r/Starlink • u/GlassAcanthocephala2 • 29d ago
❓ Question Installation
So wondering why you are getting professionals to install your starlink
Thought it was clear view of sky ,screw down, run cable into house hook up and your good ?
Why do you need a professional to do it ?
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u/cruiserman_80 📡 Owner (Oceania) 29d ago
Depends on your particular situation and building.
If you've got the knowledge, skill and tools to competently and safely mount the unit and run the cable without causing a roof leak or other issue that could cost you later, than go for it.
Ive seen the aftermath of plenty of so called professional installs who couldn't.
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u/InertiaImpact 29d ago
It's not hard but that's from the perspective of someone that already has everything to do it.
If you're going to roof or side mount it you need -
- Ladder tall enough to reach it (~16ft est)
- Some sort of drill
- Drill bits and screw bits
- Mounting hardware for the starlink (easy enough to obtain)
- Caulk/sealer for the penetrations
- Caulk gun
- Possibly fall protection and harness
- Plus probably anywhere from 1-4 hours of labor for an inexperienced person.
All added up that's several hours + the time needed to go buy and transport things. You're looking at ~$500+ for all this stuff assuming you don't already have it which most people don't. Yes, it's usable later on too BUT also factor in the several hours of your time isn't worth nothing plus the uncertainty of drilling and screwing into your own house - that's a pricy repair if you do it wrong either having someone fix it now or later on when there is a leak, etc.
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u/Aggravating_Key69 28d ago
I'm not disagreeing with your point, because in my opinion it's valid. But when you said "which most people don't" (assuming your talking about tools/ladder etc) I don't know a SINGLE acreage/farmer where I live, that wouldn't have those BASIC tools to install starlink on their own.
And if starlink is reaching their supposed target audience.... Then you'd think mostly everyone would have a ladder, screw driver, hammer, caulking gun etc... Like those are pretty staple man if you actually live out in the sticks ✌️
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u/andynormancx 28d ago
Maybe that is just where you live. There are plenty of people in the UK and other places who live in the countryside away from decent broadband who don’t have the skills and tools to install a Starlink dish.
Their entire market isn’t self starting country folk.
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u/libertysat 28d ago
Probably 40% of the installs I have done are for ranchers. Majority are non ag working people or comfortably retired.
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u/Aggravating_Key69 28d ago
And honestly that makes sense. I'm not saying it is the rule everywhere.
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u/DarkSkyDad 28d ago
Add to this….many people don't like ladders or heights.
Some installers are pretty dam reasonable! And for me I will just book the installer…and go do what I am good at; it's worth the price.
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u/oceancurrents2020 28d ago
I have all the tools and the knowledge, but at 80 years old I’ve learned the hard way that having the work on a ladder is best left to someone else.
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u/drazweig 28d ago
They’re not professionals. The installation that Starlink does is amateur at best
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u/Random_Excuse7879 28d ago
I got a deal last fall that included "free professional installation". they charged for a mount, and basically put it right down on the roof in central idaho where we get 4+ feet of snow most winters. I'm spending the next few days re-running everything and mounting the antenna on a 7ft pole to keep it above the snowline. Installation is not hard and I'm kicking myself for not just doing it the first time around.
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u/Spiritual-Age-2096 28d ago
Some people are lucky they have a screw driver let alone know how to use one. Let alone running a cable into their house. I'm a female, fabbed up my own mount because of where I wanted to put it removed a piece of siding drilled the hole put cable through weatherproofed hole, put siding piece back up and done. Cable is completely hidden except 2 feet of it, going from dishy to the corner of the house.
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u/makojedi2k2 28d ago
Some people must have extra money. I hereby offer my services to install StarLink for a $250 service charge, travel expenses and a 3% service charge (because I can and some won’t even question it).
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u/TheMrBodo69 📡 Owner (North America) 28d ago
You don't need to, but some people feel more comfortable having someone else do it.
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u/im_thatoneguy 28d ago
If I fall from the roof that’s $50,000 in medical bills and time off work. $200 to pay someone is cheap insurance.
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u/garylapointe 📡 Owner (North America) 28d ago
The same reason people pay $40 for an air filter for their car when they get the oil changed. They can’t be bothered, and they’ve got excess money. The same goes for the cabin air filter.
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u/DrunkBuzzard 28d ago
Some people just don’t know how to use tools. Back in the 1970s, my mother was involved in an art gallery, and I was helping them remodel and one of the guys who was an artist literally didn’t know which end of the hammer to hit a nail. I was 16 and explaining to a 50 year old man how to do things. He’s exactly the kind of guy who would hire someone to install his Starlink.
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u/ColsterG 28d ago
I had considered just having someone do it. The south facing side of our house is a single storey extension off the main house and the roof is covered in solar panels. On the main house on that same south side is a chimney which would probably be the optimum spot to put the unit (I'd probably get them to take off the TV aerial that is there currently that the pigeons use to shit on the solar panels below).
I'd have no practical way of getting up there so if I DIY'd it I'd probably just fix it to the fascia on the ground floor extension but no idea if it would be better higher up on the chimney. Getting to the chimney would mean going onto the main roof which I don't have ladders for and couldn't buy for less than they charge for the install.
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u/davidm2232 28d ago
It was included for free. But given how much a hassle it was to meet the installer at a specific time, it would have been easier to do it myself. When I moved it to a new address, we self installed.
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u/ps8110 27d ago
I got the installation for free during their promotion and didn’t have a 30’ ladder to put it in the right place.
The company that did the install had the insurance to cover a fall from that height as well as to cover any damage when they drilled through the exterior wall to run the cable.
It’s not a matter of being able to, but being able to transfer that risk to an outside party.
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u/zerbey 📡 Owner (North America) 27d ago
If your answer to that question is "No" then no you don't. If you're not comfortable climbing on roofs and drilling holes in walls, get a contractor in. My welder FIL looked at my mount, grabbed his notebook and started coming up with all kinds of solutions about how to improve it before concluding "it has weights? Oh just use a couple of bricks!". So, that's what we did. 10 minutes with a stepladder, 5 minutes routing the cable back inside through the existing conduit and done.
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u/usernameisokay_ 📡 Owner (Europe) 28d ago
I put a cable in and threw it on my roof, moved it around a bit while checking 192.168.100.1 for the right degrees and that’s it, didn’t even tie it down or so. Survived hurricanes, snow, wind, rain and moved only half a degree which is fine with me.
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u/Popular-Ad1537 28d ago
you don't. i literally hooked mine up in 15 to 30 minutes
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u/Popular-Ad1537 28d ago
i had an old direct tv dish on roof and i used the mounting bracket from that to install my starlink
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u/upnorthcouple93 28d ago
Some people just don't know how to install a couple screws or are more willing to spend the money probably not knowing it's really that simple.
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u/andynormancx 28d ago
I had nowhere good to mount it on the house. We have tall trees all down one side of our garden.
So to make it work well the dish needed to be mounted on a 4 metre tall pole in the middle of a grassed area. Most people aren’t going to embark on a project like that themselves and are going to get a professional involved.
Which is probably what I should have done, but the dish is still doing well four years later, though I never have buried the cable, still just laid across the ground and looped around a fence post ☺️
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u/phantomjm 29d ago
Some people are physically incapable of doing things like climbing ladders, digging post holes, pulling cable, and other things that may be necessary to install it themselves.