one of the engineers: CLOUD DENSITY. That explains why in a number of instances I had no interruption of signal with heavy rain, but when the rain turned light, I would LOSE signal. Yup, looking outside a big black, dense cloud killing my signal. Also, the rain would also be a constant downpour, but I had signal, then would lose it for two minutes, but then signal came back for good, but with rain STILL has hard as ever.

However, I agree that the real need is a product to prevent snow from accumilateing. I am very skeptical of any such product as described in this thread really reducing rain-fade in a number of scenarios, and if that dense cloud is between you and the reflector, the most common cause of "rain-fade" such a product won't do any good.

Further, the hose test is not a good test and a water being hosed is not a good simulator of rain.

 

[renegade734]

looks like we have been trolled ...

 

[Brussam]

Rain is an issue with RVers who use dome dishes on their roofs. The rain water adheres to the dome and does affect reception. This NeverWet stuff may help dome dish users. Likewise it might help those with Tailgaters.

 

[Jim5506]

Rain fade is caused by the water molecule absorbing the RF radiation from the satellite.

A thin film of water either on the dish or on a dome will reduce the signal that gets to the lnb but only by a very small bit.

By far the largest majority of RF absorption is on the atmosphere between the dish and the satellite, not the thin film of water on the dish or on a dome.

Anecdotally, you either need a larger dish to prevent rain fade or to deter snow, either heat tape (works day and night or put a black trash bag over the entire dish unit - the little bit of solar energy that gets through will help melt the snow or make it much easier to dislodge any snow build up.