# Has anyone ever had a dish DVR last more than a few years?



## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

I've had Dish DVRs since they first came out, but I've never had one last more than 3 years. I'd thought maybe I finally had a winner with my current VIP722, but in the last few days it's showing signs of dying. Locks up during playback, and then loses all DVR functionality until after a reboot. I'm guessing a matter of days now before it dies for good.

To me this is pretty frustrating. I wouldn't complain if it were a new technology, but DVR has been out for a long time now, and I'd expect reliability should now be high enough to last more than 3 years. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that every time I get a replacement unit from Dish, it's always a "refurbished" unit. I miss the days when I could buy my own DVR from Dish...

So I'm wondering if I've just been unlucky, or whether this is a fairly common problem?


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## gtal98 (Jan 30, 2011)

DVR's are just mini computers and have the same enemies - heat and dust. Unfortunately they're usually stacked with other video equipment so they don't have the best ventilation and no one ever takes the time to blow dust out of them like they should. Plus, the DVR (and therefore hard drive) is nearly always on. You'll find that most hard drive manufacturers will provide a 3 year (or less) warranty.


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## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

As for heat, I've got things about as good as you can get them. I designed my cabinetry to never have more than one STB per shelf, plenty of space between shelves, and plenty of ventilation. I also have everything plugged into a fairly high end power conditioner. And I still can't get one to survive.


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## koji68 (Jun 21, 2004)

I have had my 622 since 06/24/06. knock on wood! 

Before that I had a 501 that I got when they first came out that had to be replaced a couple of times until we figured out that the cat loved to sleep on top of it. After we moved the last 501 replacement so they cat would not get to it, it lasted several years until I replaced it with a 612 on 05/25/11.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

I would not expect to get much more than three years out of a DVR. Anything more is gravy.

This is why we lease them and why DISH has seen fit to allow us to permanently archive programming.

DVR and cabinet should never be used the same sentence. In combination, it should be DVR and oven.


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## 4bama (Aug 6, 2006)

Yes, I've still have my original 622, got one of the first ones out...forgot what year it was...2005/2006?? Anyway, no problems with DVR....


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

It depends on how much you use them... as noted, these are just computers... but with the difference that they are specifically tasked computers and many people use them essentially non-stop for 12-24 hours a day every day. Something is bound to give!


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Yep ... my 2006 622 still survives as my most used receiver and the last I checked my 2003 vintage 501 was still recording a program every weeknight.


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## tampa8 (Mar 30, 2002)

One of my 508's lasted several years, worked right up to switching to the 612's. In reality, I don't see why it matters much, that's one more reason to lease. It really has become unproductive to buy them anymore unless you have extenuating circumstances.....


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## olds403 (Nov 20, 2007)

My 722 is 3.5 years old, no issues. I use a cooling fan to pull air through the case to keep it cool.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

To the best of my knowledge I have had a 501 fail, then a 922, a 722, and finally a 622.

Only the 622 failed with a hard drive error... The 501 had a tuner failure... the 922 started rebooting after 5-10 minutes of use, the 722 had one of its tuners fail.

So all things considered... the thing I expected to fail from extended use (the hard drive) only failed once for me... The other failures were ones that probably had little to do with how I used them or their age... just flaky components that were doomed to failure some random day.


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## Inkosaurus (Jul 29, 2011)

I had a 625 for atleast 5 years, i upgraded to a 722 though so it wasnt broken when i let it go lol.
I imagine i could probably only get another 2 years out of it though at max.

When i worked at dish i spoke to a customer who had one of the 625's when they first came out and never replaced it. She told me she had two laptop coolers on it though and kept it really clean and ventilated because she had a recording of her grandaughter on there when she came out in the news.
Moments like that make me wish the 625 had EHD capability lol.


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## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

I too have an early 622 that still works just fine. My 722 and both 612's have all been replaced due to hard drive problems, although the 722 issue was our fault as the unit got shoved against the side of the cabinet blocking the air intakes.

I wonder if the 622's used a better quality disk drive? I have avoided, so far, using the HDMI output on the 622 knowing that is it's weak spot.


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## CeeWoo (Dec 1, 2008)

tampa8 said:


> One of my 508's lasted several years, worked right up to switching to the 612's. In reality, I don't see why it matters much, that's one more reason to lease. It really has become unproductive to buy them anymore unless you have extenuating circumstances.....


Agreed (on the lease/own thing) I also had a 508 I got shortly after they came out & it was still going strong when I replaced it with a hd receiver a few months back


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## nrj1030 (Nov 2, 2007)

Same here, had my 622 since 06 with no problems.


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## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

It's interesting that there are several comments here about the 2006 622's doing well. I still wonder whether that's because they were all new units, and it's the refurb units that end up failing faster. Although I would assume that a refurb unit at least gets a new hard drive. But maybe not. I've lost two 622's over the years to drive failures. 

The 722 lockups are starting to happen every day now. It's on deathwatch.


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## smbsocal (Dec 16, 2008)

We have been on Dish Network with 2 DVRs for a little over 3 years now. One of the DVRs had it's fan go out after 2 years the other is running strong.


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## etzeppy (Feb 16, 2007)

My first 622 lasted 3 years
My 2nd 622 last 3 months
My first 722K lasted 3 years
My 2nd 722K lasted ??????


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## brucegrr (Sep 14, 2006)

harsh said:


> I would not expect to get much more than three years out of a DVR. Anything more is gravy.
> 
> This is why we lease them and why DISH has seen fit to allow us to permanently archive programming.
> 
> DVR and cabinet should never be used the same sentence. In combination, it should be DVR and oven.


Ours is in a cabinet BUT we had to take the front door off the cabinet. Door closed? A nice place to keep food quite warm. Our Onkyo Audio AV receiver puts out the most heat.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

steveT said:


> I've had Dish DVRs since they first came out, but I've never had one last more than 3 years. I'd thought maybe I finally had a winner with my current VIP722, but in the last few days it's showing signs of dying. Locks up during playback, and then loses all DVR functionality until after a reboot. I'm guessing a matter of days now before it dies for good.
> 
> To me this is pretty frustrating. I wouldn't complain if it were a new technology, but DVR has been out for a long time now, and I'd expect reliability should now be high enough to last more than 3 years. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that every time I get a replacement unit from Dish, it's always a "refurbished" unit. I miss the days when I could buy my own DVR from Dish...
> 
> So I'm wondering if I've just been unlucky, or whether this is a fairly common problem?


Anything with moving parts in it.

Cooling fan
Hard drive

With hard drives it isn't if they will die it is when.

I'd say 3 years of 24/7 use is decent.

Also the older hard drives (Smaller) were more reliable.

With cooling fans, part of the equation is how fast they run. If the unit is in a warm location the fan will run faster and have a shorter life. Applies to laptops too. If you can hear the fan you need to think about cleaning the dust out.


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## BillJ (May 5, 2005)

One of my 622's was one of the first installed. Don't remember the year but I think it was late February or early March because I remember pushing for an earlier appointment so it would done before I left on a golf trip.

My other 622 was installed a couple years later. Both still working fine.


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## renpar61 (Aug 5, 2006)

I got my 622 since first installation in '05


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## Mr.Gadget (Mar 29, 2004)

I still have two 501's going strong (HD's replaced) - knock on wood.


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## MrDave (Jun 26, 2010)

My original 622 turned 6 years old today. It was one of the first batch of 622's. My second 622 is a refurb unit that I've had for 2 years. Both units are located together in a single cabinet with a 24/7 external cooling fan and I've always treated their HDMI port like it's the most fragile thing in the world (because apparently it is). These 2 622s are the only HiDef DVRs I've had, both are heavily used, and I've been very lucky with both of them. I hope that bragging on them doesn't jinx me.

Before that, I had a 721 which ran for several years trouble free before it was retired by Dish and replaced by a refurb 522. The 522 died after 18 months, but the harddrive that I salvaged from the retired 721 lives on today as a secondary disk in my desktop computer.


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## Rduce (May 16, 2008)

My 722K has a set of cooling fans that keep the hard drive temps down to a 95 average with 107 being the highest, so the units own fan only runs hard when it does a reboot, which seems a lot lately with the OTA module issues…

I also keep it dust free, but it has been tooling along since 09...


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## jack51pine (Mar 17, 2012)

steveT said:


> I've had Dish DVRs since they first came out, but I've never had one last more than 3 years. I'd thought maybe I finally had a winner with my current VIP722, but in the last few days it's showing signs of dying. Locks up during playback, and then loses all DVR functionality until after a reboot. I'm guessing a matter of days now before it dies for good.
> 
> To me this is pretty frustrating. I wouldn't complain if it were a new technology, but DVR has been out for a long time now, and I'd expect reliability should now be high enough to last more than 3 years. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that every time I get a replacement unit from Dish, it's always a "refurbished" unit. I miss the days when I could buy my own DVR from Dish...
> 
> So I'm wondering if I've just been unlucky, or whether this is a fairly common problem?


We've had our 522 for eight years no problems.


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## kregster (Mar 16, 2012)

my 722s are still going strong after 2+ years with one in a cabinet


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

steveT said:


> I've had Dish DVRs since they first came out, but I've never had one last more than 3 years. I'd thought maybe I finally had a winner with my current VIP722, but in the last few days it's showing signs of dying. Locks up during playback, and then loses all DVR functionality until after a reboot. I'm guessing a matter of days now before it dies for good.
> 
> To me this is pretty frustrating. I wouldn't complain if it were a new technology, but DVR has been out for a long time now, and I'd expect reliability should now be high enough to last more than 3 years. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that every time I get a replacement unit from Dish, it's always a "refurbished" unit. I miss the days when I could buy my own DVR from Dish...
> 
> So I'm wondering if I've just been unlucky, or whether this is a fairly common problem?


If you'll look at my posts related to overheating internal components include a drive inside 622/722 model (I would say 922 is in same boat), you'll find why.
And I did propose (and fix my [own] 622 cooling headache) proper design for efficient cooling of 622's internal parts.
My 622 is running from '07 without any HW problem (I don't want go into countless SW issues now  ).
Recently, ["eSATA for 622"] I found other solution what is not required metal work at all - external box for the drive, see my other thread.


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## shadough (Dec 31, 2006)

I guess I've been fortunate. Havent really had any failures. My 1st dvr, the 721 (purchased Feb. 2003), still works, still use once in a while. 2nd dvr, 510 (purchased spring 2004), still works an still in use. Then I got a 522 as a 'replacement' for the 721, and allthough the 1st unit I got DID have hardrive issues after the 2nd day, once I got a proper replacement, no issues w/ it. It was hauled away for my HD upgrade back in august. Now have 722 an 922 working fine, course they are only a few months old.


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## ryker (Aug 22, 2002)

I've had my 501 since 2003 and it has been used constantly. Going to go HD soon.


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## jcrobso (Mar 30, 2005)

My first 622 just died this last weekend, it was installed in 11/2006.


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