As others have mentioned here, I am kicking myself for not installing this sooner. I live in Minnesota and for the past four years I've had to climb on the roof to brush off the satellite dish every time we had a significant snowfall. If we get four or more inches of snow accumulation, we lose our signal. After the first snowfall this year I climbed on the roof and nearly slipped off. I decided my health and safety were worth the price of this dish heater. Installation was straightforward and not too difficult. I removed the four dish mounting bolts and brought it inside to warm up. (I have a DirecTV Slimline model.) After warming up, I applied the adhesive heating element to the back of the dish. You need to line things up carefully and go slow. Again, it's not difficult, you just need to be careful and patient. After applying the heater, the dish mounted right back in perfect alignment. Wiring the unit to the transformer was easy. After waiting two weeks to try out the unit, we finally got 6+ inches of snow yesterday. The unit worked perfectly. I never lost signal. The only accumulation of snow/ice on the dish was at the bottom (see attached photo). I attribute this to the melting snow dripping down the dish until it hit the cold edge and refroze. However, this never affected the signal. Like others, I intend to only turn on the heating unit when snow/ice is predicted. It seems a waste to run this all the time in Minnesota when the temperature stays well below 32 degrees for months.

I just applied this product to my DISH Network dish... (they don't mention whether it will fit) and it applied to the back of the dish very nicely. It was about a 1/4 of an inch too large in two spots so it went over the edge of the back lip of the dish, but I don't expect that to cause any problems. I could have trimmed some of that off but the heating elements do come close to the edge so I decided not to.

As others have said, getting the dish off was a no-brainer (4 simple bolts) other than crawling on the roof in a foot of snow. Brought the dish inside, cleaned it up, and applied the heater to the back and silicon spray to the front (to assist in removal). Attaching the power line to the heater is also a no brainer and I am placing the transformer on my back deck which is under the eaves. Placed it in a waterproof bag in case some blowing snow gets to it. I too will only turn it on when needed, which of course, now that the heater is there, it most likely will not be needed.

I haven't seen the unit work yet, but the installation was easy and assuming the equipment is not defective, it should work like a charm. A big load off my mind for the future.

Prior to installing the HotShot Satellite Dish Heater I would have to frequently clear snow off the satellite dish especially if it is wet heavy snow. Used to climb up on roof and smack at it with a broom then after I popped my Shoulder, I swatted at it with the roof rake from the ground. Neither of these seemed to be an optimal solution. Found this and installed it now the snow no longer accumulates and we have had several recent storms with 5"+ of heavy wet snow. Guarantee I would have been cleaning off the dish to maintain reception multiple times. Plugged into a Moross Smart Plug in the garage and can control on/off from my phone. Highly recommended if you have a satellite dish in areas receiving routine snow fall.

So far, this heater is the solution to a problem that had been vexing me for years: when it snows heavily, our dish gets covered in snow. Eventually, the signal is lost and our DirecTV stops working. We've been a subscriber for 15 years and every winter, I've had to "solve" the snowy dish problem by standing in my front yard and throwing snowballs at the thing until I knocked enough snow off. Given that it's often windy and the dish is quite high up, it's not a trivial shot.

Last winter, I did some research and discovered this product. I bought it and waited until the warm weather months this year to finally climb up on the roof and install it. As many have mentioned, removing the 4 bolts holding the dish in place is easy. I brought the dish down off the roof to work on it. The heating element is packed up in its box such that it's folded over a couple of times. I found that leaving it in the sun for a while made the project much easier because the heating element was much more pliable when nice and warm. I chose to put the heating element on the back of the dish. I figure this keeps it out of the sun and less exposed to the elements. My dish points southwest and this is the direction most of our weather comes from. I was extremely careful and methodical and got excellent results. I ran the power cable from the dish and into the attic of my house where the other satellite cables enter. I also installed an A/C outlet in the attic near the dish to supply power.

As many have noted, running the heater all winter seems a waste given that it turns on when the temperature is below 32F. Since that's almost all the time in winter where I live (Michigan), but it's only snowing a small percentage of that time, I wanted to be able to switch the element on when I actually needed it. However the switch for the heater is on the transformer, which is in the attic of my house and is only accessible via a ceiling access panel and a ladder--not very easy to do.

I chose to solve this problem with a Belkin "WeMo" WiFi switch. I connected the heater's transformer to the outlet via one of these switches, and programmed it for my WiFi. Now I can turn the heater on and off from my smart phone (if I'm connected to my home WiFi). This works great and completely solved my problem.

We got about 6" of snow here recently, and to test my new setup, I waited until there was some accumulation on the dish before turning it on from my phone. Sure enough, after about 30 minutes I could clearly see where the snow was melted, and my dish worked great. All in all, I'm very pleased with the way this all works and would highly recommend it to others.

Every winter for the past 7 years (as long as I've been a Directv customer) after the first snow fell I would say: "This year I'm putting up a dish heater". Well I finally did it and I can't believe a) how easy it was and b) how well it works!
You can check out the images I added to see the different stages of the install. But basically I was surprised how well and thorough the instructions were put together. Sometimes for niche items like this the manuals are lacking and even though the install directions were only 2 pages, they answered all your questions.
First, if you're installing this after winter has begun - be aware that you have to apply the adhesive-backed element onto the dish in at least a temperature environment of 50 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. So I realized that since I was going to install my heater on the back of the dish (instead of the front - the instructions say you can do either) and since it was 35 degrees out - it would be easiest to remove the dish and bring it in the house.
If you're installing on a slimline like mine - it's just 4 easy bolts to remove and the dish is off! And it absolutely does not mess with your alignment.
So I removed the 4 bolts, brought it in the house - cleaned it - and let it warm up.
Then I began the applying the element to the back of the dish per instructions - starting in the middle and then peeling the backing off each "wing" one at a time.
I put the dish back up and viola! Picture was still there perfectly.

I then ran the included wire to the power transformer inside my house. I didn't need even half of the 100 feet that they give you and shortening it was a cinch.

The power transformer is big and heavy. The manual says that the element has a thermostat and only turns on when the temperature falls to or below freezing. So technically you could leave it on all the time and it would only heat up when it's cold enough. However, I'm switching mine off at the transformer when it's not snowing because really that's the only time you need it. Rain or just cold doesn't seem to affect the signal (at least in Utah).
And I figure it saves power to not have the transformer on all the time.

Oddly enough it snowed 6 inches the same night of the day I installed it - so I got to see how well it worked quickly. It is awesome! Not a stitch of snow on my dish at all! When the snow was finished I just turned it off.

If your dish is on the roof or even if you're just tired of brushing it off. You owe it to yourself to do this!

Hands down - the best $130 bucks I ever spent!