What activates rod sallt?

[05RLS2]

About a week ago we got a couples inches of snow, and of course the road crews had to spray as much as that brine crap on the roads as possible until they were pure white. I made sure I didn't drive my car during the snow, or even while the roads were wet from it melting. Since then there has been no kind of precipitation at all. Normally I hate rain, but I wish it'd happen just to wash that crap off the roads. Now all of a sudden we are going through a spring tease during winter. For the past 5 days it has been in the low 60s, and will be 70 this weekend.

So since some of the roads still look white, I have put off on washing my car. Not that it is covered in brine salt spray anyways, but it kind of seemed pointless since the brine power was just going to cling to it anyways off the roads from driving. Regardless, I am going to do it this weekend. But I was wondering, will the heat from the warm weather alone activate roda salt if there is no precipitation? Or does it need to be combined with a preipitation or high humidity to activate? I have been curious on this, but didn't really know the answer. Maybe some of you all here with knowledge on this could answer this for me

[loudog2]

My town sprays that beet juice crap all over the roads constantly. I would rather have the white powder, than the red sticky stuff.

[05RLS2]

I have heard of a few places using beet juice, but have never seen it. Not that I'd want to anyways, sounds like a mess


Excuse the typos in the thread title, I just noticed them. I guess in this section I am unable to edit

[builthatch]

But I was wondering, will the heat from the warm weather alone activate roda salt if there is no precipitation?

in my experiences it has to rain for it to dissipate. otherwise it will just sit. it might be manually broken down from driving on it, and then dissipate from breezes and wind, but generally it will just sit until it rains.

[05RLS2]

So basically it will not start any kind of oxidizing with just heat alone, and it will need some kind of moisture?

[ChevyZ71LTZ]

My town sprays that beet juice crap all over the roads constantly. I would rather have the white powder, than the red sticky stuff.

OMG really?? I've never heard or seen of such a thing!! All they do is dump hoards of salt around here (about 30 miles from Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY...yep, blizzard territory...) Would it be too much trouble to ask if you can snap a picture or two and post it up??? I'm really curious... What exactly does it do (melt the snow/ice) and does it corrode metal? I can't believe I've never heard of this...:dig:


in my experiences it has to rain for it to dissipate. otherwise it will just sit. it might be manually broken down from driving on it, and then dissipate from breezes and wind, but generally it will just sit until it rains.

In my experience I wouldn't say it's really quite all gone until we get a nice, heavy downpour for at least a few minutes.


So basically it will not start any kind of oxidizing with just heat alone, and it will need some kind of moisture?

Here's something from Wikipedia:

"Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides (http://www.autogeekonline.net/####/Iron_oxides). Colloquially, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron (http://www.autogeekonline.net/####/Iron) and oxygen (http://www.autogeekonline.net/####/Oxygen) in the presence of water or air moisture."

I've also heard that corrision on your vehicle will not happen if it's below freezing. Anyone know if that's true?

[SeaJay's]

I've also never heard of beet juice used on the roads. I'm in New England and they just use a salt/sand mix usually for the roads. No salt brine or anything like that.

[CrownKote]

Beet Juice? they must have finally found a good use for those nasty things they call edible... lol... Here in CO they use sand, salt, or mag chloride... The mag chloride is the worst for some reason that junk seems to kill any finish on cars regardless how good the paint is protected... I can always seem to make the cars shine after but that is some nasty garbage... as for the salt it does take a good downpour to clean it up...

[vet]

I think the beet juice is supposed to be less corrosive than salt. I read that somewhere, but don't know if it does as good in melting the snow and ice as salt does, or if it's any cheaper to use.

[aerogt01]

The salt will not disperse until there is enough water to dissolve it and wash it away. Nothing else will do it.

[StephenK]

My town sprays that beet juice crap all over the roads constantly. I would rather have the white powder, than the red sticky stuff.


seriously? beet juice? i live in aurora like 10-15 minutes away from you and i have never heard of using beet juice. aurora still uses salt

[Setec Astronomy]

Beet juice, ha! That's the blood of people who complain about the road department...

[jbgrant]

Are you in Michigan? My girlfriend lives near a beet processing factory. Yuk! I suppose they will do whatever they can do get rid of beet byproducts; curious if it actually works. I would imagine there is a salty brine left after you extract the sugars from the beet.

I agree with all of the former comments; salt is just salt crystals until you add water. The water dissolves the salt and forms an electrolyte creating a conductive fluid. The now impure water create paths for electrical corrosion and the resulting formation of run-away rust on your ferrous metals. Specific ions in your towns salt mixture can be very reactive and attack your paint directly, but only in the presence of water.

[billbillw]

The moisture in the air is enough to cause the salts to have increased oxidation on exposed metal. The warmer it gets, the more moisture the air holds, so it does increase when its warmer, but not purely because of temp. When I lived up north, I always washed the salt residues away from the car as soon as the temperature was above freezing. I'd be worried more about what is on the car than the dried stuff on the road.

[loudog2]

seriously? beet juice? i live in aurora like 10-15 minutes away from you and i have never heard of using beet juice. aurora still uses salt
Here you go. Saint Charles started testing it this year.
Cities, states testing beet juice mixture on roadways - USATODAY.com (http://www.usatoday.com/weather/research/2008-02-21-beeting-ice_N.htm)

The truck that applies it where I live is the same as the picture in the link below.
Liquid Ice Melt Solutions - Home (http://liquidicemeltsolutions.com/)

It sucks when you get stuck behind one with now where to go.