No snow, no problem
1 Aug, 2006 By: Ron Hall Landscape ManagementInstead of pushing snow to generate winter revenue and profits, some of you will be melting it instead.
It's just a matter of time, says John Allin, president of Snow Dragon, a company that makes units that melt snow.
On a sunny, hot day in June, Snow Dragon, a subsidiary of Park-Ohio Holdings Corp., invited more than 50 municipal, airport and other managers responsible for maintaining large properties (and several members of the press) to a demonstration of one of its units in Cleveland.
 Snow doesn't stand a chance once it comes in contact with the patented system of heated tubes. |
"All we do is heat up snow and let it run off as water," explains Allin.
Well yes, that's true. But the units feature a lot of engineering too. In fact, it's the patented engineering involving 20-in.-diameter tubes heated by diesel-fed flames that make these units hot items and turn snow in water. But before being released into a storm sewer or retention pond, the water travels through three filters. "It comes out cleaner than the snow that went in," Allin says, and no special permits are needed to release the water.
Allin says that Snow Dragon units, like any piece of equipment, require regular cleaning and maintenance, including the water pumps, regularly removing the "gunk" that accumulates in the units after extended use and replacing the burner nozzles every 500 hours of use.
 The "Dragons" come in three sizes. This unit is for large properties like airports. |
Snow Dragons come in three sizes. The smallest SND900, with a retail price of $165,000, can be pulled behind a dual-wheel pickup or 1-ton dump. The largest is the SND5400 for the airport market with a melting hopper 32 ft. long.
Boston-area landscape pro Richard Churchill is the first purchaser of the SND900 15-ft. unit, that the manufacturer claims can melt 75 cu. yds. of snow per hour. Churchill's company offers property management services, including snow and ice, for condos and large commercial and retail sites.
 John Allin (right) was named president of Snow Dragon in January. |
He was one of a dozen contractors and large property facility managers that tried out the first prototype more than a year ago and offered suggestions.
Because his company is often faced with removing snow from difficult locations (like a rooftop parking lot) and is charged a dumping fee to get rid of it, Churchill said he carefully reviewed all costs and determined that melting is often more cost-effective than loading snow onto trucks and dumping it elsewhere. At least for his operation it is.
While there were several landscape contractors at the press conference, most of the invitees represented municipalities or airports, and that's where much of the interest in the machines, especially the largest unit, seemed to be coming from.
"In the next two or three years we plan on revolutionizing the way snow is handled," adds Ed Crawford, chairman of Park Ohio Holdings Corp., relating how he watched trucks being loaded with snow at nearby Cleveland Hopkins Airport this past winter. "It doesn't make any sense to plow and load snow. Think about the cost of those trucks and trailers running back and forth, back and forth."
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