# Pre wet system and liquids



## StratfordLandscaping (Oct 9, 2017)

I am doing a pre wet system to a salter I have, I am going to be doing a 55 gallon tank with a de icing liquid spraying onto the conveyor before ice falls on to spinner. My question is what are people using for liquids. Is there and concentrated stuff I can buy to mix with water to make it easier or do I have to make a bribe solution? If making a bribe soulution what is everyone using for ratios of bulk salt to water? Thanks for the help


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

2.28 lbs of salt per gallon of water will give you brine. we add pH Down and Calcium to lower the freezing temperature and make non corrosive.


----------



## StratfordLandscaping (Oct 9, 2017)

Broncslefty7 said:


> 2.28 lbs of salt per gallon of water will give you brine. we add pH Down and Calcium to lower the freezing temperature and make non corrosive.


Obviously you have to have warm water to dissolve the salt to make the brine solution correct? And how much oh down do you add? And what about the calcium? How much of that do you add? Liquid or power?


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

cold water is fine, i dont think ive ever heard of heating the water, its not sugar... if we make 100 gallons of liquid salt brine we make ten gallons of calcium brine, by adding 3.75 lbs. of calcium flake to each of the ten gallons of water. The Ph Down varies on what your liquid tests when its done.


----------



## StratfordLandscaping (Oct 9, 2017)

Broncslefty7 said:


> cold water is fine, i dont think ive ever heard of heating the water, its not sugar... if we make 100 gallons of liquid salt brine we make ten gallons of calcium brine, by adding 3.75 lbs. of calcium flake to each of the ten gallons of water. The Ph Down varies on what your liquid tests when its done.


Sorry for all the questions I do appreciate the help. I thought the salt had to dissolve which is why I thought the water had to be warm. You add 3.75 lbs of calcium flake per ten gallons of water or per 100 gallons? I have a 250 gallon tank I'm gonna make this in so if I have this right I'll need 570lbs of salt and I'll need 93.75lbs of the calcium flake? Also what are your results? And how do you apply? Direct bribe to the pavement or a pre wet system?


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

No, if I make 100 gallons of salt brine I add 10% of calcium bribe to that. So 10 gallons of calcium bribe requires 37.5 lbs of calcium flake. It’s juices up my bribe to melt a bit lower


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

I use it to treat my salt pile and pre treat with a 700 gallon system. Depending on the type of snow we will get an inch to inch and a half of burn off with the liquid pre treat application. Pre wet we get the same results as using treated salt without paying the extra price for it. Your supposed to use 5 gallons of liquid per yard when treating your pile, so that costs what? 4.00 in liquid.


----------



## StratfordLandscaping (Oct 9, 2017)

Broncslefty7 said:


> I use it to treat my salt pile and pre treat with a 700 gallon system. Depending on the type of snow we will get an inch to inch and a half of burn off with the liquid pre treat application. Pre wet we get the same results as using treated salt without paying the extra price for it. Your supposed to use 5 gallons of liquid per yard when treating your pile, so that costs what? 4.00 in liquid.


Thank you


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

No problem, where r u out of?


----------



## StratfordLandscaping (Oct 9, 2017)

Broncslefty7 said:


> No problem, where r u out of?


Buffalo NY pre wet systems and brining is not popular at all around here.


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

i think where liquid is popular, is in the midwest and way up north where the climate is less humid. with it being quite humid in new england you cant put the liquid down too soon or else it will absorb the water in the air and basically burn your brine up before it even snows. timing is everything for the liquid in this area.


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

Rite now my cost per acre to pre treat with 40 gal per acre is $13.20 which isnt too bad in my book. salt i was paying around $28-$32.00 per acre depending on salt prices.


----------



## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

Hey. We run a pre wet as well for the last two seasons so I'm no pro at it yet... don't make brine, but we use caliber M1000.. I buy it by the litre at our local builder supply.... I fabricated our system for around $400, run it off a separate power feed off a upfitter switch as then i can use it when i want.. I've had my nozzle spraying at the spinner tho I mite try it this yr spraying thru the salt as it falls from the conveyor, as some PS members suggest it works better? Definitely helps activation and I find the residual is much stronger...


----------



## rick W (Dec 17, 2015)

StratfordLandscaping said:


> I am doing a pre wet system to a salter I have, I am going to be doing a 55 gallon tank with a de icing liquid spraying onto the conveyor before ice falls on to spinner. My question is what are people using for liquids. Is there and concentrated stuff I can buy to mix with water to make it easier or do I have to make a bribe solution? If making a bribe soulution what is everyone using for ratios of bulk salt to water? Thanks for the help


Just a question, i dont think i have heard very good results from this kind of liquid use. You are going to spray the liquid on the salt on the conveyor before the spinner? 
I would like to add a prewetting spray this year to one salter but my plan was to spray after the conveyor, basically onto the spinner as the salt is launched. A wet mess at bottom of salter conveyor doesnt seem like best plan... Does that work well for others? My thought was a small atv type sprayer tank and set up in trucks with a couple coarse nozzles on spinner shroud....when needed, flip it on, and spray but NO liquid gets in v box at all ever. Just what i thought was best plan but like to hear comments.


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

i think the best place to apply the liquid is in the shoot while the salt is falling to the spinner. i think the problem with that, at least as i have seen is a lot of people in our area are running poly sanders than dont really have a shoot. A lot of people just tend to hit it just as soon as it falls off the conveyor. 

Hysert, i would agree that using straight additive like TIger melt Magic 0 IBG would be great, but its like 2.75-3.25 per gallon. by using a brine with an additive you still get the feature of turning the salt on with a little extra boost from the small amount of additive in the mix. i would by no means spray your pile down with a brine solution, you pile will freeze.


----------



## leolkfrm (Mar 11, 2010)

StratfordLandscaping said:


> Buffalo NY pre wet systems and brining is not popular at all around here.


take a look at thruway auth and state trucks, most are setup with prewet, generally mag chloride 
some towns are using it too,


----------



## leolkfrm (Mar 11, 2010)

bet you do lunch at ol man river! 

need to update your homepage picture with a nice green lawn, looks like last years drought lawn


----------



## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

Broncslefty7 said:


> Hysert, i would agree that using straight additive like TIger melt Magic 0 IBG would be great, but its like 2.75-3.25 per gallon. by using a brine with an additive you still get the feature of turning the salt on with a little extra boost from the small amount of additive in the mix. i would by no means spray your pile down with a brine solution, you pile will freeze.


Thanks for the advice!!!! Will give it a try? Think I'm paying $0.34 cents/litre up here for caliber stuff.... I seem to be getting about 20 ton of salt out of a tank full... but i dont use it all the time!!!


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

nice set up.

How big is your tank?


----------



## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

55 gal. Or 208litre for us canucks... it's about $70 to fill


----------



## rick W (Dec 17, 2015)

what you using for a nozzle? seems like a fun project. Nice


----------



## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

Think it's 30 degree fan.... I made the small mount on the spinner to hold it, with a quik connect for dropping the spinner off... tho like I said I mite try it spraying as it falls to the spinner this yr...


----------



## StratfordLandscaping (Oct 9, 2017)

rick W said:


> Just a question, i dont think i have heard very good results from this kind of liquid use. You are going to spray the liquid on the salt on the conveyor before the spinner?
> I would like to add a prewetting spray this year to one salter but my plan was to spray after the conveyor, basically onto the spinner as the salt is launched. A wet mess at bottom of salter conveyor doesnt seem like best plan... Does that work well for others? My thought was a small atv type sprayer tank and set up in trucks with a couple coarse nozzles on spinner shroud....when needed, flip it on, and spray but NO liquid gets in v box at all ever. Just what i thought was best plan but like to hear comments.


The sprayer is at the back of the conveyor, not in the V box. It's at the end of the conveyor after it comes out of the box right before it falls down shoot to spinner.


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

Because you take the entire back piece off of those poly Sander all the time like every storm it’s difficult to position where you would want that. I’ve been thinking about it and I think I may have one spot. I can’t explain it but I’ll post some pictures.


----------



## Hysert (Dec 16, 2009)

Please do!!! Broncs what spreader you running


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

Blizzard ice chaser which is the same as yours just a diffrrrent color


----------



## Low Salt Diet (Oct 15, 2017)

The hospital purchased a sprayer late in the season last year from Rittenhouse, runs off PTO,i'm trying to figure out the nozzles to use, this unit was supplied with TeeJet nozzles that put out 2gpm each, pencil spray used for deicing, it empties the tank in no time.














This is the brine maker that i built, 45 gallons in each barrel, pump is an old Jacuzzi pump, and i have a propeller agitator,


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

^nice! 90 gallons per batch?


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

We are running a 550 gallon batch brine maker, it does a batch in about 45 minutes. we then have 4000 Gallons of storage attached to it.


----------



## fireside (Mar 1, 2008)

Ok I have a question. With a spray rate around 6 gallons per ton what gpm pump do you run? My guess is the rate is far higher hoping to get all the salt treated but I could be wrong. It seems to be a waste of product to have it running out the chute. My other concern is are you destroying the sander and back of the truck spraying it vs buying magic treated salt. I'm looking at putting. A 30 gallon tank to play with spraying sidewalks and pre wet

I spent sometime studying a dot truck with a pre wet system. The driver really had no info other when turn it on and off. They spray with a fan up toward the salt and a newer truck ot sprays right at the top before it falls down the chute.


----------



## Broncslefty7 (Jul 14, 2014)

i haven't figured out the flow rates yet and i think a lot of people probably use way more than they need. If you are using straight brine you will be nuking the back of your sprayer and truck. Brine has a super high PH of around 8.8 which makes it corrosive, if you add in some IBG or Magic O or something like that is will bring the PH down to a neutral level. a lot of people use straight IBG or Magic O because its marketed as non corrosive, but in reality it has a PH of around 3.5-5.5 which is extremely acidic. so if you mix the two together in proper quantities you get something in the range of 7.0-7.8 which is neutral. the PH of a tear from your eye is 7.4 for comparison. i would think i fan tip would work best but a lot of the manufacturers use regular jet stream tips.


----------

