The hydrophobic coatings can reduce the adhesive rate of droplets on the surface

and may effectively relieve the icing degree of insulators. The artificial icing and AC flashover tests were carried out on LXP-70 glass insulator strings（made up of 3 units） with 4 kinds of hydrophobic coatings in the artificial climate chamber

and parameters of coated insulator strings were compared with those of insulator strings without coatings. The influences of different hydrophobic coatings on the icing morphology

the icicle length

the ice weight growth

and the flashover voltage during ice-melting period were also explored. The test results indicate that the hydrophobic performance of the insulator surface coating significantly affects the flashover voltage during the icing and ice-melting periods. The ice weight decreases with the increasing hydrophobicity of the insulator surface. In the ice-melting period

the flashover voltages almost increase with the increase of hydrophobicity and the relationship between the flashover voltages and ice-melting time follows the trend of the U-type curve. The ice weight of insulator strings with the best hydrophobic coating drops by 26.07% and the minimum flashover voltage increases by 45.33% in comparison with those of insulator strings without coatings

respectively. The anti-icing and flashover performance of insulator strings with the contact angle of 110° are worse than those of insulator strings with no coatings.