Experience unparalleled protection for your sprinkler systems with our premium selection of Pressure Vacuum Breakers. Engineered with precision, each unit ensures the highest caliber of safety against backflow and contamination, marking a pinnacle in irrigation system preservation. Our meticulously designed vacuum breakers are crafted using superior materials and advanced technology, providing an optimal blend of durability and performance that stands the test of time.

Place plastic tarps on high-traffic surfaces (such as door entries, pathways, and the distance between your car and your home) just before the storm rolls in. Depending on the amount of snowfall, shovel it off or shake out the tarp before it gets the chance to freeze up.

An unfortunate environmentally damaging, but popular, practice every winter is to disperse rock salt (or sodium chloride) over driveways and sidewalks to melt ice. It’s a cheap, speedy method…but at what “price”?

Steel is typically a good choice for low speed plowing on poor road conditions (potholes, manhole covers, bridge joints, etc). Steel blades can struggle to match the performance of carbide insert blades but may be the best choice in certain cases where blades are lost or damaged frequently due to impact as opposed to general use.

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A system is a collection of products packaged together and shipped to your door. It is designed to keep everything for a blade install together and reduce the headache of ordering multiple pieces for blade changes. Each system includes smaller sections of blades for easier installation, 1 or 2 PlowGuards, hardware kits (with bolts, stover lock nuts, and conical washers), and includes freight costs. All of this can be ordered with one part number and comes in one box with installation instructions.

Let’s face it, typically, no one exactly enjoys going out and shoveling their driveway or walkways, but simply shoveling away the snow after a storm will prevent the need for extra ice melting treatments. Make it easy on yourself this year by spraying the shovel blade with cooking oil! This will stop snow and ice from sticking while you work and make your time outside go by so much faster!

Many municipalities are mixing sugar beet juice with rock salt to enhance the ice melting effects of sodium chloride. But sugar beet juice can be used all on its own for small-scale applications around the home. Effective to a temperature of minus 13ºF, the sugars present in beet juice lower the freezing point of water so it can be applied to surfaces ahead of a blizzard to prevent snow and ice from accumulating.

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Unless the icy build-up is a real hazard, in most cases just adding grit to snowy surfaces will provide the traction you need to safely get from point A to point B. Try laying down some sand, gravel, or birdseed to give walkways more traction. Avoid using clay based kitty litters though, since it will turn into watery sludge once it comes in contact with moisture and make the ground even more slippery than it was before.

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Pressure Vacuum BreakerAssembly

A full line of contractor grade guards, fitting the most popular OEM plows, have been engineered to fit in a smaller envelope and meet the demands of the hard working light-duty/contractor market.

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The ultimate goal would to be stop using road salt all together, but in the meantime, individuals and business owners can fight icy sidewalks and driveways, by choosing greener alternatives:

When salt accumulates in the soil, it interferes with a plant’s ability to absorb nutrients. Sodium reduces the uptake of water, potassium, calcium, and magnesium – all vital elements for plant growth. Brown patches on the lawn and stunted plants in the garden are telltale signs of salty soil.

On a roadway, this means that if you sprinkle salt on the ice, you can melt it. The salt dissolves into the liquid water in the ice and lowers its freezing point.

Backflow Preventers are designed and installed to provide protection against back siphonage of contaminated liquids into your drinking water.

Most recently we have expanded our contractor offering with the introduction of the Vulcan v-plow snow plow cutting edge, MoDUS modular skid shoe system for pusher boxes and the Pegasus expandable plow blade system. These product evolutions are a result of our experience in the municipal and DOT markets over the past 30 years.

A study on pond-breeding amphibians (specifically salamanders and frogs), published in April 2008 in Ecological Society Of America, found that “road salt travels as far as 172 meters from the highways and into the wetlands, reducing the number of eggs laid and the survival rates at the egg and larval stage.” Relating to the Earth, road salt kills off trees, plants, birds and has the potential to disrupt organisms’ natural environment and food supply.

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Once the ice has already melted using these simple items, make sure that shovel snow immediately after snow storm to prevent it from forming into hard ice. This way, you can get away from dealing with slippery and dangerous path for you and your family’s safety.

Alfalfa Meal is an all natural fertilizer made from fermented alfalfa plants. Alfalfa meal’s grainy texture will add some traction and the nitrogen will work as a de-icer. Because it is longer lasting than sodium chloride, you need only use it sparingly on snowy surfaces and should be careful not to add to the effects of algal bloom in our freshwater.

Rubber has a squeegee effect on the road and is the most lightweight material for snow plow blades. Rubber clears light snow, or heavy snow that has had time to melt from salt or brine. The nature of rubber which allows some flexibility when encountering obstacles in the road makes it a good choice for poor road conditions. Rubber is the best solution for any entity that finds itself plowing older decorative roads like brick or cobble stone because it can clear snow without ripping up the road substrate.

A simple, free product from the fireplace, wood ash contains potassium salts which helps melt snow, and provide a bit of traction, in moderate conditions. Since ash is darker in color, it will absorb the heat of the sun. Though it won’t work as quickly as rock salt, wood ash is a much gentler salt that won’t harm your plants, animals, or paved surfaces.

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The Xtendor Family of guards including our patented Impervium® Carbide weld leads the way with multiple sizes to fit most all OEM plows. The Xtendor system comes with two guards (a right and left), a steel blade, and a hardware kit for installation.

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Local governments take up the majority of road salt use, but the good news is that many municipalities across the country are seeking out more earth-friendly solutions to the sodium chloride problem!

Carbide insert blades are the cream of the crop when talking snow plow cutting edge blades. They have the cutting power of steel with a vastly increased life expectancy. Carbide insert blades are fantastic for medium-high speed plowing on road surfaces with few obstructions. These conditions are ideal because the medium-high speed reduces impact on the blade, preventing brittle carbide to crack and wash out.

Several companies have focused on making more eco-friendly/nontoxic alternative versions of “rock salt” using more natural ingredients to help aid in creating traction and melting ice. Browse your local stores for pet/plant friendly alternatives!

Sodium chloride is extremely damaging and corrosive.  It is known to cause rust on vehicles and “eat away” at bridges, concrete structures and cracked paved surfaces. Less severe, it is known for inevitable permanent marks on boots, pants, and jackets or other outside clothing that it may come in contact with.

The nitrogen and acids in coffee grounds can help melt ice and snow while adding extra grip. The dark color also means you’ll get attraction from the sun aiding in additional melting.

After it is spread on the roads, rock salt eventually dissolves and splits up into chloride and sodium ions. Carried to streams, lakes, and rivers, via surface runoff while also seeping into the earth’s groundwater supply, it increases the salt concentration of fresh water sources and accumulates steadily over time. Every spring, after a big thaw, the concentration of salt in fresh water spikes to around one third of the salt levels found in the ocean.

In the short-term, the use of rock salt keeps roads and cities up and running after a blizzard and has been shown to reduce vehicular accidents by as much as 87%. But in the long view, its widespread use has a dreadful environmental impact. Each year, around 22 million tons of rock salt is dumped on roads and sidewalks in the U.S.

Rock salt is also an irritant. Cats and dogs are often subjected to painful burning, inflammation, and cracked pads after walking on treated surfaces. If not washed off right away, pets can ingest it by licking their paws. Symptoms of exposure and ingestion of road salt include salivation, diarrhea, vomiting, excessive water loss, and seizures. In extreme cases, if consumed in large quantities,it can lead to hypernatremias (a fancy way of saying salt poisoning), which can ultimately lead to death in animals.

There are a multitude of variables that go into this decision. We typically recommend you give as much information as possible when either calling in or emailing an inquiry.

The fear of this method is that scientist predict, with continued use, any freshwater sources in the northeastern United States would no longer be safe for human/animal consumption.

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By mixing equivalent amounts of vinegar and water you can produce a less potent deicer. If the ice is very thick combine 40 percent water and 60 percent vinegar. Pour the mixture on iced surfaces and ice will slowly turn to liquid.

If you live in a place that has lots of snow and ice in the winter, then you have probably seen the highway department spreading salt on the road to melt the ice. You may have also used salt on ice when making home-made ice cream. Salt lowers the freezing/melting point of water, so in both cases the idea is to take advantage of the lower melting point.