MAG corrodes metal surfaces less. Tests show MAG to be significantly less corrosive than calcium chloride and sodium chloride on both tin and aluminum.

MAG is safer around vegetation. When used as directed, MAG is safer to use around plants and bushes. In fact, magnesium chloride is used as an ingredient in some fertilizers.

MAG is safer on concrete. Tests by the Strategic Highway Research Program, Washington D.C., using 3% solutions (representative dilution of ice melting brines) show that calcium chloride caused 26 times and sodium chloride caused 63 times the amount of concrete spalling than MAG.

MAG is safer for use around animals and humans. MAG is much less toxic than calcium chloride, potassium chloride and sodium chloride based on data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In fact, a form of MAG is used as a mineral supplement in some farm animal feedstocks.

MAG is environmentally friendlier. On a pound for pound basis, MAG contains approximately 22%, 29%, 39% and 43% less chlorides than potassium chloride, calcium chloride 77%, calcium chloride 90% and sodium chloride respectively, while still maintaining its high performance level. The application of MAG results in significantly less chloride runoff and pollution than potassium chloride, calcium chloride and sodium chloride.

MAG Environmental and Safety Considerations (PDF)

There are an infinite number of blends of footing materials that are used by equestrians in indoor arenas. The common problem in all footings is that they start out great but over time quickly develop nuisance dust because the footing is pulverized by the hoof action of constant riding and pounding.

Footings are a very individual thing. Some may prefer a “Palomino” mix of sand and stone dust, while others want a blend of wood, sand, and stone dust, and others want only crumb rubber or chip rubber and sand. There is no limit to the formulas of footings for each individual facility. The common denominator is that over time they ALL break down, and dust becomes a problem. Even rubber products will break down and eventually become airborne dust particles. Hunter Jumper arenas want footings that are firm but cushy while dressage arenas want a highly consistent footing with about 3-4 inches of loose footing on the surface.

The Problem

The US Department of Labor has some staggering statistics about the ill effects of dust and respiratory illnesses caused by it. Nearly every riding arena has sand of some type somewhere in it; either as part of the subsurface or base, or as part of the footing itself. Sand contains silica, and silicosis is a well-documented INCURABLE disease that is cause by inhalation of airborne silica, or sand. Wood fibers also are a very real health problem. Consider that when the maximum permissible dust levels in the average woodshop are exceeded, OSHA or local health authorities are not only permitted but are required by law to shut down the facility until the dust is mitigated.

The Solution

While there are many types of dust, all dust is the result of the material becoming so finely pulverized that it can become airborne and consequently inhaled. The easiest way to mitigate dust problems is with the addition of water to weigh down the particles and prevent them from floating.

Water is a viable solution (pun intended) for dust problems in many areas, but it does not come without costs. You must have the water or purchase it, then dispense it with a sprinkler system, and then that sprinkler system must be maintained, which means pumps, pipes, hoses, and potential plumbing problems.

Enter MAG, a proven humectant or hygroscopic agent that draws in moisture naturally. MAG is a form of magnesium chloride that is harvested from the Dead Sea, a source of life giving minerals. MAG will draw in water and then hold it at an impressive rate. One pound of MAG can hold up to four times its weight in water under ideal conditions. MAG will draw in moisture continuously and indefinitely and suppress dust permanently in any type of footing in any indoor arena.

Method

Applying MAG to an indoor ring is all art and little science. Recognizing that footings are very individual, the objective in all footings is to maintain a consistent level of loose material to provide the desired amount of give.

The objective of proper dust control using MAG is to “sneak up” on the correct amount and NOT OVERAPPLY. When applying the product, always apply conservative amounts over a period of weeks, allowing ring use to mix the product into the footing to achieve the desired level of dust control.

Do Not Water!!!

The worst thing that you can do when using MAG is to water your ring. Once you commit to using MAG, it is very important that all watering for dust control is halted. The reason is simple: You are applying a dust control agent at the surface, and gravity and hoof action will help it to penetrate the footing, coat all the particles of footing and hold them down on the arena floor where you want them. By watering after you have applied MAG, you are rinsing the product off the top and into the subsurface.

How Much MAG do I need?

The amount needed varies depending upon your ring, but generally speaking, we find that it takes 2 to 4 pallets of MAG to achieve complete dust stabilization. Once the ring is completely stabilized you NEVER need to water again. In fact, watering the ring after it is stabilized with MAG is counterproductive and only rinses the dust control agent into the base where it does you no good. We recommend a maintenance dose of approximately one pallet per year to touch up around doorways where traffic and rain may remove the treated footing, and also to combat dust arising from other materials that are added to the indoor arena such as contaminants from boots, hooves, and manure.

Is MAG Safe to Use?

MAG is very safe to use and handle. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) uses a document called a “Material Safety Data Sheet” (MSDS) to standardize information about all materials. On this form OSHA uses an industry standard for toxicity called an “LD50”, which is the amount of material that is required to kill at least 50% of the test subjects. While this is a morbid thought, it is the standard that the government has established and is recognized industry wide. The LD50 for strychnine, a rat poison, is 16 (milligrams per kilogram of body weight). The LD 50 for aspirin and calcium chloride is 1000 mg/kg. The LD50 for table is salt 3,000, and the LD50 for MAG is 8,100! That means that MAG is 2.5 times less toxic than table salt, is about half as toxic as baking soda and is very comparable to vitamin C, ascorbic acid.

How long will MAG last?

MAG will last forever, or until you wash it away with water or add new footing.

How do I maintain my footing once it is fully stabilized?

This is the most important part of any successful program; Maintenance. You change the oil in the tractor, the car, and grease and maintain all the other tools of horse management so why wouldn’t you also maintain your riding surface? We recommend that you regularly groom your riding surface with either a tine harrow or other drag-type device which will pull the footing up from the base and turn it over. Even an old piece of chain link fence dragged behind a machine will smooth out and level the riding surface. More often than not, the highest levels of dust are seen when grooming an untreated indoor ring. The best grooming devices are ones which have “teeth” that will dig into the footing and fluff it and turn it over while smoothing it out at the same time.

So, regular grooming is the #1 way to properly maintain your indoor ring once it is treated for dust. Next, a small maintenance dose of MAG for use around the doorways and problem areas is recommended. The average 100 X 200 indoor ring will take three pallets of MAG to fully stabilize and then one pallet of MAG per year to maintain. Compare these costs to the costs of a sprinkler system and frozen footing in the winter.

Frozen Toes Made you close?

There is a side benefit to MAG stabilization that has not been mentioned: freeze proofing your ring. You will never again be forced to shut down in winter because the water saturated footing in your indoor froze up, and you could not ride in it because it is like a frozen moonscape. MAG will keep the same consistency in your footing throughout the year including those sub-zero days when you were not able to ride because the indoor was hard as a stone.

Is MAG the same as the liquid stuff being offered?

No! MAG is not a liquid – it’s dry flake form! Recently, others have begun to try to capitalize on the enormous success of our MAG. Some companies now offer a modified liquid product which appears to be a blend of unknown waste corn or agricultural chemicals and claimed to be mixed with an unknown source of magnesium. Do not be mislead by others claiming to offer the performance of our MAG magnesium chloride in liquid form. It’s impossible to have the same performance of a dry product in liquid form, even if you were to liquefy MAG and then mix it with something else. These are not MAG which is a registered trademark of Dead Sea Works and ONLY MAG offers the absolute performance guarantee for dust control in your footing.

ONLY MAG products have the benefit of experience of more than 15 years of use in Europe and New England. These unknown liquids are new to the market, are unproven, and there is NO TOXICOLOGICAL DATA on them as to long term effects on equine health in legs and hooves over a long period of time. Know what you are buying and be sure to demand a certificate of analysis which certifies the minimum MgCl2 content. Our MAG is guaranteed to be 100% MgCl2, hexahydrate while liquids chemically cannot contain more than 33% MgCl2,. There are NO agricultural or distiller’s waste products in MAG; it is a pure natural product that is extracted from the Dead Sea – a source of life giving minerals. The costs of these liquids seem to average $0.15-$0.30/ft2, which is equal to about $2000 per treatment and $3000 per year on the average indoor. That is more than five times as expensive as MAG! Don’t be fooled by imposters who are claiming to perform the same as our MAG!

Nuts and Bolts – How to apply MAG

The term “this is not rocket science” comes to mind first. Think of applying MAG to your indoor as though you are fertilizing your lawn. You want to get even, thorough coverage. To do this we recommend the use of a broadcast spreader, or rotary spreader. We have had excellent results using a Brinley 150 lb. spreader that Home Depot sells for less than $200.00. It is mostly plastic with stainless steel knife gate and application adjustments.

Using a rotary spreader, fill the spreader to capacity and begin at the far end of the arena away from the “stockpile” of MAG. Open the spreader up to full capacity (wide open) and then begin by making a checkerboard pattern going first north and south in your arena and then east and west over the same area in a checkerboard pattern. When MAG is properly applied, it will look like it just snowed a light snow in the indoor. You will immediately see MAG start to pull in moisture and dissolve into the footing. This is what it’s supposed to do and what will effect dust control. Start off by putting a rate of 2.5# per square yard of surface.

To determine your square yards, take the width times the length divided by 9. Multiply that number by 2.5 to determine what you will need for an initial dose. See the example below:

100’ wide times 200’ long = 20,000 square feet
20,000 square feet divided by 9 = 2,222 square yards
2,222 square yards times 2.5 lbs. per yard equals 5,555 lbs. of MAG for the first application.*

* This is only the first application but because all footings are different, and dust levels vary widely, this is a starting point that is more than half way to complete control for the average indoor. Next we suggest that you “sneak up” on the final amount needed for complete dust control in your indoor. Continue to add MAG but do so at much lower levels until you have achieved complete dust control. The second, and all subsequent applications, should be at approximately 1000 lbs. over the entire indoor. It is very important to not over-treat. Over-treating will result in a fully saturated, muddy, slippery, wet footing, that will compact and work against you. If you do make a mistake, and one week after treating find that you have over treated your indoor, then use a sprinkler to rinse away some of the product and drive it into the subsurface. This must be done with great care to avoid over rinsing and losing the job that you just worked so hard to do. With so many different types of footing, it is impossible to speculate about how much MAG it will take to stabilize or how much water it will take to “remove” some of the MAG that was over applied. As stated up front, this is not rocket science, and as a stable owner and barn manager, you know better than anyone that common sense is the best guide.

Realize that a treated ring needs some time to equilibrate or settle. While the first day after the first treatment you may think that you are all set, we find that a week or two later dust may begin to break through a little as the fines underneath the surface begin to work up and need to be treated. Typically a small maintenance dose of MAG is required from time to time to suppress new fines as they develop in normal ring use and around doorways and entries where rain may wash away some of the treatment, or where dirt and other sources of dust are dragged in to the arena.

Summary

• Prepare your ring to be treated by grooming and leveling.
• Use a checkerboard pattern to apply product evenly.
• Do Not Water – Ever! (It is ok to “spritz” the ring once.)
• Thoroughly rinse down all equipment after each application. Ask for our brochure to understand more about this extremely safe and proven dust control product. Packaged in 50 lb. bags and available in either flake or pellet forms:

Download

MAG Care and Feeding for Dust Control is available in PDF form for distributing and printing.

Do you have any questions? Contact us today at 508.520.3900

FACT: BEET JUICE DOES NOT IMPROVE SALT BRINE PERFORMANCE

A key reason road maintenance professionals turn to salt brine additives is to increase the deicing performance of salt brine at lower temperatures. Pure salt brine used for deicing is 77% water/23% salt. It freezes when road temperatures reach -6°F/-21°C and is generally applied at road temperatures as low as 15°F/-9°C.

• Adding beet juice to salt brine — even at a 20% concentration — does not increase the salt brine’s ice-melting properties or decrease the temperature at which it is effective.
• ArctiClear Gold improves salt brine performance when it is added at just 10% concentration—allowing salt brine to effectively work at road temperatures as low as 5°F/-15°C.

FACT: BEET JUICE REDUCES THE FRICTION OF SALT BRINE

It is important to use deicing products that provide enough surface friction to give drivers adequate traction. Some additives may cause roads to be slick if they are applied at the wrong temperature.

• Beet juice reduces the friction of a salt brine solution by 10% – 20%. This translates to slicker roads and more dangerous driving conditions.
• ArctiClear Gold increases the friction of salt brine by 10% – 20% and allows you to safely apply the brine solution at lower temperatures.

FACT: HIGHER CONCENTRATIONS OF BEET JUICE ARE REQUIRED TO COMBAT CORROSION

Additives can help protect equipment and sensitive infrastructure from the wearing effects of salt. The Pacific Northwest Snowfighters (PNS) Association has established a standardized protocol to measure and predict the corrosion potential of deicing products. On this corrosion scale, pure salt scores 100 and water scores 0. Products must score below 30 to meet most PNS corrosion specifications.

• 25% beet juice concentration is required to lower salt brine’s corrosion score to meet PNS specifications. However, it will also reduce the brine’s ice melting properties. So when beet juice is used as a corrosion inhibitor, application rates should be increased in direct proportion to the amount of beet juice added. Higher concentrations of beet juice also mean higher costs.
• ArctiClear Gold and ArctiClear CI Plus reduce corrosion at much lower concentrations. And, both are approved on the PNS Qualified Products List.

What is ArctiClear® Gold?
ArctiClear Gold contains magnesium chloride and naturally derived sugar in a patented formulation designed to optimize the performance of your salt brine.

What is ArctiClear CI Plus?
ArctiClear CI Plus reduces the corrosion levels of salt brine to acceptable PNS corrosion levels. While it offers no deicing performance improvement, it’s the most economical salt brine corrosion inhibitor on the market.

Don’t let beet juice water down your deicing efforts. Ask your beet juice and salt brine additive provider for independent lab data or send an additive sample mixed with salt brine for independent lab analysis of freeze point, corrosion and friction. Call 800-637-4504 for more guidance in evaluating salt brine additives.

In snow country, we utilize many landscape features that might be impacted by the use of chemical deicers. Understanding how chemical deicers can cause efflorescence in concrete, brick and pavers is an important first step to managing complaints about this topic.

The Chemistry of Efflorescence

All concrete products contain cement which produces lime or water soluble calcium oxide. Lime can also be in the bedding sand, aggregate base materials, or soil. Although concrete pavers are solid, strong, and very dense, they contain millions of microscopic capillaries that run from the interior to the surface. Moisture from rain, sprinkler systems , underground sources, poor site drainage, or dew enters these microscopic capillaries.
Efflorescence emerges from pores within a magnified area of a concrete. The calcium has been carried to the surface by water and now exposes it to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which reacts to form the carbonate bloom.
Calcium oxide inside the concrete reacts with the water in the capillaries and forms calcium hydroxide. This rises to the surface, reacts with the carbon dioxide in the air, and forms a white haze of calcium carbonate. When moisture on the surface evaporates, the efflorescence becomes visible.
Efflorescence occurs when free calcium, sodium, and other reactive metal ions absorb carbon dioxide from the air to form carbonates; an efflorescent bloom that looks like wispy white frost. This can happen naturally in new or old concrete and pavers, and in concrete, clay fired brick, and, concrete pavers where deicers are applied. The metal ion component of deicers, such as the sodium in rock salt, or the calcium in calcium chloride, become free after applied and absorb CO2 from the air to form carbonate blooms or efflorescence; a white frosty crystal growth on the concrete sidewalk, brick paver surface, or clay brick buildings near the areas where deicers were applied.
Certain deicers are far less susceptible to forming carbonate blooms, such as magnesium chloride, and conversely some deicers are more prone to contribute to efflorescence such as calcium chloride and rock salt or sodium chloride.
My decorative bricks all have a chalky white efflorescent bloom on them that keeps growing even after I wash it off. When will this stop?
First you need to determine if the bricks are cement paver type or clay fired type. This is to help anticipate the source of the free metal ion that is causing the carbonate bloom. Most efflorescence stops in early summer following repeated rainfalls which wash it away. Acid rain actually helps in this context because it will dissolve the calcium or sodium bloom upon contact in most cases.
If the source of the efflorescence is coming from free sodium and/or calcium that is residue from winter deicing operations, then it shouldn’t last very long. If on the other hand it’s coming from the concrete itself and is not deicer derived, then it might continue for years or longer.

How to minimize the chance for efflorescence:

Some deicers, such as our MAG products, cannot effloresce and for this reason they specified by many manufacturers of pavers and brick such as Glen-Gery Brick and Unilock. While efflorescence is a natural occurrence, there are some steps that you can take to try to minimize the opportunity for it to occur. One of these steps, applying a good quality concrete sealer, can also reduce the chances of concrete spalling damage which is discussed at length in another technical article on our website at www.MeltSnow.com.

“Environmentally friendly” is a term that is applied with a spatula in today’s products’ labels in ever increasing numbers.   What does it mean?  Does it mean it’s better for nature, people, pets, or for the profit line of the company offering it?    In the industry and elsewhere, we see a marked increase in “green-washing” of products and issues; that is that something is claimed to be environmentally better but there is no science to back it up and ultimately, it’s just a label with a lot of green ink.

Most of us think of environmental issues largely as “pollution”.  In this context, the US EPA considers two fundamental sources of pollution; Point Source, and, Non-Point Source.  In simple terms a pollutant is a substance that enters the environment and elevates the “natural” background levels of chemistry in that environment.   Deicing materials fall into non-point source pollution as they are first applied for public safety and then migrate into the environment; wetlands, rivers, storm drains, and groundwater.   But often we have to consider the environment beyond just groundwater such as roadside vegetation and the animals that live in that environment.

In an attempt to unravel the reams of misinformation, consumer confusion, and, outright deceptive label claims, we will try to address each component of environmental impact from deicers that every property owner should think about as they evaluate their choices of deicing materials.
For the past sixty years, since the onset of road salt use for winter maintenance, sodium chloride levels have been steadily rising in North American rivers and tributaries.   Sometimes, the deicers are in direct contact with public water supplies, and sometimes they are carried to the low-lying areas of our environment through melting and runoff.  To put this into context, in the US we add (apply) over one million truckloads (20 million tons) of road salt to our environment every year.   Packaged deicers are a few million or so tons on top of that.  Removing salt from the environment is difficult if not impossible once it is down and moving in runoff.   Capturing runoff and using reverse osmosis and/or membrane separation are expensive, time consuming, and to my knowledge no public entity is currently removing salt from runoff anywhere in North America.

The true nature of deicer environmental impact is a problem that is widely misunderstood.  If current trends continue in the coming decades aquatic life will suffer and water supplies will be threatened. Sodium is a concern for people with medical conditions such as hypertension.  Governments need to decide on which end of the process to spend dwindling public funds: environmentally better deicers for the roads or new treatments for the waters they pollute.  Both cost more.

It is very important to remember always that the only reason we ever put down any deicer is for public safety.  There is no practical reason to apply deicers with the sole exception of public safety and it is important that the benefits that deicers provide are carefully balanced against any adverse consequences of their use.   Literally billions of dollars of damage from traffic and pedestrian accidents are avoided by the use of deicers.   Before indicting any deicer, please consider how life would be without it and whether the risks outweigh the rewards and adverse consequences.

While grandiose and often patently false claims of environmental fitness are widely found on packaged deicers, more and more we are seeing that trend bleeding into bulk products with agricultural,  fermentation by-product, and sugar based additives making over-reaching claims.  These additives are frequently corn sweetener based, or beet sugar based, or even just plain molasses, but they are only added to road salt in relatively small quantities while celebrated in the marketing materials as if they were the only component.   Road salt additives for the most part seem to definitely provide some benefits, but it is not unusual to find alternatives costing up to ten times or more than the basic salt while only providing a fractional improvement in performance enhancement.

One of my pet-peeves in this context is the claim that any additive to road salt suddenly makes the entire mixture bio-degradable.   It is impossible for any inorganic salt product (sodium chloride-magnesium chloride-calcium chloride) to become bio-degradable by the simple addition of an organic sugar component.   The additive might be biodegrade, but the salt cannot according to all laws of inorganic chemistry.   Claims that any salt based material is biodegradable are patent falsehoods and they intentionally deceive the buyer for the purpose of profit.   Do not simply assume the marketing claims of any product are true because there is no truth in labeling in the deicing industry and there is no penalty for lying; at least not yet.
Biodegradable is not always a good thing; bacteria that break down the organic chemical additives consume oxygen – and low oxygen levels are another problem in many urban streams.   The EPA has guidelines for and regulates biological oxygen demand (BOD) because high BOD’s can choke off an aquatic ecosystem.   On the other end of the spectrum is adding problematic macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium which feed eutrophication – algae growth – which chokes off aquatic ecosystems by over-feeding them with nutrients.     We get complaints that many additives stain and stink like rotting vegetables.

For packaged melters, a fancy bag with pictures of mountains and puppies with a catchy name and lots of friendly words and official looking seals of approvals on it is merely a wrapper and nothing more.    Start by ignoring the appearance of the wrapper and focus only on the chemistry of what’s in the bag.   Label green-washing is pandemic in the deicing chemical industry and it is a relatively new phenomenon – maybe the last five to ten years – and it is happening with exponentially increasing use.

As we begin to consider aspects of environmental fitness deicing products, we must first reduce all the variables to a common denominator: the chemistry of the product and the chemistry of the environment that you are trying to protect.   No matter what anyone wants to claim about a product being anything, in order to properly evaluate the environmental “benefits” the chemistry of the product is the core of evaluation.

”Environmental” impact of deicers may come in any number of forms:

1. Pollution to water
   • Drinking water supplies worry about
     • Elevated sodium because hypertensive users might be placed at risk with elevated sodium levels stemming from use of road salt for example.
     • Elevated chlorine levels
     • Elevated biological oxygen demand and potential eutrophication – algae growth fed by deicers like urea, acetates, formates, and, other fertilizer macro nutrients (N-P-K) commonly used for deicing.
     • Elevated levels of heavy metals that may come along with any material and particularly with mined materials where contaminants are not routinely evaluated
   • Rivers and waterways worry about elevated levels of anything that is unnatural to that waterway.   This covers everything from the deicer itself to the contaminants that are part of the material.
2. Impact to infrastructure
   • A multilevel structural concrete parking garage uses a reinforcing bar skeleton which may be susceptible to corrosion from many deicers
   • A concrete walkway may be damaged by increased freeze-thaw cycles from freeze point depression deicers
   • A bridge constructed of steel may have increased corrosion leading to failure
   • Certain types of porous pavement, found increasingly in campuses where Federal Storm water recharge laws are calling for less solid pavement which prevents groundwater recharge, are extremely susceptible to freeze-thaw damage since these materials are fully saturated with deicer brines.
   • Corrosion to vehicles and equipment
   • Doorways, stairways, fasteners on decking are potentially corroded by deicers
3. Impact to landscape features
   • Walkways constructed of decorative stamped concrete or brick may have efflorescence
   • Marble or granite steps and flagstones set in concrete mortar
   • Turf and shrub exposure to deicers
4. Regulatory driven:
   • Order of conditions by a conservation commission to not use ‘salt’
   • Prohibition due to rivers protection
   • Coastal protection such as harbors, waterfronts, and navigable waterways

Chlorides are near the top of the list of components that the EPA wants reduced.   You can quickly list commonly available deicers by descending order of their chloride content in commercial form; rock salt, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, followed by all the non-chloride products.   Is chloride content what you’re trying to eliminate in your environment?    If it’s Sodium that is the problem, then again simply use the chart below to arrange the listed products by sodium content and then focus on the ones with the lowest sodium content.

If you are evaluating a deicer for use in your new porous paved parking lot, where all the rain, snow, ice, and deicing materials will seep directly into the ground below, understanding if the chemistry needs of the affected groundwater should be at the core of your decision making.  If you are trying to reduce the total chlorides, then salt products with naturally lower chloride levels like magnesium chloride hexahydrate might be a good option.   Road salt contains 62% chlorine but magnesium chloride hexahydrate contains only 34%, so by changing the product you can cut the sodium out nearly entirely and reduce the chloride by 50%.   The performance improvement may get more melting effectiveness further allowing for reductions in what is seeping into the environment.    If you are on top of a public water supply, then perhaps non-chloride deicers should be considered provided the BOD and macronutrient loadings are not going to become a new problem.  Frequently nitrates are also on the environmental reduction list so using UREA for example might be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

The chart below gives basic information on common deicers that could be helpful in establishing an environmental evaluation:

We have had the benefit of hearing many outrageous assertions about snow and ice products over the past three decades, and the one that we see most often is misinformation.    If a plowing customer says that they don’t want “salt” on their property, they need to be very specific about what salt they do not want and it helps if you can understand why.   We’ve had many occasions to appear before regulatory boards who handed down an order of conditions on a property without the benefit of proper information.    “No salt!”   Does that mean no sodium, no chlorides or both?   Why?   If the no-salt is due to wetlands, then using UREA or Potassium acetate might be the worst thing you could put down as it could have a far greater adverse impact than salt might have.   Stating  what you can’t use is only half of the challenge, the other half is what you CAN use to fight snow and ice.

A comment about LEEDS certifications and deicers:  Many property owners are seeking to obtain LEEDS certification.   Recently, LEEDS has recognized that magnesium chloride hexahydrate is low chlorides and highly effective and they recommend its use for buildings though they have no certification nor clear statement on this.   Green Seal is an organization that certifies various materials and products for their environmental fitness based on the chemistry.   There is no Green Seal standard for ice melters.

Understand that when it comes to evaluating deicers environmentally, it is still the wild west with the standards and laws changing from one town to the next.   We have been trying to start an independent deicer industry institute to then select an impartial lab who would perform testing and certify each product to a standard and certify the ingredients.   This must be done to stop the lies in labeling that are so pervasive in this market today.    Imagine putting a food product on a shelf with no list of ingredients?   Consumers would scream the day it hit the shelves but somehow, we have allowed the packaged deicer world to evolve under a cloak of deception in labels.    That is unacceptable and we must have transparency in the industry to clean up Dodge, and help the users to understand that this is nothing more than middle school science.

Demand a full disclosure of ingredients by percentage from any material you are considering so you know what you are putting into your environment.    We’ve had more than a few times when someone said they are using “Enviro-this” or “Eco-that” deicers because they can’t use salt, only to learn that the products they are buying are over 95% salt and they accomplished nothing but over-paying for salt.

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“What’s the best deicer to use?”   We hear that question virtually every day and our answer is always the same; it depends on the surface you are trying to manage.

Building materials have taken some quantum leaps in recent decades and the surfaces that we had to manage for snow and ice control thirty years are still there, however quite a few new surfaces and landscape features have evolved that require some understanding of ice melters in order to properly manage application of them on these newer materials.

For example; you might be asked “what is the best deicer for a residential deck surface?”    Properly managing snow on deck surfaces requires the snow fighter to first understand the exact nature of construction of the deck itself.   On first blush the average snow fighter would likely simply apply whatever he’s using on the sidewalks or even the parking lots.   That could be a fatal mistake if the deck material and fastener system  holding it together are not considered before deicers are used.

While not overly common in commercial properties, wooden decks adorn a vast majority of single family homes, condominiums, and apartments in North America.  It’s a common feature that is outside and will catch snow and ice equally with the parking lot in most cases.    Wood is by nature capillary and accordingly it will hold moisture.  If you look at the photo of the concrete steps leading down to a wooden deck walkway,  you can see how the snow is sticking to the colder wooden surface and not on the concrete surface.   Because of that fact and the exposure to weather, typically stainless or galvanized fasteners are used to fasten the surface to the joists and the rim joist to the building (galvanized lag bolts).    Chloride based deicers are corrosive to many different types of metals.   If you were to use a chloride based deicer, the chlorides may and likely would attack the fastener system and in time will eat away at it and cause the fasteners to dissolve even if only ever so slightly.   Deicers were implicated as a contributing factor in the sensational bridge collapse in Minn. a few years ago.    A loose nail or screw does not hold and while a nail or screw that is driven in is normally nice and tight and does a great job of holding, start eroding (shrinking) that fastener with chloride deicers and you could compromise the fasteners and ultimately face a catastrophic failure.

I am speaking from direct experience in this context:  A large group of close friends were relaxing on a large sun deck at a ski chalet in Vermont some years ago when the fasteners holding the deck to the house gave way and the entire structure suddenly fell from the house side while the outboard upright supports briefly held.   The people that were standing on the deck were instantly piled up in the crotch of the collapse and seconds later the uprights that were holding the outer rim of the deck fell and the deck then kicked first out and then back as it landed and all of the people that were on it were crushed between the building and the kicking deck.   These were athletic young skiers who you would think could manage a fall but the incredible part of this collapse was that everyone that was on the deck was injured and most had either broken legs or broken pelvis’.   That is a very sobering reminder to me about the necessity of the integrity of fasteners on deck systems, and as a deicer company we try to caution people about this.

So as you decide how you’re going to attack the snow and ice problem on a deck, be careful to evaluate all of the elements of that structure that will be exposed to deicers and then make your decision.
Going back to the wooden deck, wood is capillary and tends to hold moisture by its nature.   If you apply hygroscopic deicers to it lightly, you may actually increase the slip and fall danger more than abate it.     Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride are great products for most applications, but they are very hygroscopic (attract moisture) and if brines of these materials saturate the capillaries of a wooden deck, they might make that deck more prone to moisture generated slipperiness.   We’ve also seen a lot of plastic decking in the last decade and it’s a great material that is enormously popular because of its long life and lack of required maintenance with stain or paint.  However, as anyone who’s ever walked  on a plastic deck in sneakers that was rain covered knows, when plastic decks are wet they are very slippery.   Now add a calcium chloride or magnesium chloride deicer to that plastic surface and you can setup a potential slip and fall while trying to prevent that very risk.   Most plastic materials are virtually impervious to deicer brines, the hygroscopic nature of the deicer may actually increase the “oily” factor and slipperiness of the deck surface.

With decks, the variables to carefully consider are the material of construction, the fastener systems, and the overall exposure to the number one natural ice melter in the world; the sun.   Decks, whether they are bridges, elevated walkways, or residential sun decks, are the most tricky surface that we face with deicers and that is the time when abrasives are often very beneficial so consider adding sand to the mix if you are responsible for making a deck passable and safe in winter weather.

Another material that we are seeing more of in the snow belt is granite used in a variety of applications from entrance areas to steps.   More often than not, these granite slabs and tiles are a polished surface which poses concern about making the surface slick from the use of moisture gathering deicing compounds.   Along with granite, many high-end properties are using pavers, slate, and other stone elements set in mortar.

The most common complaint about deicers is concrete damage and that is typically the result of spalling caused by a mechanical attack of melting created liquid brines contained in the air voids of the concrete refreezing, and thereby expanding and breaking apart the concrete mechanically – not chemically.  When dealing with stonework set in mortar, the potential for freeze:thaw derived spalling damage is extremely high, and great care must be exercised any time the surface you are treating has stone or other features set in mortar.   The brines created by the application of deicers onto the snow and ice covered surface will penetrate the mortar and may cause freeze:thaw related failures.   So that beautiful slate walk that was just put in may become an unstable broken up mess; the deicer might be safe for the slate, granite, or stone, but it’s not safe for new concrete.

I plan to cover concrete damage more thoroughly in a future article, however we generally recommend that no chemical deicers are used on concrete less than two years old.   Sealing the concrete properly with a professional concrete sealer or paint will help to prevent the resultant brines from filling up the air pockets in air entrained concrete and help to lower the potential for freeze:thaw related damage.

Back to the variety of surfaces that are out there, it is nearly impossible to offer a “one size fits all” deicer for all of these different surfaces because each has its own characteristics that can be impacted by the type of deicer you choose.   If you have a surface that can tolerate chlorides, then by all means regular old rock salt will provide the least expensive deicing option.   With products like our treated salt, which is rock salt encapsulated with a mixture of magnesium chloride and molasses, users generally see significant performance improvement over untreated salt as the magnesium “wrapper” is the first to brine and helps salt work a lower temperatures than it normally would work.

Understanding that chloride based deicers generally all will attack ferrous metals and many other types of metals found in building systems can help you to avoid costly damage claims.   Looking closely at the photo of the doorway, which by the way is less than 3 years old, you can see that the galvanized steel stairs appear to be ok, but the steel door and frame are already showing heavy corrosion damage.   Adding corrosion inhibitors to chloride based deicers may help, but you have to understand the inhibitor being applied and whether it is biodegradable or if it  has a lifespan that is shorter than the end time of time lifespan on the chloride deicer.   Inhibitors are something that are still widely misunderstood in our experience and people mistakenly assume that simply having “an inhibitor” in the product is going to protect their materials which usually they do not!

As you evaluate any property and the variety of surfaces to be deiced, always think beyond the surface; think about where the mixture of deicer and melt water will go and how that mixture might introduce new concerns if at all.    On the surfaces themselves, be sure to carefully consider all of the components that will be exposed to the resulting brines or melted snow and make sure that the deicer you’re using is not going to attack secondary non-target components such as re-bar, steel stairs, aluminum door frames and thresholds, mortar and concrete used to hold stones, granite, or other architectural landscaping features.    Also, understand that any snow that is thrown or plowed off that contains deicers also will then contaminate the point of final rest where they melt down and enter ground water potentially affecting shrubs, turf, and other plantings.
The most important thing you can do as an ice melt product buyer is to demand that your supplier gives you a certified statement of ingredients.   If you are buying a product called “The World’s Safest Deicer”, then you are entitled to a complete detailed analysis of the ingredients listing them by descending percentages in detail.   There are a lot of smoke and mirrors out there in packaged deicers and just because there are puppies, babies, and pine trees on the bag and it has a statement of being safe for the environment or it “contains” CMA does not mean that the material is automatically safe!  The US Federal Right to Know law entitles every ice melt product buyer to a statement of ingredients; it is the law.   Do not take the salesman’s word for it; if you are buying 96% rock salt and 4% filler you have a legal right to know that.    If they claim it is protected by a patent, then ask for the patent number or point out the obvious; the very purpose of a patent is to protect the inventor by public disclosure of his invention – so if it’s patented, IT’S NOT A SECRET!   We are as an industry fighting labeling problems and we encourage all buyers of ice melter products to demand a full disclosure, in writing, and certified as to the formula and ingredients BY PERCENTAGE in any ice melt product you buy.   We will provide these on any product that we sell, and we applaud Cargill Salt for printing their formulas on their bags this year and helping to straighten out this massive label deception that is suddenly prevalent in packaged melters.

Download PDF of article

Hydrometers are widely used to measure specific gravity, or density, of liquid materials.   Most people have used a form of hydrometer to check the level of glycol antifreeze in their  car radiator or the battery acid strength in the car battery.   Those types typically employ a series of colored balls that individually will float up at various densities to indicate strength.  ERTCO manufactures the glass hydrometers that we use for testing of our BioBrineTM product line of magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, and sodium chloride liquids for deicing.    If you are making salt brines, now ERTCO offers a specific hydrometer for salt brines that shows the percentage of salt, but we use the standard chemical laboratory glass hydrometers with graduation marks in 0.000 increments for accuracy and these are the hydrometers that we suggest be used as they are reliably accurate.

While not a chemical test that gives a percentage of ingredients per se, hydrometers are the backbone of spot checking the density of a liquid deicer to confirm that it is either within specification or not.   Heavy chemicals are materials that are heavier than water.    Water has a specific gravity of 1.000 at 68F (room temperature).  We know from high school science that water weighs 8.34 (8.3369) pounds per US gallon.    This basic understanding is important, because any liquid deicer that is heavier than water will be the specific gravity times the weight per gallon of water to determine the weight per gallon of the liquid deicer.   32% liquid calcium chloride weighs 11.03 lbs per gallon and that is determined by multiplying the specific gravity, 1.322, times the weight per gallon of water, 8.34 to arrive at 11.03.  This fundamental basis is the used for all the common liquid deicers that we encounter in snow and ice management.

For example, if you were to receive a bulk tank truck delivery of 32% liquid calcium chloride deicer, you could capture a sample and then fill up a one gallon jug with the product and it should weigh pretty close to 11 lbs.   If it is 9 or 10 lbs, then you are getting a good bit more water in the load then you expected, and if its 12 lbs, then you are getting additional solids in the material that could be calcium or could be something else, but in any case it is clear that it is not within the specification range for 32% calcium chloride which you ordered.    It is almost too easy to for the dishonest butcher to put his thumb on the scale when weighing up the deli order, and accordingly it is also easy for the dishonest liquid deicer supplier to put a little more water in the product and not have the customer catch that he just got 27% CaCl2 even though the paperwork says it is 32%.  The use of the hydrometer will empower you to quickly see if what you bought is within specification or not.

Here is a common chart showing the specific gravity of various concentrations of calcium chloride liquid.   In the second column from the left, you will find a list of specific gravities which correspond to the percentage of calcium chloride in the solution indicated immediately to the left.   The other columns of this chart show the gallons per ton of the solution (and dry) along with equivalent levels of flake, pellet, anhydrous calcium with the final column being the approximate freezing point.

Click to enlarge

Using the information on the chart above, we’ve outlined in red the 32% calcium chloride row and corresponding specific gravity of 1.322

To properly use the hydrometer there are some basic things that one must understand to get accurate readings consistently and over time.   First, the torpedo style of lead filled glass hydrometer that we advocate, floats up higher and higher as density of the material increases.   Understanding that water is specific gravity of 1.00, we want the hydrometer to settle in this solution at 1.322 to tell us that is on specification.

The materials needed to perform the simple test:
You will need a clear graduated cylinder, a hydrometer that covers the range of material densities you need to check, and, a sample of the material to be checked that is sufficient in size to fill the graduated cylinder at least ¾s full.   The hydrometer MUST ALWAYS be kept clean and dry; any accumulation of dried solids on the walls of the glass hydrometer will change the weight of the hydrometer and cause it to sink farther into the liquid and give a false reading.

Start by confirming that the hydrometer is the within the estimated range of the material that you are testing.   For this exercise, we are going assume that we just received a tank truck delivery of 32% liquid calcium chloride.    Referring to the chart, we scroll down to 32% CaCl2 and then across to the specific gravity column showing 1.322 @ 77F.   We next select the properly ranged hydrometer, which in this case is the ERTCO #2541, with a range from 1.200-1.420.

Make sure that the sample is at room temperature; cold contracts (more dense) and hot expands (less dense) so temperature is an important factor to consider when checking specific gravities.   Fill up the graduated cylinder 2/3rds full with the sample being careful to pour slowly to avoid any bubbles.  If the sample has bubbles in it, you have to wait for them to rise and the sample to be free of bubbles with will float the hydrometer and give a false reading.   Make sure the hydrometer is clean and dry!   Next take the hydrometer and carefully and SLOWLY slip it into the center of the graduated cylinder being careful to not just drop it like a depth charge and not scraping the walls of the cylinder as it submerges into the sample.  Read the line at the surface and not at the meniscus which is the curved surface gripping the walls of the cylinder.

Since you know that it should be around 1.322 gravity, continue to carefully allow the hydrometer to sink until you get close to the target point (1.320 on the markers in the glass tube) and then allow the hydrometer to settle gently without over-sinking and bobbing back up.  If the hydrometer sinks deeper (depth charge drop) and then rises it will have liquid clinging to the walls of the glass which will weigh down the hydrometer and give a false reading.   The same care must be applied to not have water on hydrometer because it will also give a false reading.

You should now be able to read the specific gravity of the liquid and confirm that it is 1.326 as shown below reading the markings at the liquid level.  1.326 is just slightly above but well within the acceptable range of 32% calcium chloride liquid.

We’ve tried to provide a detailed description of how to take hydrometer readings, and while this description is lengthy, it will take less time to use, clean, and, dry the hydrometer and cylinder after use that it did to read these tips and instructions.

To recap the procedure:

1. Pour your sample into a smooth, clear cylinder that is dry or well rinsed with a portion of the sample
2. Make sure your sample is thoroughly mixed before testing.
3. Immerse the hydrometer in the liquid to a point slightly below the place where it naturally floats. Make sure the hydrometer and liquid are at rest and free of air bubbles.
4. Measure the temperature of the sample. Ideally, the sample temperature should be equal to the temperature standard of the hydrometer, generally 60°F. If temperature differences are unavoidable, correction tables can help to adjust readings—call our Applications Specialists for information.
5. Take your reading at the point where the surface of the liquid crosses the hydrometer and not where the meniscus curve climbs up the wall.

Download: How to Pick the Right Ice Melter (PDF Version)

We get a lot of calls asking about what deicer to use.  What are the best products to melt the ice and snow on city streets, parking garages, hospital entry-ways, sidewalks, and driveways?  What about the daycare center where children crawl and they pick up deicers on their hands and then potentially taste them?   How about the canine kennel where pets are exposed?  Frequently that question comes in the broad form; “What’s your best ice-melter?”  Our answer is always the same: It depends on your situation.
There are hundreds of brands and types of products that can melt snow and ice, but there is only one thing that consumers and users need to know about them: the chemical ingredients.   While it appears that these hundreds of products are all different, actually there are very few – a handful at most – that comprise the lion’s share of all deicers on the market today.   They are differentiated by their performance, the chemistry, and their respective costs.   While the myriad of options can be confusing, understanding the differences in product ingredients and how they work can make choosing the right product much easier.

The Basics –

The basic factors to consider should really be done from the ground up.  What is the surface you are treating made of and where will the runoff go?  If you have a wooden deck for example, did you know that using any chloride based product can create two potential hazards?  First the chloride component will attack the fastening system used to hold the deck together as it becomes diluted and saturates the deck, and secondly the brine may tend to attract moisture in the capillary pores of the wood allowing it to re-freeze as black ice.   Ever notice how frost seems to stay on a wooden deck?  So the surfaces you treat are the first thing you must consider when choosing the right deicer.
The next area of consideration is what we call source point collateral impact.  How will areas beyond where the deicer is used be affected?  Where will the runoff containing deicer go, or where will deicers be carried by vehicular and foot traffic?   Are there any downstream environmental issues of which you need to mindful such as waterways, wetlands, or aquifers?   For example, we frequently see “no salt zone” signs posted on highways adjacent to reservoirs.   This is because surface and shallow well potable (drinking) water supplies are protected from elevated sodium levels from salt run-off to minimize the dangers of elevated sodium levels to users within the distribution system who have hypertension.  Because the nature of deicing is inexact, over-application is the standard in most cases and that leads to collateral impact as the “extra” deicer is tracked off-site, runs off-site, or seeps into the environment. How that secondary aspect affects your situation is something that should be strongly considered.
The third and final area of consideration is a little higher up from the snow; it’s your wallet.  What is the cost per pound?

Balancing Act –

We constantly preach to our customers and distributor partners that snow and ice control is a balancing act.  You are balancing performance, which is generally defined as a black and wet surface, against adverse consequences, which encompasses everything from cost, to the right chemistry for your environment, collateral impact, and toxicity.   A powerful deicer might do a great job of keeping a walkway open but it also might kill all the fish in the goldfish pond, help to destroy the concrete, and be tracked in the building and ruin the rugs.

The Big Five-

As we’ve said, there are basically five common deicers that comprise a majority of the market; sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, and acetates.  Let’s address them in increasing order of cost with the lowest cost first:

Sodium Chloride (NaCl): Also called rock salt this is one of the most abundant chemical compounds found on the earth.  It is harvested by a variety of methods from mining both by open mines and underground mines; it is evaporated from brines that are flooded into pans from natural sources on the surface such as the sea; and, it is solution mined where we pump it from underground salt domes as a concentrated brine.   As a deicer, sodium chloride is number one by a landslide because it is cheap, readily available, and found the whole world over.   It will melt snow and ice effectively at temperatures down to +16 degrees, but performs best in the mid-20s.  Sodium chloride contains 67% chlorides and about 30% sodium so consider that these two ingredients will end up causing 90% of the benefit and 100% of the problems.

Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2): A premium or high performance deicer because of its effectiveness, it is a naturally occurring chloride compound like sodium chloride.  Magnesium chloride is found throughout the world in surface and underground mineral reserves.  Magnesium chloride is more expensive than sodium chloride but less than calcium and potassium chlorides.  In the US, the Great Salt Lake is a major source of magnesium chloride along with similar places in the world like the Dead Sea.   It is also solution mined from vast reserves under Northern Europe, China, and in the US as well (pun intended).  In the commercial deicer form as a dry hexahydrate, magnesium chloride contains 34% chlorides and 18% Magnesium. It’s gentle on most surfaces and vegetation as well as pet safe and has gained wide popularity in the last few decades because it doesn’t track and its low environmental impact. It’s very low toxicity is comparable to Vitamin C.   Found in pellet, flake, and liquid solutions from, magnesium chloride has exploded in use and demand in the world over the past two decades because it balances high performance with low environmental impact.  It will melt snow and ice effectively down to -13F.

Calcium Chloride (CaCl2): Another naturally occurring chloride like sodium and magnesium, calcium chloride is predominately found only in underground brines where it is brought to the surface, refined and dried.    Calcium chloride is more expensive than both sodium and magnesium chlorides.  Calcium chloride is far and away the most recognized premium deicer because it has been widely used in the US for over 100 years.  Tried and true this powerful premium deicer comes in pellet, flake, and liquid forms.  Like salt, calcium can be messy when it is tracked in and its toxicity is the highest of all chloride based deicers. Long established and far and away the lowest temperature deicer, it will melt ice to -25F.   It tends to be a little harder on surfaces but it does a great job, most premium deicers compare their performance to calcium chloride because it is so well recognized.

Potassium Chloride (KCl): A naturally occurring chloride like the others mentioned above, potassium chloride is actually used very little as a deicer at this time.   It is the principle ingredient in fertilizers as a source of potassium.  If you buy potassium chloride at a fertilizer dealer or farm supply, you would order it by it’s fertilizer designation of macro-nutrients: 0-0-60 (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium).  It is 60% potassium and only 37% chlorides so while it’s very easy on the environment it is also fairly ineffective as a deicer because it doesn’t melt below +25F.  People tend to like it because of the fact that it’s so environmentally friendly but in recent years the cost of fertilizers coupled with insanely rising prices in fertilizers have driven potassium chloride quickly from the #2 spot to the #4 spot on the ascending cost scale.  It has risen in price more than 10 fold from $80 in just the last three years so this year we are seeing virtually no potassium chloride in deicers other than background levels which occur naturally.  At over $1000/ton in bulk currently potassium chloride has exited the market as a deicer in most places and has been replaced by magnesium chloride which is its first cousin.

Acetates: Commonly found in three forms; sodium acetate, calcium magnesium acetate, and potassium acetate, acetate deciers are not chloride based and take an entirely different approach to the task of deicing and the market.   They protect surfaces and structures from chloride damage because they don’t contain any chlorides.  They are organic chemical compounds that break down naturally in the environment and leave little adverse impact.  Those benefits come at a steep price because the main ingredients used to make acetate deicers (acetic acid, dolomitic limes, and potassium chloride) are very expensive and in short supply in the US at this time driving prices up.   Available in dry and liquid forms, acetates are commonly used in structural concrete, parking garages, and airports where chlorides are banned due to the corrosion potential to aircraft systems.
Others: Other deicer options cover a lot of products but represent a very small segment of the market: Urea, ammonium sulfate, glycols, and formates are the most common ones but again these are in pretty small numbers because of their costs or performance relative to the “big five”.

Boutique Products-

In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion of boutique ice-melters that take low cost rock salt and mix small quantities of premium deicers in with them and then wrap them in a very fancy package.  These blends are often 90 percent or more rock salt with a small percentage of a premium ingredient, such as CMA, MAG, or calcium chloride. Ingredients in those proportions make them about as effective as rock salt and they have the same characteristics.   Frequently they are priced equal to premium deicers and are in very attractive packages.  We use a general rule of thumb: the fancier the bag and label, the more rock salt there is in the product.

Most if not all of these products do not disclose their ingredients and therein lies a multitude of problems.  First, Federal and State Right to Know Laws require manufacturers to disclose their formula and ingredients in descending order of concentration.  Most of these boutique deicers are very clever and take great steps to hide what they are really trying to sell.   Companies are taking a $2 bag of rock salt and put it in a bag with very expensive graphics like puppies, babies, and evergreen trees on high quality color package, and then call it “green this” or “enviro that”.  They are selling for 4-5 times their actual cost!   Many of these packages are outright consumer fraud and no one at the government level seems to be interested in bringing truth in labeling to the ice melt market. It’s a virtual free-for-all as companies are producing fancy bags of salt with dye in it and selling it for 80-90% profit!  We are frankly disgusted with some of the sleazy marketing that is being used.
How do you avoid being burned by the “pig in lipstick”?   You demand a certified analysis of ingredients in your deicer from your supplier.  We provide these documents routinely on any and all products which we sell.   We have nothing to hide and our belief is that if we educate our customers they will make the right decision which will benefit us. All of the products that we sell have MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) published on this website that clearly show ingredients and percentages.  It’s part of the deal when you work with MeltSnow.com.
We are not playing this game and we are trying to lead the charge against the lies in labels and encourage all of you to do the same.   Demand to be given a written statement on the manufacturer’s letterhead of what they are selling to you.  If their product is coated with peanut oil, they have a responsibility to tell you that in case someone walking over your deicer has a peanut allergy.   If they are selling you rock salt dyed green, do you really think the green dye and lovely evergreen trees on the bag are worth the $7 per bag premium?   PT Barnum step right up, we found one for you!
This is ice melt. We are not shooting rockets off to the moon and there are no secrets.  We sometimes hear people say “it’s a patented secret formula”.   Say what?  If it’s patented, then you are protected under the patent and the formula is listed for public viewing at the patent office.  It’s a public document so why is it secret?   It’s because they don’t want for you to realize that you are paying $8/bag for $2/bag rock salt with dye.   The secret is you’re getting taking to the cleaners – not that you are getting the latest in chemical deicer technology.
We don’t want to sound like we are down on blended deicers – we’re not.   Most them work pretty well and frequently the right combinations of these products in the right amounts can form synergies that are very effective.   If we add 8-10 gallons of liquid magnesium chloride or liquid calcium chloride to a ton of rock salt and we can lower the working temperature another 10 degrees and use 30% less to do the same job.   In practical terms, we are increasing the cost of that compound from $100/ton (just the salt) to $108-$110/ton.  So we increased the cost of a 50 lb. bag by only $0.25, not by $7.00!  ($10.00/2000 lbs x 50 lbs)
Most of us can easily tell what we are getting by simply making a visual examination of the product.  Does it look like its’ all white pellets or is it a granular material that looks like it’s mostly salt?
As the old expression goes, if it walks on four legs, barks, wags it’s tail and looks like a dog – it’s probably a dog.

Making the Right Choice-

Fortunately while to many people it appears that the market is flooded with lots of different products, if you spend a little time with your supplier asking the obvious questions of “what am I buying here” you can quickly separate the choices and find the right one for your needs.   If you are still confused, call us.  We’ll walk you through the process.  It’s what we do; snow, ice, and dust control solutions to problems.
Below are some helpful charts that give a lot of pertinent details on the products which we offer that can be helpful as you navigate through the decision process.  These are all developed by Dead Sea Works in support of their MAG products, but they are a good reference point to look at all the common deicers in each category.
Above all, ask questions of your supplier about what they are selling to you and demand a certified chemical breakdown of the product.   This isn’t rocket science so don’t let anyone work a slight of hand that makes you think that it is.

Download Ice Dams 101 (PDF)

The winter of 2008-2009 has seen a return an old nemesis of building owners: ice dams. Heavy snowfall throughout New England has brought a rash of calls to our offices this season regarding how to melt ice dams that have formed on roofs and eves. Which deicer should I use? What is safe? What can I do to melt it and remove the problem? We offer a wide range of products which are often used (incorrectly) to melt ice dams; rock salt, sodium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, blended products, and acetate based deicers are used to battle problems on the streets and sidewalks, but ice dam melting is tricky business and should not be entered into without careful evaluation of the pros, cons, and adverse consequences of your approach.

Understanding how and why this is happening is the first step:

Ice dams are formed when melting snow turns to water which runs down a roof and then freezes as it leaves the warmer roof area of the building and enters the open area of the roof eve in sub-freezing temperatures. Ice dams usually occur after a heavy snowfall and several days of sub-freezing temperatures. Warm air inside your building or home leaks into the attic space and will warm the underside of the roof causing snow and ice on the roof to melt. The melted water will drain along the roof, under the snow, until it reaches the cold eve overhang. The eve overhang is usually at the same temperature as the outdoors and the melted water will refreeze and form an ice dam and icicles. The ice dam can cause damage to the roof, which will result in water leaks to the inside. Frequently the result will be a water spot on the ceiling under the roof damage, or water stains streaking down the inside wall. The water damage is not always obvious and may be hidden from view inside the wall, in the attic, or behind a knee wall. Depending up on the design of the building, ice dams may not be an issue and waiting out the problem could be the best answer if you are not getting any damage that warrants immediate action. On the other hand, if water is pouring down your wall and ruining it, then the decision process of what to do and understanding the potential adverse consequences of that action must be carefully evaluated.

The basics of the problem:

Pictured below is a residence that is showing ice dams. If you study this photo, it shows very clearly how the ice dam is formed, and why.

Notice how the rafters of the roof structure are silhouetted by the snowpack on the roof. That’s because warm air leaking into the attic space is in turn melting the snowpack on the roof, however the rafters are providing some level of insulation allowing the snow above them to melt at a much slower rate. There is a section of roof which is not melting in the center and that could be from a finished attic where that specific area was insulated, or possibly by insulated glass skylights that were installed, or it might be that insulation was applied to that area alone. Impossible to tell without getting inside this house and crawling into the attic with this photo to see why some areas have experienced heavy melting while others have not had much at all. In any case the areas of the house which are outside of the attic space, the edges, are still showing a full snowpack and therein lies the problem! Those areas are colder and any runoff of melting will freeze up when it collides with this cold area causing the ice dam.

As the water enters the cold gutter, it freezes. More water coming down the roof from the heat loss continues to freeze up until the gutter is filled and overflowing with ice and icicles. They continue to build up until they form a dam inches thick. Once the dam is high enough, the water on the roof collects and begins to seep under the roofing system and find its way into the building and then trouble begins.

Which deicer do I use to melt the ice dam on my gutters and roof?

With the basics of ice dams now understood, let’s talk about your chemical options to remove it. Just slather it in salt and the problem will go away, right? It should be so simple. Victims of ice dams need to consider all the factors involved in chemically attacking ice dams before they climb up on their roof like Santa and start pouring deicers on them. The varieties of roofing systems that are used in building present a range of considerations and challenges for openers. The first order of business is to evaluate the area of the ice dam as a whole. Is this a problem across the entirety of the structure or is it limited to one area like a valley above the roof overhang? What is the roof material? What is the fastening system used to hold the roof covering on? What is under the overhang where the chemical deicer runoff will go? Do you have plantings that might be damaged by chemical deicer runoff and could that runoff be more or less damaging then just waiting for the ice to melt and fall?

In the photo above we have a building with a very large overhang and significant ice dams and icicles. These pose a threat to pedestrians that use the sidewalk which is directly under this section of building so leaving them in place risks dropping a frozen dagger into someone’s head or shoulders. This particular building is a medical building where many elderly patients pass under these eves and risk of injury is pretty serious. In this case the threat is more falling ice than it is water entering the building…at least the time this photo was taken. Add a couple more feet of snow to this roof and the dynamic will change quickly as the tremendous weight load of 5-6″ of ice on the gutters and overhang threaten to test the engineer’s estimate, the builder’s skills, and insurance company’s budget.

Chemical Removal of ice dams:

Often it is believed that melting the ice dam with an ice melter is the right answer. Since we are in the business of selling ice melters, it’s hard for us suggest otherwise but experience has proven that ice melters on roofs can cause new types of damage which building owners need to consider before using them.

Pouring a granular deicer on the ice and scattering it across the whole area is a waste of deicer and it will likely not work unless you put enough deicer down to melt the volume of ice you have at the prevailing outside temperature. More to the point, an area of ice that is 50 feet long by 1 foot wide by six inches thick is 187 gallons of frozen water [(50x1.0.5)7.4 gallons/cubic foot] and will weight an astounding 1,560 lbs! That area is about equal to the edge of a roof eve. To melt 1500 lbs of ice, you would need to apply nearly 360 lbs deicer if you wanted to melt it at 16 degrees F. So realize we are talking about huge quantities of deicer that would be required to melt an amount of ice that big…and it’s not necessary. By comparison, you could break the underpinning or bond that the ice has on the surface it’s frozen to using only a fraction of that quantity with a careful “hole burning” approach.

Is your roof asphalt shingles? Most common high performance ice melters such as magnesium chloride or calcium chloride will certainly melt the ice, but they may also cause staining of the shingles and could also cause corrosion of the gutters, aluminum siding, or fasteners. Salt will leave a white residue and is very corrosive to unprotected ferrous metals so you might turn your black roof edge into a chalky mess with salt. Wooden gutters will be adversely affected by nearly all chloride deicers – so that knocks out use of rock salt (sodium chloride), calcium chloride, or magnesium chloride. Acetate deicers such as 100% pure CMA (calcium magnesium acetate) or NAC (sodium acetate) will not really work in melting ice. Other common deicers like urea (46-0-0 fertilizer) are only effective above 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and at that point you might as well wait out the remaining 7 degrees to thaw temp. If your roof is a standing seam tin roof, like the one pictured below, the same issues of possible staining or having the coating/paint lift from alkaline pH deicers is another concern.