OUR THOUGHTS

An anit-icer, by broad winter service definition, is any chemical that is applied to a paved surface prior to a winter storm in an effort to reduce the snow and ice from bonding to the paved surface, thus making plowing easier and final clean-ups faster. An example of a poor anti-icer would be any material, usually granular or liquid salts, that actively melts the snow as it falls. By melting the snow as it first falls the anti-icer dilutes itself and weakens its re-freeze point. Eventually the anti-icer melts enough snow and adds enough water to itself, increasing the dilution, that the surface is able to re-freeze. The result is a solid sheet of ice under the remaining snowfall with driving and plowing becoming very dangerous. As an example, the State of NJ has similarly and incorrectly used salt brine blends for the past few years on Route 80 prior to snow storms as an anti-icer and subsequently caused many more accidents than in previous years. Anti-icing with granular salts, salt brines or straight liquid salts can cause re-freeze to occur much faster than one would desire. Those de-icing materials have their place in our toolboxes -- post storm applications to get rid of snow and ice after plowing or clean-up applications for minor storms. By using the previously described de-icing materials one has just inadvertently created a layer of ice under freshly falling snow. In this situation the road surface would be very slick, difficult to keep traction in a passenger vehicle or even a truck plowing the road surface. Due to the ice layer under the snow, loss of traction would occur and accidents would be more likely than if no salt had been applied at all.

So, what is a good anti-icer? A good anti-icer is a material that will prevent snow and ice from bonding to a paved surface (remember that is all we are trying to accomplish with this application) and that actively melts the falling snow less aggressively than the products described above. The basic goal of anti-icing is to prevent hard pack from bonding to the pavement (thus keeping a safer surface to drive and work on during the storm), enabling clearing right to the point where the plow contacts two points of pavement (and doesn’t ride on hardpack/ice), and ultimately results in the use of less de-icer after the storm. A correctly executed anti-icer application will require the use of less de-icer, thereby recovering its cost -- had you not anti-iced, large quantities of de-icer would be needed to combat the resulting ice/snow hardpack on the road. Additional cost savings are realized when plow trucks do not break as often due to less hardpack encounters on both the plows and wheels/suspensions of the trucks.

There are number of additional benefits to using the proper anti-icing agents. Road structures made of concrete or steel such as bridges, drainage systems, curbing, signs, posts/poles, etc are harmed less. Driver fatigue is reduced by travelling safer, well-tractioned roads and accidents are less frequent. Spring season repairs to the landscape due to de-icer/salt damages are reduced due to the usage of smaller amounts of these caustic materials. Proper use of an anti-icer also paves the way for the fastest safely performed final clean-up times possible. Let’s not forget how time consuming, costly, and dangerous stranded vehicles can become for road departments during storm clean-up operations. One recent year, on a heavily trafficked Route 10 in NJ, many large state sub-contracted plow trucks tried to go up and down a long slight grade, continually sliding back and forth, almost sideways, before coming to a stop in less than two inches of slush. After many granular salt applications, a half days expenses wasted on half a dozen large plow trucks, piles of crashed cars, and much wear and tear on the trucks, the plow fleet finally made it to the top and down the other side.

The key is to anti-ice with a material that does not aggressively melt snow as it falls. By using over 95 percent calcium or magnesium chloride in an anti-icer product, such as our competitors do, you are going to experience re-freeze sooner and faster than with an anti-icer with higher organic concentration and less salts given the same conditions. It is also important to note that not all organic anti-icers are equal -- they do not blend with liquid salts the same to produce desired results.Many years were spent refining IB to produce a product that works the best in the harshest conditions, is practically effective and easily applied, is environmentally friendly, and is cost effective. The idea behind a good anti-icer is to have the material last the longest time possible during a storm without allowing re-freezing to occur, preventing a bond between the pavement and hardpack. Eventually, if a storm lasts long enough, all anti-icers will take on enough water to re-freeze. IB will last the longest, giving you the greatest amount of time currently possible to plow, clean-up and de-ice.

So why don’t we eliminate salts altogether in our anti icers? We cannot apply, in an accurate controlled method, straight organics that will perform this action alone. Adding water to blend organics does not carry them as a liquid salt would and would be as counterproductive and wasteful as road departments adding water to sodium chloride and then applying liquid salt as an anti-icer. A very little bit of water on granular de-icers, also known by some as “pre-wetting”, can help the de-icing application do its job faster by turning the solid salt into a brine faster. But with anti-icing. water is already present and about to fall from the sky so why waste truck costs moving it around. Some liquid salts must be present for the product to spray down and for the product to work effectively. The use of a higher salt concentration becomes more necessary with a de-icer. When IB organics, however, are blended with calcium chloride it only takes a ratio of 7 % organics to 93% cacl before the harmful corrosiveness factor of the liquid cacl is reduced to very low levels. We have increased our organics in our anti-icing product up to 25 percent in efforts to produce a safer, longer lasting, true, anti-icer. IB also comes with corrosive values lower than distilled water -- that’s right IB tests negative on the corrosive scale.

Although we allow for orders of large quantities of custom blended ratios of IB anti-icer product (if you would like to see what mixture works best for your operations/techniques) but we would recommend starting with IB 25/75 as it will already perform much better than any anti-icer you have witnessed or used to date. IB has been used in large portions of the northeast for years, however, Ice Less is the first distributor to bring IB to the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland markets.

De-Icing Thoughts

De-icers are utilized to melt snow and ice. Properly, they are used after a storm to melt away snow/ice and dry the paved surface after plowing/clearing has occurred. Another application for a de-icer would be prior to a low-precipitation storm to melt the snow or ice as it falls. One would want to be sure that the de-icer put down will be enough to clear the entire small storm coming or be ready for applying a second application if necessary. This pre-storm technique should only be used if temperatures are on the warmer side, there is no chance of the predicted storm developing into a larger system, and the arriving snow does not contain a high water content. The technique of applying de-icer prior to a storm is typically used when storms under an inch are predicted. Applications of the de-icer before the storm and once after may eliminate the need to plow. This technique is not usually implemented often but can help in situations of heavy thaw cycles if pavement surfaces are thawing and plow damage would occur.

Main factors that determine how much snow/ice a pound of de-icer will melt include ground temperatures, wind speed and direction(s), air temperatures and moisture content of the precipitation (how “heavy” or “fluffy” the snow is or worst case-freezing rain). The closer ground and air temps approach the freeze point, the more snow and ice de-icer will treat and keep from re-freezing before the storm runs out of power. The colder the ground and/or air temps are the more de-icer will be required to do the same job. Keep in mind that the ground temperatures play a greater role in how fast your de-icer will work and how long it will prevent re-freeze.

The decisions an operations manager makes can save costs and minimize the impact on the environment. Applying excess amounts of de-icer when not needed is an expensive waste of resources -- determining the correct amount of de-icer to use is an important component in the conservation of resources and lower costs. We highly recommend using an infra red thermometer to read your ground temps throughout the winter so that you can make the best decision given the conditions. All too often road department superintendents base their assessment of a small storms' impact based upon predicted warmer air temps and neglect to check the ground temps. Frequently the air temps can break the freeze mark while ground temps remain in the teens, creating very dangerous conditions that most do not anticipate and are therefore left unprepared.

Liquid de-icers should aggressively melt snow and ice away so that paved surfaces quickly become safe to travel on. For this reason we recommend IB 7/93 in our straight liquid blend of de-icers. This product blend gives you the most aggressive melting characteristics without any of the harmful corrosiveness factors of cacl by itself. This organic blend with the liquid salts creates a new de-icing product - produced by a synergy between the two components. Neither component alone can accomplish the same results and consequences. In lower water content precipitation storms a liquid anti-icer alone can be the most effective with the least amount of environmental damages. However most cold, high frozen water content and harsh storm de-icing apps can be better handled with a blend of liquids and granular-A treated granular salt. Which leads us into our next de-icer discussion…

If salts are important in de-icing, what is the most readily available, easy to transport, cost effective de-icer on the local market? Granular Sodium Chloride or as most know it, bulk rock salt. By treating granular bulk rock salt with a higher organic to liquid salt ratio (due to the fact that both the granular salt and liquid salt portions of the product we are making are exactly that-salts) we can increase the organic ratio in the liquid blend and mix it right into the bulk rock salt. Also the spray systems used to treat rock salt need not be as precise or controlled as when spraying an anti-icer directly onto the pavement using a vehicular mounted spray bar. Larger hoses and nozzles can be used allowing higher concentrations of organics to flow through. Remember, the final de-icing product, which is “treated rock salt”, still has more salts than organics due to primarily being rock salt. Bulk rock salt can only melt ice effectively and promptly in temperatures above 25-26 degrees. Once temps fall below 18 degrees, regular rock salt cannot melt ice. In fact, if you keep applying regular rock salt in the right conditions, moisture will be pulled from the air and added to the layer of ice you are trying to melt. Treating rock salt with IB 50/50 allows the de-icer's treated salt’s working temperature to be brought down below the temps that a particular area would experience during its winter. Other benefits to IB 50/50 treated bulk rock salt include that if you keep your stockpiles dry they will not freeze, it is “pre-wet” so melting occurs faster, “bounce and scatter” is reduced due to the “stickiness” of the organics (thus keeping more product where it belongs), and the trucks will be able to cover more ground (less return trips for re-loads and less costs to the organization in trucking). Simply put, treated rock salt enables you to apply less material and accomplish greater results, while also being much safer for the environment than straight salts. We aim to hit the ideal point (which is different in an anti-icer than a de-icer) where enough organics are blended in so that the final product is less corrosive, more potent, lower eutectic temps are achieved, it is easily applied, and safer on the environment. Typically treating bulk rock salt using IB 50/50 at a rate of 6-8 gallons per ton will do just that. At most you can only add IB 50/50 until the bulk rock salt cannot take on anymore liquid, having reached a saturation point. Keep your bulk rock salt dry and you can incorporate more IB 50/50.

You may order large quantities of de-icing custom blended ratios (if you would like to see what works best for your operation/techniques) but we would recommend starting at IB 50/50 as it is much better than any de-icer or treated bulk rock salt you have witnessed or used in the local area. IB has been used in large portions of the northeast for years, however, Ice Less is the first distributor to bring IB to the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland markets. We are here to help you discover the many benefits of using organic based inhibited liquid salts in many different ways. Give us a call and we'll get you started!

*These thoughts represent our views based upon our vast experience and we recommend that you feel comfortable implementing new techniques and products in your operation. There is a necessary amount of practical, “in field” experience required to utilize all of the available anti and de-icing techniques and tools to the best of their potential in combined efforts with plowing and clearing applications. We are here to help you make that transition correctly. We encourage you to learn about your specific weather patterns and experiment to find the best possible uses of our product line for your particular circumstances and application. Different road departments may use anti and de-icers in a variety of different ways depending upon the given resourses, techniques and equipment utilized while views regarding the proper application and/or conservation of materials may differ significantly.

No matter what your organization’s budget or structure, Ice Less can help you save money and increase your service quality. Call us today and discover the power of IB products!