FAQ
For many reasons, but mainly because Trecan snowmelters provide a fast, safe, reliable, cost effective and viable alternative to trucking and or dumping snow. In some cases, savings can average as much as $270.00 per hour and higher using a snowmelter over trucking. In many states and provinces, snow dumpsites now have to be contained, with the melt water run off controlled and a massive clean up is usually required in the spring. Dumping snow in harbours, rivers, lakes or other waterways is no longer allowed and is also against the law in most states and provinces. Road salt usage is very costly, not environmentally responsible and is one of the biggest pollutants in the snow removed from city streets. It not only corrodes cars and buildings structures, but harms roadside vegetation, harming aquatic life in the rivers and the lake, and attracting wild animals to the roadsides where they often get run over by vehicles.
Trecan builds custom portable and stationary snowmelters. The portable snowmelter sizes range from 20-tons of snow per hour up to 500-tons of snow per hour. The stationary snowmelter sizes range from 20-tons of snow per hour up to 1200-tons of snow per hour. Also, Trecan builds small units for commercial purposes ranging from 5-tons of snow per hour up to 10-tons of snow per hour.
Because of current and on going production commitments, it takes approximately 5 months from the date of order to build a brand new portable or stationary snowmelter.
Trecan does maintain a small inventory of portable snowmelters that are available for sale. However, almost all Trecan snowmelters in production are ordered custom built with specific options by clients.
Yes, we have a limited supply of snowmelters that are available for rent on a 4-month minimum rental, however most all of our rental units are usually committed by early September.
Although used snowmelters are very hard to come by and are somewhat of a rarity in the international market place. Trecan recently acquired several used snowmelters back from a long-standing rental contract. The snowmelters are older model 40 PD units that will be fully reconditioned and offer for sale or rent to new and or existing clients. They would make excellent acquisitions for independent contractors in the snow removal business. Trecan will require a 45 to 65 day lead-time from date of order to refurbish and deliver one of these units.
Trecan snowmelters can be found at most major airports, cities and municipalities throughout North America. Simply contact us and we will provide you with a list of clients and locations in your area. We will even assist you in scheduling an appointment to view one of our snowmelters.
Trecan snowmelters have an average 35-year life span
Our snowmelters do not run on gasoline. They do run on furnace oil (#2 oil) or diesel, #1 oil, and certain types of jet fuel.
The formula for calculated snow tonnage is:
{Depth of snow (inches) X Area to clear (sq.ft.)} /4000 = Tons of snow.
Next, divide the tons by the size of the snowmelter to calculate how many hours it will take to melt the snow.
Typically, one ton of snow requires 1.5 US gallon of diesel (heat energy) to melt. This will very depending on snow density, types of contaminants, air temperature, elevation and to some extent on the capacity and configuration of Snowmelter (the larger the capacity, the more chance the water leaving contains slush - therefore less energy is used to melt.
Melt water can be discharged to either system, depending on the customer, and local regulations. The water leaving the Snowmelter is usually cleaner than the snow entering the Snowmelter. During the melting process, the heavy debris in the melting snow falls to the bottom of the melting tank where the debris will need to be cleaned out periodically and taken to the dump. Floating solids (larger than the discharge screening) would also be captured in the melting tank. Any snow contaminated with salt, oil, glycol etc would pass through the Snowmelter. A catch basin with an oil and particulate interceptor to accept melt water would be prudent if oil contamination is an issue. Glycol contamination is not normally a problem except at airports. For example, Pearson International Airport’s Central De-Icing Facility directs all the melt water through their real-time glycol concentration monitoring system. Melt water with a glycol concentration over a regulated threshold is stored in large underground storage tanks - for later reprocessing. Melt water below this threshold is discharged to the municipal sewer system.
As Trecan is a supplier of both portable and stationary types of Snowmelters, we are not usually involved in acquiring any type of operating permits for the customers. A Snowmelter basically speeds up the natural process of melting snow. If, for example, a shopping mall parking lot contains contaminated snow, which is left to melt naturally, the melt water will most likely run into a storm water catch basin. The liquid type contaminants will enter the catch basin while the solid debris will lay all over the ground - or blow all over the place, as plastic bags seem to do.
There is approximately 240 US Gallons of water generated per 1 short ton of snow melted. The discharge water quality really depends on the particular contaminants in the snow being melted. A properly maintained and operated Snowmelter will not degrade the discharge water quality by any measurable amount.
Most of the sediment (typically sand or grit) is trapped in the Snowmelter melting tank. If the sediment is light or fine enough to stay in suspension in the water, then this sediment can leave with the water. In this case a discharge pond might be necessary - again depending on the concentration or an intercept. For a pit type Snowmelter, the melting pit can be quite large, allowing for a lot of sediment to accumulate - thereby decreasing the frequency of cleanout. Portable Snowmelters by virtue of being portable have a smaller (relative) melting tank, so depending on the ingress of sediment (debris), may need to be cleaned out every shift or once a day. Again, it really depends on the amount of debris in the snow entering the melting tank/pit.
The sediment could go to the same place as the debris picked up by the city street-sweeping vehicles, or the vacuum trucks that clean out the storm sewers.
Trecan Snowmelters are very well built to handle all manner of debris, and are very easy to clean out. The portable Snowmelter melting tank walls and floor are typically 3/16 to 1/4 inch steel plate stiffened with HSS members. (However, they are not designed to be rammed by front-end loaders or any other heavy equipment).
This depends on the customer’s requirements, and any extra costs the customer is willing to incur to achieve the noise levels they require. Generally, with the standard noise suppression package option, people working outside the Snowmelter can quite comfortably talk to each other.