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Unraveling the Ice-melt Mystery.

Article Excerpt
Unraveling the Ice-melt Mystery

BY BILL SWICHTENBERG

Questions to ask manufacturers are its ingredients, how quickly it melts, to what temperature it works and if it causes any environmental concerns.

While there are currently floods in the Midwest and wildfires in California, for some distributors it is still time to begin thinking about winter. This means putting in the order for ice-melt products to offer to clients in areas that use them. With a plethora of products available in the marketplace, sorting through the claims by the various manufacturers is an important step.

Nearly all ice-melters are made from just five materials (or blends of these materials). These materials are: sodium chloride (NaCl); calcium chloride (CaCl2); potassium chloride (KCl); magnesium chloride (MgCl2); and urea. All of these products have different attributes and are appropriate for different applications.

How they work

Deicers do not melt snow or ice in their solid form. They must form a liquid brine that lowers the freezing point of water and dissolves ice and snow on contact. This happens until the ice and snow becomes diluted to a concentration where its freezing point is raised near water's. It dissolves downward until it reaches the pavement where it fans out to undercut and disbond the ice from the pavement. Once the ice and snow are undercut, they are more easily removed by mechanical means.

According to Greg MacDonnell, marketing manager for Dow calcium chloride, any ice-melt...