Snow melting materials and ice melting with freeze-point suppression chemicals like MAG, magnesium chloride

Essentially, snow and ice products fall into one of two categories:

Whenever you see snow that is not melting on a surface (along with black and wet pavement in the street), it's safe to assume that the street received a dose of a freeze-point suppression chemical that formed a brine or liquid.

Watch the outside temperatures and see how various freeze-point suppression chemicals stop working at given temperatures. For example, salt cannot form a brine below 4 degrees Fahrenheit - it's chemically impossible. And for all practical purposes, salt stops working at 16 degrees Fahrenheit unless it is enhanced with another performance deicer that allows it to brine at temperatures below its bottom practical mark of 16F.

That's where both the liquid and dry products that we sell come in: the Calso98® can get salt working down to its eutectic temperature of 4 degrees, which is an otherwise impossible task. The Calso98® uses a combination of exothermic heat of dilution along with good old-fashioned chemistry to "punch" the salt - much in the same way you can help a low battery with jumper cables.

Freeze-point suppressors are all chlorides, all glycols, and many forms of salt that are not chlorides, such as Urea and sulphates. Characteristic altering chemicals are all acetates and most formates. Here's a list of our products by chemical name and brand name:

There's a new wet-weather driving pavement surface called Open Graded Friction Course (OGFC) pavement. It's known generically as popcorn pavement, and it's design is such that it contains huge voids that allow water to penetrate and run under the driving surface, thereby dramatically reducing hydroplaning and increasing the friction coefficient in wet weather.

This product was invented in Florida and has only recently been applied in New England, with limited success. You've likely driven on some if you've ever been driving in a heavy rain and all of sudden you go from being blinded by truck tire spray to it looking like the rain let up. But when you look at the windshield, you realize it's still raining hard. You're on a different driving surface that is not allowing water to pool. That's more than likely “OGFC”. While this works great in Florida, it's a road-maintenance foreman's worst nightmare in freezing climates because if the water in the OGFC freezes, it will expand and blow up the pavement surface.

So what's the solution? Meltsnow.com's deicers, which will keep everything open and clear. The performance additives in our products work best and can demonstrate the greatest improvement.

We welcome distributor inquiries. Make Meltsnow.com your partner in snow melting, ice melting, and dust control.

** Arctic Thaw® is a trademark of International Salt Company; Caliber® is a registered trademark of Minnesota Corn Processors; Calso98® is a trademark of Calum; Dowflake® is a registered trademark of Dow Chemical; Freezgard® is a product of North American Salt Company; Ice Ban® is a registered trademark of Earth Friendly Chemicals; Lescomelt® is a registered trademark of Lesco; Liquidow® is a registered trademark of Dow Chemical; Liquidow Armor® is a registered trademark of Dow Chemical; MAG® is a registered trademark of Dead Sea Works; Magic Salt® is a registered trademark of Innovative Products; Magnamelt® is a registered trademark of Cargill Inc.; NedMag® is a product of NedMag Industries; Peladow® is a registered trademark of Dow Chemical; Roadrunner® is a registered trademark of Warner Brothers and Scottwood Industries