Starlink in cold weather and snow
By Roaming Dish Editors. Updated October 18, 2026. How we work these numbers out
Cold costs you twice. The dish draws more while it melts snow, and many batteries deliver less when they are cold. Plan winter trips with a bigger margin than the summer numbers suggest.
1,070 Wh × 90% usable × 90% for USB-C ÷ 40 W = about 22 hours of video calls. The dish's draw is from its spec sheet. The two percentages are our estimates.
How long it runs
| Setup | Hours per full charge |
|---|---|
| 1,070 Wh station, Mini at 40 W Mini at 40 W (video calls), USB-C | 22 h |
| 1,070 Wh station, Mini at 28 W Mini at 28 W (browsing and music), USB-C | 31 h |
| 2,048 Wh station, Standard, AC Standard at 100 W (video calls), AC outlet | 14 h |
Usable capacity taken as 90% of the rating. Connection losses are our estimates. Try your own battery.
Temperature limits
The Mini is rated to operate from -30 to 50 °C, and the Standard antenna has the same range. Mini spec sheet
Your power station has its own limits, usually stricter for charging than for discharging. Check its manual before charging it in a freezing van. Every figure in our tables assumes a battery at room temperature, so treat winter hours as an upper bound.
Snow melt
Starlink dishes heat themselves to shed snow, and that raises the draw. One installer's logged figure for a Mini melting snow is 50 to 70 W, well above its normal range. It is a third-party figure, not Starlink's. Outcamp, third-party figures
Our calculator does not model snow melt. For a snowy night, run it at the heavy-use setting and expect fewer hours than it shows.
Placement
Mount the dish where snow slides off and where you can reach it with a brush. A dish buried under a drift draws power and gets no signal.
Keeping the battery useful
Keep the power station inside the van or tent overnight rather than in an unheated locker. Many lithium stations protect themselves by refusing to charge below freezing, and some reduce output in the cold.
Charge it the evening before while it is still warm, and check the percentage in the morning before you rely on it. A cold battery that reads full can still fall short of the hours a warm one gives.
When the dish is not needed
Turn the dish off between uses instead of leaving it to heat itself through the night. Each boot costs a minute or two at higher draw, which is far less than hours of snow melting on an empty campsite.
If you leave the dish outside while you are away, brush it off before powering up. A dish buried under wet snow spends energy melting it before it finds a signal.