[Eliel Correa]

Hi everyone, last year I bought 2 yards of bulk salt on December 07, my understandings was I had to keep it dry so I did, I put all inside trash barrels with caps and stored it inside my building (no heat), used it all winter. This year I bought 2 yards again from different dealer did the same process, salted couple times in December and now on January 20 storm, it was all good, temperature dropped to 4F here in Boston Sunday- Monday, on Wednesday I went to check on my salt it’s was all frozen, now temperature is in 50F and still frozen, why it happened? Any thing I can do to save it? When I buy again what should I do different? Thank you.

 

[EWSplow]

Hi everyone, last year I bought 2 yards of bulk salt on December 07, my understandings was I had to keep it dry so I did, I put all inside trash barrels with caps and stored it inside my building (no heat), used it all winter. This year I bought 2 yards again from different dealer did the same process, salted couple times in December and now on January 20 storm, it was all good, temperature dropped to 4F here in Boston Sunday- Monday, on Wednesday I went to check on my salt it's was all frozen, now temperature is in 50F and still frozen, why it happened? Any thing I can do to save it? When I buy again what should I do different? Thank you.

It has more moisture than the stuff you had last year. Storing in barrels doesn't allow it to dry, so in freezes.

 

[cwren2472]

It's not just you

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/hard-salt.175713/#post-2336763

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/frozen-salt.172626/#post-2250075

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/why-does-ice-melter-get-wet-in-bin.158657/#post-1883349

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/salt-hardening-in-box.150719/#post-1679458

The word of the day is: "hygroscopic"

 

[Eliel Correa]

It's not just you

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/hard-salt.175713/#post-2336763

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/frozen-salt.172626/#pos

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/why-does-ice-melter-get-wet-in-bin.158657/#post-1883349

https://www.plowsite.com/threads/salt-hardening-in-box.150719/#post-1679458

The word of the day is: "hygroscopic"

'Hygroscopic' that was my tough, keep it inside barrels so it wouldn't get the surround moisture, from: EWSplow point, it came with a lot moisture and I trap it inside the barrels. Now if I buy late spring lay it out on parking lot, let the sun dry it out then put on my barrels, my guess that would work right?

 

[framer1901]

Just buy bags - pay more but less hassle

 

[Aerospace Eng]

If the salt is reasonably dry, throw some "Damp Rid" in the barrel before you close it up. That usually gets the rH down to 5-8% until it is completely saturated.

 

[tpendagast]

fyi its not necessarily frozen, so much so as it's solid.
so warming it back up won't help.

In a way think of it like concrete mix...if its dry in a bag with no moisture it will keep, get it wet and it will set up.

Salt attracts moisture/humidity, even in a bag product can sometimes get solid or parts of it.

Typically you can smash, crush, run over, drop or otherwise apply concussive force and re-pulverize it.
you can also put it solution (water or brine) after its warm enough and it will come part like an oreo in milk....something i only recently discovered.

 

[Eliel Correa]

Hi everyone, so I dumped all my barrels on floor to see if I could dry out mu salt, I had one barrel left from last year from a different dealer and hes salt was very dry and not frozen,this time I made a rookie mistake to store a wet salt. Leaving and learning. Thank you all.

 

[Mark Oomkes]

fyi its not necessarily frozen, so much so as it's solid.
so warming it back up won't help.

Salt is solid unless it's in a brine form. Hence the term "rock salt" or granular.

And it can and does freeze if there is enough moisture content. We had it last weekend with temps around 0, damp salt froze in the spreaders. Put it in a heated shop and it thaws.

Learned it the hard way back in '91 or '92 when we started using bulk salt but didn't tarp it or have a roof over it. Filled our "large capacity" salt spreader up with frozen salt, parked it in the shop and left the heat up. There was 1 chunk as large as the bucket. Next morning it was still there...tapped it with a shovel and it disintegrated.

Your salt is frozen.

 

[LapeerLandscape]

Salt is solid unless it's in a brine form. Hence the term "rock salt" or granular.

And it can and does freeze if there is enough moisture content. We had it last weekend with temps around 0, damp salt froze in the spreaders. Put it in a heated shop and it thaws.

Learned it the hard way back in '91 or '92 when we started using bulk salt but didn't tarp it or have a roof over it. Filled our "large capacity" salt spreader up with frozen salt, parked it in the shop and left the heat up. There was 1 chunk as large as the bucket. Next morning it was still there...tapped it with a shovel and it disintegrated.

Your salt is frozen.

We will have chunks sit on top of the spreader grate and after we park it in the shop for a while you sometimes can here them fall apart and into the spreader. It happened today.

 

[Ajlawn1]

We will have chunks sit on top of the spreader grate and after we park it in the shop for a while you sometimes can here them fall apart and into the spreader. It happened today.

I hear crap falling apart in my shop but it's not salt chunks...

 

[LapeerLandscape]

I hear crap falling apart in my shop but it's not salt chunks...

Must be your frozen assets.

 

[Ajlawn1]

Must be your frozen assets.

They might be frozen my one hanging furnace on the West side of the building would never make it to 45 today and continuously ran so had to help it with the salamander... I'm really scared for next week... There are two more on that side but I haven't tried or needed to run them yet...

 

[LapeerLandscape]

They might be frozen my one hanging furnace on the West side of the building would never make it to 45 today and continuously ran so had to help it with the salamander... I'm really scared for next week... There are two more on that side but I haven't tried or needed to run them yet...

My geo struggles to keep up when its this cold. I also have a salamander I kick on to bring the temp up quick for working in the shop.

 

[Aerospace Eng]

My geo struggles to keep up when its this cold. I also have a salamander I kick on to bring the temp up quick for working in the shop.

Either it's undersized or you lost some insulation. The primary advantage to geothermal heat pumps are that they don't lose efficiency as it gets colder.

My air source heat pumps have kept 65 inside at -5F outside

 

[tpendagast]

Salt is solid unless it's in a brine form. Hence the term "rock salt" or granular.

And it can and does freeze if there is enough moisture content. We had it last weekend with temps around 0, damp salt froze in the spreaders. Put it in a heated shop and it thaws.

Learned it the hard way back in '91 or '92 when we started using bulk salt but didn't tarp it or have a roof over it. Filled our "large capacity" salt spreader up with frozen salt, parked it in the shop and left the heat up. There was 1 chunk as large as the bucket. Next morning it was still there...tapped it with a shovel and it disintegrated.

Your salt is frozen.

And yet it can remain solid above freezing temperatures as well, like I said.
As the OP said, he had his salt stored at 50f and it's still solid
Even water doesn't freeze at 50 degrees

So simple science... it's not frozen (in this case)

 

[Mark Oomkes]

Salt is solid to begin with.

 

[LapeerLandscape]

I have a, I was going to say theory but its more of a uneducated thought on this. We all know it freezes when left outside in the spreader and when brought inside it unthaws but sometimes still stays in a large chunk. I think it sometimes it kind of glues itself together after being frozen. So it goes from solid form draws moisture from outside air freezes together and sometimes dries and goes back to solid form in a larger chunk.

 

[FredG]

Anything will freeze with moisture in it, ever try to stick your bucket in sand in the low temps? What does it do? It clumps on the top just like salt any solid topsoil etc.

Think of it like a bag of concrete. As long as it is stored dry it will last until it gets some moisture. The last time I was at the City of Syracuse DOT they had salt outside no cover nothing, the guy on the loader was dam near touching the sealing with the loader in the salt bin.

Never seen that much salt at one location. I wanted to get over and talk to the loader guy and find out the deal with the tons and tons of salt not covered outside. Had some old hard @$$ there and I could not get in. Ever been to the gravel pit early morning in low temps getting stone. It clumps up and freezes too till the operator gets deeper in the huge piles the conveyor made.

 

[Mark Oomkes]

Is sand a solid Fred?