Things you can put on your driveway to keep it from freezing are de-icing and anti icing products or even beet juice or a beet juice and salt brine or even regular ice melting salt.
You can also use coffee grounds, sugar beet juice and even homemade mixtures of some water, soap and rubbing alcohol that can be applied to the driveway to keep the driveway from freezing.
Rock salt is commonly used to keep driveways and sidewalks from freezing.
Things that melt ice are salt, table salt, Epsom salt, calcium chloride, rubbing alcohol and even beet juice.
Beet juice is an effective and also eco friendly additive that is added to salt brine for de-icing of roads and sidewalks, especially in colder climates.
The sugar content in the beet juice, lowers the freezing point of the water and allows the salt brine to work more effectively at lower temperatures than the traditional salt alone.
The brine is also made sticker with the use of beet juice, which prevents the brine from bouncing off the road surface and reduces the amount of salt that is needed.
Epsom salt will melt ice although Epsom salt melts the ice more slowly than traditional table salt does.
Epsom salt is a safer and more gentle alternative for de-icing, especially in areas where the salt may run off into plants.
Epsom salt contains magnesium sulfate heptahydrate, which means that each crystal is bonded with 7 molecules.
To melt ice, the water molecules have to connect with the water molecules in the ice.
The Epsom salt molecules connect with the water molecules in the ice more slowly but it does melt ice.
Epsom salt is safer around plants than table salt is, which makes Epsom salt a better option for melting ice and de-icing areas where run off around plants is of concern.
You can also increase the melting power of Epsom salt by combing equal parts of Epsom salt with an equal amount of sugar which makes it faster at melting ice.
You can also use sugar beet juice, vinegar and rubbing alcohol for melting ice as well.
The best type of salt to melt ice is calcium chloride which is a type of salt that is more effective at melting of ice than rock salt and can also work at lower temperatures.
Calcium chloride also has a lower environmental impact than rock salt.
Magnesium chloride is a type of salt that is similar to calcium chloride but is less corrosive to metal and concrete.
While Epsom salt is a safer alternative than other salts, the Epsom salt can also damage concrete over time.