Water Softener as Ice Melt

Was wondering if anyone has used this as a replacement as there is a shortage of ice melt in these parts.

 

yes, the small crystals.

 

It works, potassium chloride .

 

I haven't had to buy any in a while, but I bet that water softener salt is hard to find, at least the small crystals. It was a few years ago when we had a snowy winter, '05-'06 maybe?

I was at Plum Market a few weeks ago, and they were selling 'eco-friendly' ice melt. Ten dollars for a small jug, five pounds maybe. I looked at the ingredients, and it contained magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, and sodium chloride. Salt, salt, salt, and salt.

 

Does fertilizer (like Scotts' granular type)? I've never tried that. Might not hurt vegetation.

 

Sodium chloride is 'salt', yes. Like table salt. The rest are 'salts', as well.

 

It will work too .

 

I have found the crystals work better than pellets in the water softener; pellets clumped up.

 

I'd probably look for something besides Scott's. It is mostly nitrogen, which makes the grass green, and a little bit of potassium, which usually comes from potassium chloride.

If it is what you have in the garage, it will work.

 

I used softener salt in a pinch before when company was coming over and I was out of ice melt. Put some chunks in a bucket, bludgeon them into smaller pieces with a piece of 2x4, spread on walkway.

 

Scott's is famous using lots of quick release Nitrogen for quick green up 6-8 weeks later they want you too buy another bag . If you want to try something that is a non burning fert try Milorganite , we've used it on putting greens it's dark color helps to capture the suns heat and speed up the melting process.

 

I am an elected soil and water conservation district director. Please don't use fertilizer to melt ice on hardened surfaces. It is going to run off into a storm drain and into your adjoining waters and add to our nutrient load problems. Yes it is just a little bit but every little bit counts.

And try to use as little ice melt as possible because non of it is good from a water quality standpoint.

 

You all realize Milorganite is dried human feces right? The city of MILwaukee started kiln drying and bagging the solids from their wastewater treatment plant and coined the phrase MILorganite to make it seem more palatable (pun intended) to consumers. Now don't get me wrong; I think Milorganite is a great form of recycling, but do you really want to be walking on someones digested steak dinner?

 

It stinks because it's sewage sludge haven't noticed any staining on walks but we only use it on turf, although there is some overlap onto the walks.

I totally agree as some one in the industry we have to be aware of what we are putting down .