Buy Smart: 5 Factors for Picking the Best Salt Spreader
WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN SALT
If you’re looking to take your snow removal to the next level, you’re probably considering investing in a salt spreader so that you don’t have to distribute product by hand.
However, choosing one to purchase can be overwhelming. There are a lot of options out there, and we all want to avoid the frustration of purchasing something that doesn't actually wind up meeting our needs.
So how do you find not just a good salt spreader but the best salt spreader for your situation? Follow along as we walk through five major factors to help you make your decision.
1. Salting Materials
What kinds of deicing materials are you hoping to use with your spreader? There are pros and cons to each.
- Rock salt/table salt (NaCl)—of your deicing options, this is likely the cheapest, and it’s been used for years because it works well.
- Calcium Chloride (CaCl2 )—more expensive than NaCl, but it's effective at lower temperatures.
- Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2 )—works at colder temperatures than NaCl does. However, it is more corrosive to car parts than NaCl is.1
Unfortunately, all of these salt options can cause corrosion that damages concrete and metal.2 However, magnesium and calcium chloride might harm concrete less than sodium chloride does, according to the Clear Roads research program.
Therefore, if you’re willing to invest more in your materials, live in a very cold area where NaCl may not be effective, or would like to minimize the impact you make on concrete, you may want to go with one of the latter options.
Another substance you might be considering spreading is sand. Like NaCl, this is a cheaper option. The benefit of sand is that it helps to increase traction; however, it doesn’t have any ice-melting capabilities. If you use it, you’ll probably want to use a mixture of sand and NaCl to get the most benefits.
So why exactly does the material you use matter when it comes to picking out the best salt spreader? Simply put, you want to get a spreader that will handle your chosen material effectively.
If you check out our chart, you’ll notice that different material types come in different sizes. Most spreaders can only handle three or four different sizes of material.
Imagine if you bought a spreader that’s meant to distribute material that’s on the coarse side but filled it up with small salt grains—you’d wind up letting out much more salt than you intended to and wasting resources. On the other hand, think of the clogging you’d have to deal with if you tried to distribute coarse salt with a spreader that’s meant to handle fine pellets.
Furthermore, some spreaders are unsuited for materials that are wet or heavy. This means you need to determine a strategy for which materials you’ll use before getting a spreader, not the other way around.
2. Spreader Capacity
A brief internet search for “spreaders for snow removal” yields tons of results, and something that is immediately obvious is that salt spreaders come in a variety of shapes and sizes—some the size of small wheelbarrows and others occupying the entire bed of a pickup truck.
Should you just make it simple and buy the largest spreader that you can? Well, that might be smart if many of your clients need you to treat large parking lots. However, there are a few factors you’ll want to consider for capacity.
Job type and size
If you’re mostly doing residential work and clearing small spaces at a time, a high-capacity salt spreader probably isn’t appropriate. However, if you choose too small of a spreader, you’ll spend precious time refilling it (more on that later). SnowEx recommends considering both your individual jobs and your total route when figuring out what size will work best for you.
Vehicle weight capacity
Your vehicle can only handle so much added weight while remaining in compliance with GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) requirements.
Reloading
According to SnowEx, the biggest problem posed by having too small of a spreader is that you’ll frequently have to pause to refill the spreader, leading to lower productivity.
Beyond that, they also point out that you’ll wind up using more gas if you can’t simply reload from your supply on hand and have to drive somewhere else to restock.
3. Spreader Type
Once you know the kinds of material you’ll be spreading and roughly how big of a spreader you’ll need, you should easily be able to pinpoint which of the following spreader types will work best for you.
If you spread salt using a truck—as opposed to something like an ATV—you’ll probably want to go with one of these three options (ordered from least to most expensive).
Walk-behind spreader
Okay, so this one technically doesn’t require a truck, but it’s a nice and simple option. There’s not much to it beyond what’s suggested by the name—you walk behind this spreader as it distributes material. These kinds of spreaders are great for small or confined spaces.
Within this option, you have a couple of variations, such as broadcast and drop spreaders. Broadcast spreaders will spread your salt in multiple directions at once (i.e. broadly), while drop spreaders simply drop product onto the ground immediately underneath them.
You can generally purchase walk-behind spreaders with capacities ranging from around 60 to 160 lbs. of product.
Tailgate spreader
These attach to the back of your truck, dropping product onto a spinning plate that distributes it in multiple directions as you drive.
Capacity varies—you can get spreaders that can hold somewhere between 3 to 11 cubic feet of salt.
V-box (or in-bed) spreader
These occupy the whole space of your truck bed, so if you have to apply a lot of salt in one go—say somewhere in the neighborhood of ½ to 4 cubic yards—this spreader’s a good option.
4. Salt Spreader Design
Good news: you’ve made it to one of the final considerations in this list. Bad news: it consists of multiple components: material, controls, and movement systems. We’ll keep it brief, summarizing SnowEx’s breakdown of these elements.
Spreader Material
Salt spreaders are usually made of one of three materials: steel, stainless steel, and poly (polyethylene). Although these materials are roughly the same when it comes to sheer strength, they differ when it comes to durability, maintenance demands, and performance.
Unsurprisingly, non-stainless steel tends to corrode and rust with use, and both types of steel make for more maintenance needs for your spreader.
On the other hand, poly spreaders require less maintenance while also making material flow more smoothly due to its slippery surface. It’s also lighter, so you can load up on more salt without defying GVWR regulations, and you can get better gas mileage with reduced weight.
(As of 2022, the EPA estimates that for every extra 100 extra pounds of weight on your vehicle, your fuel economy drops by approximately 1%. Every little bit counts, right?)
Salt Spreader Controls
How important is it to you to be able to hone in on how much salt you’re spreading? Certain spreaders may rely on a single lever that impacts the spinner speed and rate of flow, and a driver will have to get out of the vehicle to adjust it. This is inconvenient and might not give you the precision you need.
However, other systems have controls you can operate from the driver’s seat, and you can make individual adjustments to the flow and breadth of your spread. With more control over how you spread, you can reduce the amount of material you use by up to 30%.
Movement Systems
If your salt spreader relies solely on gravity to distribute material, that can work if what you’re applying is dry and small. However, other materials require more sophisticated systems, like conveyor belts or vibrators and multi-angled hoppers.
A spreader design that incorporates vibrations can help material to break up instead of forming clumps so that the auger system can deliver salt consistently to the spinner.
Conveyors have the potential to waste product; however, if you’re working with wet or heavy materials and are looking for high-speed applications to treat roads and highways, a pintle chain conveyor might be your best choice.5
5. Accessories and parts
Once you’re close to settling on the best salt spreader for your needs, there’s another factor you may want to think about. Spreader accessories can help you improve your equipment’s performance.
For example, the vibrating technology mentioned earlier? You can get that as an accessory to your spreader. Another common accessory, an inverted V, can help to reduce weight on your feed system. Finally, you may want to opt for a pre-wetter for your spreader, since prewetting your materials can help them to work more quickly and make you use less product. 5
Closely related to the question of accessories is that of how you’ll procure replacement parts for your spreader if something breaks down. Even if you purchase a brand-new spreader, remember that these machines take an enormous beating throughout the season.
Depending on how frequently and thoroughly you maintain your equipment, you may have to make repairs and purchase replacement parts often. To avoid downtime and disappointed clients, be sure to have a reliable source of replacement parts lined up.
The ROP Shop sells a few parts for salt spreaders as well as a variety of OEM and aftermarket parts for other snow removal equipment. If you’re looking for a part that we don’t carry, please let us know! Plus, we offer free shipping to the Lower 48 States and excellent customer service.
SPREAD THE WEALTH
By now you’ve learned what to watch for when you’re trying to choose the best salt spreader. Remember to look at a variety of factors (material compatibility, capacity, style, design, and accessories & parts) instead of honing in on just one.
Feel free to reach out to our customer service department if you have other questions. They’d love to hear from you.
Finally, once you've picked the perfect salt spreader for your situation, go ahead and check out our other snow removal blogs, such as this one about salt application guidelines or this one on maintaining your salt spreader.
Good luck with your snow removal!
[REVISED 8/2023]
- https://clearroads.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/Guidebook_CR15.01_FINAL_7-28-19.pdf
- https://bridgemastersinc.com/choose-the-right-deicer-on-bridges/
- https://snowexproducts.com/resource-articles/how-to-select-a-spreader/
- https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/pdfs/guides/FEG2022.pdf
- https://fisherplows.com/resource-articles/spreader-selection-101/
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