Troubleshooting Salt Spreaders

A salt spreader is an invaluable tool during the winter time. As ice builds up on your freshly plowed driveway, you will need to have some way to dissolve that ice. Salt works against the ice to melt it away so you are not slipping and sliding around your driveway. Keeping them clean and functioning will make your winter time clean up a lot more enjoyable. Part of that cleaning is to keep your salt spreader maintained by troubleshooting it. When the spreader stops spreading salt evenly, or even at all, you should take some time to find out what is wrong with it instead of just replacing it.

Laying the Salt Unevenly

Common to all salt spreaders, whether it is a small walk behind or a tailgate spreader, is that it will begin to lay salt unevenly. An uneven spread of salt will lead to parts of the driveway, or parking lot, that is still covered with ice. This is a very dangerous situation as you can still start into a slide and not stop where you need to. Troubleshooting this means looking into the spreader to see if anything is lodged into the gearing. Make sure if you have an electrical spreader that it is unplugged from the power source. This is mostly seen in a tailgate spreader. Use a small screwdriver to pry loose any stuck rocks, or hard pieces of salt.

Gears Are Squeaking

Towards the end of the winter season you will probably hear some squeaking of the gear or internal workings in your spreader. By going through snow, freezing rain, thawing out, and all the salt that runs through the machine in a season, the spreader will begin to run out of lubricant. Some spreaders have grease fittings that can be used for greasing the internal workings. Other spreaders just need some silicone sprayed into the moving areas to keep them from squealing or sticking.

No Salt Being Dropped

You may notice that there isn't any salt being dropped onto your driveway. When this happens one of two things can be happening. The first is that the door that opens to start the spreading is stuck. Check the underneath of the spreader and look at the opening mechanism. Check the spring that moves the door. Clean them out of any build up or replace the parts that are broken. The second thing that can happen in the cable has snapped. If you have owned your salt spreader for awhile, this can easily be the cause.

Clumping vs. Spreading Salt

If you notice that the salt is clumping together instead of spreading on the ground, there is excess moisture, snow, rain, sand in the mixture. You can add a cover to fix this problem, or add new salt to the spreader.

If your spreader starts to act up, it's time to call on the experts at Russo. Our Parts Department carries hundreds of spreader parts for most brands and models, even the ones we don't sell and Russo Service Departments are equipped to handle any type of spreader malfunction from large in-bed spreaders down to small walk-behinds. If it's time for an upgrade or to the throw in the towel on your old spreader, browse our large selection of contractor quality units from brands like SnowEx, SaltDog, Earthway, Chapin, Brinly, and Spyker.