What is pre-wetting?

Pre-wetting is the winter maintenance process of reducing the amount of rock salt applied to the road and replacing this with a liquid de-icer such as brine, whilst improving the treatment performance.

What are the benefits of pre-wetting?

Financial - less salt used results in a significant cost saving

Environmental – less salt used has a reduced impact on the environment. Pre-wetting also minimises bounce and scatter, resulting in more salt staying on the carriageway and less in the embankments.

Supply chain– reduced reliance on the supply and storage of rock salt, which has proven problematic in previous years of exceptionally high demand.

Faster reaction time - salt needs to become wet before it works as a de-icer. As it is wetted when leaving the spreader, it starts to work much faster than dry salt would.

Longevity of application– the wetted salt hangs about longer on the road surface as it is less effected by wind and passing traffic.

Why invest in a brine saturator?

The most economical means of providing brine for spreading is on-site using a brine saturator. Brine can be shipped in tankers and stored in large tanks, but the cost to transport this relatively cheap commodity is prohibitively high.

An on-site brine saturator is a sound winter investment, maximising the efficiency of your winter maintenance programme whilst lowering raw material costs.

Visit our Salt Saturators site here.