[Shop-talk] Rock salt alternatives

[David Scheidt]

On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 1:48 PM,  <bjshov8 at tx.rr.com> wrote:
> Our local area uses magnesium cloride. B I don't know how it compares to
common salt but they think it has advantages.
>

It's somewhat less corrosive.  Big advantage is that it's usually put
down as a liquid, before it snows, which works better, and requires
less of it.  It's quite a bit more expensive than plain salt.  Calcium
chloride is the other common chloride used for deicing.  It's less
toxic to most plants, but it's still corrosive.  It's also expensive.
Both work at lower temps than salt, calcium chloride at lower temps
than MgCl2.  CMA (calcium magnesium acetate) is probably the least
corrosive (and certainly the safest for animals.), but it's not
terribly common, and isn't effective below about 20F.

Many of the bagged goods sold for consumer use are mixtures of
chemicals, usually salt and something else.  Salt's cheap.


--
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com