Why should we reconsider salt based de-icers?
De-icing chemicals (salt based de-icers) work by lowering the freezing point of water. Normally, 15° to 20° F is considered the lower limit for salt. If de-icing is necessary at lower temperatures, more salt is needed and melting will take much longer. For all practical purposes salt stops working at about 7° F. De-icing chemicals are highly soluble and follow any water flow. They are also highly corrosive and can be damaging to concrete walks and vehicles. Even relatively small amounts of chloride will significantly accelerate existing corrosion not to mention harm plants and create poor growing soils over time.
