Liquid Products

SledgeHammer® Liquid Deicer

SledgeHammer® is a liquid deicer made up of Salt Brine and an organic based enhancer (DCS). SledgeHammer® can be used as a direct pavement application or used as pre-wetting agent at the spinner. The features and benefits of using SledgeHammer® include:

  • Provides superior anti-bonding and residual effect.
  • Works effectively to -13°F
  • Stays where you apply it
  • Has a freeze point of -24°F
  • Reduces application rates

Ice B’Gone Magic Liquid®

  • Ice B’Gone Magic Liquid saves money, time and labor. This patented formula may be applied to your salt. Ice B’Gone Magic Liquid can be sprayed onto regular rock salt or salt/sand mixtures, transforming it into Magic Salt, a highly effective ice melting product. By applying Ice B’Gone Magic Liquid directly onto paved surfaces prior to a storm event, ice and snow will not bond, black ice is eliminated, will not rust vehicles, and slip and falls are reduced.
  • Ice B’Gone Magic Liquid is a highly effective liquid de-icing agent made from a patented blend of magnesium chloride combined with an agricultural by-product of the distilling process (i.e. grain and/or sugar based) and is protected under U.S. Patent #4,676,918. No other liquid ice melter can make this claim.
  • Ice B’Gone Magic Liquid is not-toxic, bio-degradable and has a corrosion index lower than distilled water.

Salt Brine

Brine has been used in many European countries for many years as both a pre wetting agent for dry materials and as an anti-icing agent for the proactive treatment of snow and ice.

For anti icing, the key is to place the brine on the roadway surface prior to a precipitation event. This action helps prevent the snow and ice from bonding to the pavement. The City of Oskaloosa was an early advocate of anti-icing as a way to keep snow and ice from bonding to the road surface. They have also used it with great success on city sidewalks.

Now, several years later, the use of salt brine for pre wetting and anti-icing is no longer experimental or unusual. In the winter of 2002-2003, the Iowa Department of Transportation used over seven million gallons of brine. All of the Iowa DOT’s snow plow trucks are equipped with units that pre wet dry materials at the spinner. Anti-icing equipment is available to anti-ice the entire commercial and industrial network (over 9,000 lane miles) when conditions make it an effective strategy. Many cities and counties, including many of the major metro areas are now active users of salt brine.

Traditional practices depended on rock salt or mixtures of rock salt and abrasives to remove snow and ice from the roadways. The materials were delivered from the bed of the truck to a spinner where it could be widely dispersed onto the pavement. The idea was to concentrate much of the chemical over the middle of the roadway so that the chemicals began the melting process the melting liquid would move away from the crown of the roadway to the lower levels of the roadway and help break the snow and ice bound with the pavement.

A study conducted by the Michigan Department of Transportation measured the amount of chemicals left on the roadway after a typical spinner application of materials and found that nearly 40% of the materials left the roadway after application and landed on shoulders or in ditches due to bouncing. With a typical Iowa DOT application of 300 pounds per lane mile of a 50/50 mix of salt and abrasives, that would mean that once the truck passes only 210 pounds of the mix remains on the roadway.

Further studies conducted in Switzerland and Germany also measured the amount of dry chemicals that remained on the roadway after vehicle movement and found that after 5 vehicles had passed, only 30 percent of the dry materials remained on the roadway. After 100 vehicles, only 20 percent of the dry chemicals remained to do the job. When the materials were pre wet after five vehicles had passed, 93 percent of the materials remained on the road and after 100 vehicles, 80 percent remained on the roadway surface.

If a dry 50/50 mix is being used to remove snow and ice it is obvious that a roadway with large volumes of traffic will quickly lose most of the materials onto the shoulder or ditch where it is of little help to melt snow and ice.

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