Professional Snow and Ice Removal Solutions: 2025 Best Practices

Updated October 28, 2024

More than Average Precipitation in Winter 2024-25

The continental United States is moving into the winter season. Temperatures are soon to drop and preparation for the upcoming weather will be soon underway. According to NOAA, it could be a wetter year for the New-England and Northwest regions, which are expected to see above-average precipitation levels.

As precipitation increases, so does the risk of accidents and vehicle damage from freezing conditions. Roads will face greater challenges, as winter moisture often leads to increased wear, potholes, and added stress on snow removal equipment and vehicles. By utilizing Continental Research solutions, these winter hazards can be easily mitigated, ensuring safer environments and smoother operations.

Snow and Ice Management for Maintenance Professionals

Let’s start with the most basic of all snow and ice management solutions, Rock Salt! Most users of professional ice melt have learned that while cheap, Rock Salt isn’t a particularly efficient solution. If you’re in Texas or southern Georgia, then rock salt works fine. In areas that get snow infrequently and the temperature doesn’t drop below 21 degrees - saltwater’s freezing temperature - Rock Salt is a solid option. But overall, there’s a wide variety of professional ice melt options that will do a better job and cause far less collateral damage to cars, roads, sidewalks, and the environment in general.

Having a global view of all the relevant ice melt products is how you can choose the best professional snow and ice management solution. This, along with understanding the application area’s latitude and weather patterns, the average days of snowfall and icy conditions, and how narrow roads and streets, are lets you turn the entire question into a math problem to figure out the absolute best product for the circumstances! Even then, you’ll find that there’s a multitude of good options for commercial ice melt and professional snow and ice management.

For many years, the most reliable solution was either calcium chloride or ice melt brine made from calcium chloride. When mixed with water there is an exothermic reaction, more specifically a catalytic reaction to calcium chloride, where water becomes the generator of heat! Continental Research created a blend that became known as the industry standard commercial ice melt which we called “Grade 5 calcium chloride Melt Away”. We felt that too much calcium chloride would do the job of keeping ice melted below -50 degrees but was so caustic that it would also damage dispensing equipment and pavement. Plus, the residual could lead to corrosion. Of course, there are some places in North America that see plenty of the kind of weather where such measures are needed. However, the rule of thumb is that if you don’t live in a place with extreme winters (think Grand Forks, ND or Saskatchewan Canada) it just doesn’t make sense to use such a high of a concentration of any ice melting solution.

Professional Ice Melt Solutions When You Need Industrial Strength Products.

To combat the problem of uncontrolled concentrations in ice management products, we developed our own line of professional ice melt solutions. Continental’s proprietary ice melt – Melt Away - was designed for the middle zone which ranges approximately from the southern border of Canada to the Mason/Dixon line at the 32nd parallel. Our commercial ice melt is comprised of pellets rather than flakes in order to concentrate it all into one “craggy little ball that has Velcro like stick-to-it-ness.” Each individual pellet bores its own small hole, weakening ice’s structural integrity, and then remains liquified under the snow and ice! This makes it much easier to scrape and remove any ice with a plow or even just a shovel. With Melt Away’s exothermic properties, it goes to work immediately and will work in temperatures down to -25 degrees. Plus, Melt Away is safer than the most highly concentrated calcium chloride ice melt!

Another formula we've developed has a combination of several ingredients which in concert work with similar effectiveness to our Melt Away but is less expensive. Thermosyn is a blend of calcium, potassium, sodium chlorides and trademarked “Urea Max.” A special feature of Thermosyn is that it contains a dye in the Urea Max that allows the user to see where they have broadcast it already, so it’s difficult to use ‘too much’. Thermosyn is user-friendly, delivers quick results, and remains effective even in temperatures as low as -21 degrees. Because of Thermosyn’s lower price and particular efficacy in places that get modest or only intermittent snow, its popularity has made it our top selling ice melt!

In addition to ice melt, Continental formulated Pro-Tec Plus, a liquid ice preventer that can be applied before anticipated snow and ice. Pro-Tec Plus keeps ice and snow from bonding to surfaces like steps, handrails, sidewalks, and pavement. Pro-Tec Plus is ideal for application on areas that freeze-over and become slip and fall spaces where an extra degree of preparedness and caution is warranted. People often stretch their bang for the buck by adding Pro-Tec Plus to cinders or lava rock to add some grip to their ice melt spray.

Our most recent addition to the Continental line of winter products is Winter Rinse. Regardless of which ice melt solution best suits your specific needs, all ice melt solutions create a film on vehicles, road plowing equipment, pavement and salt spreaders. This film does not wash off with soap and water because it’s an inorganic calcification that requires a unique solution to remove it. Winter Rinse really gets the job done and has been an integral part of our 3 step process for corrosion prevention. All you need to do is dilute Winter Rinse in water at a ratio of 20 x 1 and then apply to the affected surface. Let it work for 5 minutes without agitation and then hose off with water. Then you can go about cleaning your vehicles as you normally would using any quality industrial degreaser. Remember to do this several times as each rain activates the brine or other ice melt solution on the roadways and reattaches to your rolling stock.

Best Snow and Ice Management Solutions to Prevent Slips and Falls

Continental Research carries many winter products designed for snow and ice management. Fortunately, we have developed solutions specifically regarding slip and fall protection, snow removal, and vehicle washes.

Slik and Big Slik both fall into the category of snowplow wax. To be clear there is NO wax in these products but there are advanced resins and polymers that functions as release agents and don’t allow snow and ice to stick to the metal of snowplow, shovels and other snow removal implements. You use Slik and Big Slik to prevent ice build-up. These solutions are designed to keep the equipment you need most during winter in working condition!

Melt Away De-Icer is Continental’s aerosol windshield and lock de-icer. This industrial strength aerosol solution is designed to remove ice and snow build-up on windshields, windows, locks, mirrors, handrails, and other surfaces. What’s more – Melt-Away De-Icer is safe for enamel paints, glass, chrome, rubber, and concrete. When you need an industrial strength aerosol de-icer that gets the job done fast, Melt Away De-icer will not disappoint!