Melting ice on tee pads

[Morgan]

http://ibgmagic.com/

This stuff melts ice really well and is not harmful to concrete like regular salt and calcium chloride are.

It's a byproduct of the rum distilling industry which means it's some sort of sugar.

Harmless to the environment.

I used it today to melt all the ice off the tee pads at Hyzer Creotch

[Morgan]

I got mine at the Quality Hardware in Saratoga near the brewery. Excelsior St

Same price as CaCl2

[Ven]

From the IBG website: "IBG Magic Liquid is a highly effective de-icing agent made from a patented blend of magnesium chloride and condensed distiller solubles. It is non-toxic, bio-degradable and has a corrosion index lower than distilled water."
For corrosion index the lower the value the more corrosive! How much lower is not stated. The chloride ion is the corrosion agent. It is present in their product, although apparently at much lower levels than other de-icing agents. I could not find anything on their web site about any long term tests.
On the other hand a positive corrosion index would mean the product would do the opposite of corrosion: scaling, adding mineral deposits. Which would be bad.
So how low is the corrosion index? I couldn't find it. Chemically there is potential for corrosion. Hyzer Creek can be our long term test.

[MichiganJeff]

It's not so much the corrosion factor as is the re-freezing factor.
You melt the ice and it seeps into the pores of the concrete.
When it freezes in there it'll crack the tees.

[Ven]

IBG melts to -35 F. Since it rarely gets that cold, there will not be much thawing and refreezing.

[MichiganJeff]

So what you're saying is that IBG will keep water(melted ice) from re-freezing until it evaporates?

I'm thinking that the resulting IBG/melted ice mix will eventually get diluted to the point that it COULD re-freeze. And gravity will ensure that the refreeze happens below the surface.

[Morgan]

Oh heck I hope that's not true I just put a whole bunch on the tee pads.

[MichiganJeff]

Also depends on the quality of the concrete used, and from what I remember, you went top shelf with the tees out there.

[Morgan]

http://www.pondarmor.com/salt-water-cor ... -concrete/

If the problem is salt allowing water into the concrete and then the water freezes, how come this doesn't happen without salt. I mean, regular unsalted concrete gets wet too, every time it rains. And it picks up moisture from the ground. And in places like florida and hawaii the salt water screws up concrete just as much as it does here.

Who is a chemist?

Cured cement is hydrated silica and hydrated calcium oxide. Its chemical formula is SiO2●H20 mixed with CaO●H20. I think the salt pulls H2O off the SiO2 and CaO turning it back into uncured (unhydrated) cement but I could be full of shinola

[Morgan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_Silicate_Hydrate

[Ven]

I learned a lot this evening googling concrete corrosion. It's the rebar where the corrosion begins. Ice Be Gone seems to be on the right track using magnesium.

[Morgan]

ix-nay on the ice be gone. Whatever is left in the bag turns in to rock like brown sugar does. You need to use a hammer to break it up.

[Morgan]

40 degrees yesterday shoveled 9, 5, 13, 14, 17 and then 1, 2, 3, 4

Today shoveled 18 and drove up the road to do 11

[Morgan]

All shoveled. This way they won't ice up when they melt and refreeze

[MichiganJeff]

Can't wait to winter golf at Hyzer