Ice Melting Tools

Warming Mats

• Warming mats are available for your pathways and driveways to melt snow and ice as they fall. Control boxes provide automatic sensors that will activate when the mat senses frozen participation or you can manually turn on the mat. You can install mats over portions of the area you want to keep clear or over the entire area for optimal melting.

Infrared Systems

• You can keep small areas ice-free through the use of quartz lamps. Install lamps above the area you wish to keep clear to provide instant radiant heat when you turn the lamp on. Infrared systems are cost prohibitive for large areas and the mounting poles can compromise the beauty of landscapes.

Ice Melt Chemicals

• According to the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension in New Castle County, "Rock salt, a coarse, unrefined cousin to table salt, is still the most widely used ice melting chemical in the country." The problem with rock salt is it causes damage to plants, so when the ice melts the liquid harms nearby landscapes. Mixing fertilizer into the salt does not lessen the damage salt does because the plants still come in contact with the plants and fertilizer does not reach the root system of the plants when the ground is frozen.

Space Heaters

• The United States Army Corps of Engineers has tested the efficiency of using space heaters for ice removal. Their conclusions show that space heaters will melt ice but being outside reduces the effectiveness of the heater by 95 percent. The Corps looks at using space heaters as a "stop-gap measure" until a more efficient method can be put in place.