Starlink Flat High-Performance Dish for RV: Guide

Starlink has added the Flat High-Performance dish to their arsenal, specifically designed for Starlink RV users and this has piqued my interest.

Being a casual user of Starlink RV myself during my road trip vacations, I wondered if upgrading to the Flat High-Performance dish will prove to be beneficial.

While I'm at it, I figured I should write this article for all of you folks out there in case you are in the same curiosity league as me, or just want to get into the RV internet game.

The Flat High-Performance dish for Starlink RV attempts to solve a lot of drawbacks of the traditional Starlink RV, by providing in-motion use and much-improved internet speeds, design, durability, and utility, all while maintaining the same monthly fee of $135.

Why Use Flat High-Performance Dish for RV?

The regular Starlink RV plan is a popular option for a lot of folks that live on the road.

But a lot of users have had a few issues with certain restrictions and hurdles that they needed to overcome in order to truly enjoy its potential.

One such major drawback was that you needed the RV to be stationary in order to use Starlink internet.

This meant that users will have to resort to other wireless internet technologies in order to stay connected at all times.

With the emergence of 5G and its fast speeds, the utility of the regular plans that Starlink RV provided was slowly but surely diminishing.

Starlink had to make some urgent changes in order to differentiate itself from the crowd, and they definitely delivered with the Starlink Flat High-Performance dish.

This dish is similar to how the regular High-Performance dish worked for Starlink Business and Premium users but is specifically designed with the RV in mind.

Features of Starlink RV With Flat High-Performance Dish

Starlink promises a lot of changes with the Flat High-Performance dish, as compared to the rectangular dish provided with the regular Starlink RV plan:

Permanent Installation

One of the drawbacks (and in some cases, a benefit) to the conventional Starlink RV dish was that the whole dish was portable and not fixed.

This meant that keeping it mounted while traveling was quite risky and you will have to set it up every time you stop your RV to get a proper internet connection.

The Flat High-Performance dish instead is a permanent installation to your Starlink RV roof, thus allowing for a much more integrated design while improving utility.

Better Speeds and Performance

The Flat High-Performance dish promises download speeds up to 350 Mbps, similar to the high-performance dish of Starlink Business.

This is significantly better than the 50-200 Mbps speeds provided by the regular Starlink RV dish.

The latency has also improved and is rated to be less than 20 ms, instead of the 20-40 ms you would usually get with the regular variant.

In-Motion Use

This is one of the most requested features by a lot of users, and Starlink has finally implemented the feature for RVs.

Now, you can stay connected to the Starlink internet while your RV is in motion.

Better Field of View

The Starlink Flat High-Performance dish can keep contact with Starlink constellations across the sky with a 140° field of view.

This is significantly higher than the regular rectangular Starlink RV dish, which has a field of view of 100°.

Better Ingress Protection

Ingress Protection or IP ratings are grades given to electronic devices for their capacity to resist water and dust from entering the internals and causing malfunctions.

A higher IP rating is usually preferred for devices such as the Flat High-Performance Starlink dish as it is exposed to a lot of environmental conditions.

The Flat High-Performance dish from Starlink is given an IP56 rating, which is slightly better than the IP54 rating for the regular rectangular RV dish.

Better Heating

Starlink dishes have an inbuilt heater that activates to help melt snow to remove any obstructions in its line of sight with the Starlink constellations.

While the standard rectangular Starlink RV dish can melt snow about 1.5 inches of snow an hour, the Flat High-Performance dish can melt twice the quantity, at 3 inches an hour.

Better Operating Temperatures

If you constantly travel to places where the temperatures can reach high extremes, then you might have better luck with Flat High-Performance dishes.

Both the regular and Flat High-Performance dishes are rated to work under environmental temperatures ranging from 22°F to 122°F (-30°C to 50°C).

But the regular Starlink dish is bound to get much slower as you reach the extreme conditions, whereas the Flat High-Performance dish can maintain performance chops for longer.

Better Wind Protection

If you tend to travel through regions that are susceptible to high wind speeds, then it is best to not go with the regular Starlink RV dish.

Since the regular dish is not fixed to the roof like the Flat High-Performance dish, its resistance to winds is rated lower too.

The Flat High-Performance dish is rated to handle winds up to 174 mph whereas the regular one only manages to last through wind speeds of 50 mph.

Starlink RV Kit With Flat High-Performance Dish

The Starlink RV kit with a Flat High-Performance dish comes with the following contents:

• The Flat High-Performance Starlink dish.
• A power supply rated to supply 100-240V at 50-60Hz pulling a current of 6.3A.
• A mount for the power supply.
• A Starlink router.
• A mount for the Starlink router.
• A Starlink cable of 26.2 ft.
• An ethernet cable of 16.5 ft.
• A router cable of 2 m.
• Two AC cables, one for the power supply and the other for the router, each at 6 ft in length.

Starlink also provides a wedge mount that can provide an 8-degree tilt to help with water runoff.

The Flat High-Performance Starlink dish consists of an electronic phased array antenna to help communicate with the Starlink constellations in the sky.

Pricing and Costs of Starlink RV With Flat High-Performance Dish

Given below are the costs you can expect from a Starlink RV plan with a Flat High-Performance dish compared to the regular plans:

	Starlink RV with Flat High-Performance dish	Starlink RV with rectangular dish	Starlink Residential with portability
Hardware cost	$2500	$599	$599
Data Plan cost	$135 per month	$135	$90 or $120 (low-traffic regions)
Portability fee	❌	❌	$25
Expected power consumption (@0.175USD for 1 kWh)	$14.06 to $19.18 per month on average	$6.39 to $9.59 per month on average	$6.39 to $9.59 per month on average

As expected from a higher-tier product, the Starlink RV with a Flat High-Performance dish will cost you a lot more money than the regular versions.

The hardware alone will burn through $2500 of your wallet, but the monthly data plan stays the same at $135.

One thing to note is that the Flat High-Performance Starlink dish consumes more power, and therefore your power charges can increase.

Final Thoughts

If you have further queries regarding Starlink in general, you can check out Starlink's support page.

I hope my article on Starlink's Flat High-Performance dish for RV has been a helpful read and has aided you with the same.

Have a good day!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the best-effort service of Starlink?

Best Effort is a service offered by Starlink which deprioritizes enrolled users behind Starlink Residential users when it comes to downloading speeds.

This is for regions where the Starlink service is currently at capacity and is provided for users of Starlink RV and Portable.

Is Starlink owned by Tesla?

Starlink is not owned by Tesla. It is a division of SpaceX, which is owned by Elon Musk who is the CEO of Tesla.

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