For further information please call 866-945-6358.

Michigan Melters can build a custom-sized snow melting machine to your specs or sell you our standard model 707 machine capable of 60 tons per hour melting capacity.  Vibration is almost non-existent and startup is accomplished in seconds from literally any temperature that you will encounter. 

We can fire the melting system with industrial burners using either natural gas or heating oil. These burners are easy to operate and can be serviced by any heating technician.

We have designed and created these machines due to the increased difficulty involved in finding snow dumping sites in heavily populated areas and we are ready to build copies for sale to the snow removal industry.  Diesel power can be installed instead of gasoline engine if you prefer.

Fuel flow of any melting process is based on the volume of snow dumped into the hopper and will work out to roughly 2 gallons per ton of "dry" snow melted, plus the correction for the efficiency of the machine under normal conditions. Snow containing water will of course be cheaper and faster to melt.

The 707 will consume fuel at a rate as high as 120 gallons per hour if you have enough loaders to keep the tank full of snow. Delivery of snow at a reduced rate will cause the temperature of the water bath to rise and melting rate will increase. The combustion process is completely automatic in this regard. The rule of physics to remember is "It takes a certain amount of fuel to melt a certain amount of snow". Onboard fuel capacity is optional with 300 gallons being the standard tank size.

 

Dumping height is about 8 feet on the 707 so that almost any reasonably sized loader will suffice, and the dumping width of 9 feet will accommodate a large loader if that is what you have available.  Melt water is discharged at the back of the machine so that it can easily be directed to the nearest storm drain by the existing slopes.

At the rule of thumb 2 gallons of fuel per ton of snow melted, it is obviously far cheaper to melt the snow on location than to employ a string of dump trucks and drivers with all the problems involved in offsite transportation and disposal. Also, the environmental impacts are negligible compared to any other disposal method.

The 707 is completely portable and can be leveled on its 4 legs in minutes ready for the intake of snow, ice, or mixture thereof.

We have financing available in the form of loans for purchase. If you prefer a lease arrangement we can do that also.

Our warranty period is 3 years and service calls can be worked out if you feel the need.


606 Model 

Michigan Melters
Ithaca, MI

Any further inquiries are invited and encouraged.
For further information please call 866-945-6358.

 

EJ’s Double Interface Heat Transfer System

This is a description of the advantage of our process devised to use in snow melting machines, but useful elsewhere. The operation is accomplished by an air/water interface and a water/ice (snow particle) interface.

1-You have a pile of snow to melt.

2-You blow hot air or fire on the snow.

3-Not much happens because the hot air will not penetrate directly into the snow which is a very good insulator and the air just runs over the surface and dissipates.

4-You spray water into the stream of hot air/fire.

5-The small particles of water are intimately involved with the air molecules and lots of transfer takes place with the heat of the air absorbed by the infinite number of water droplets.

6-So you have lots of hot droplets and a flow of air that has given up its heat to a very large extent.

7-Next, you allow the droplets to recombine into large drops or lumps of hot water.

8-The hot water then is allowed to drop onto the snow pile or into the water bath.

9-The water goes after the snow like a hot knife through butter as in when you tinkle on a snow bank out in the woods. The water, being over 800 times as heavy as air, will naturally be over 800 times as good at absorbing and carrying heat.

10-You have just transferred the heat of the hot air/fire to the snow and caused it to melt by using the water as a heat transfer medium.

11-If the some of the water turns to steam and condenses back into water the effect is about ten times as good at transmitting the heat as hot water would be.

This idea applies to the currently manufactured snow melting machines and any other process that functions by heating water or other liquids by direct co-mingling of hot gases and cooler liquids.
 
Now the other available snow melting processes known to us operate by passing the products of fuel combustion through water in a hopper or open tank where the snow/ice is dumped into the top of the hopper by loaders or conveyer systems.
 
This process necessarily involves the hot gases exiting the combustion chamber from an outlet that  is below the surface of the water in the hopper.
 
The term for such a setup is "submerged combustion" and is well known in the snow melting field and various other industrial processes where a liquid is heated by direct contact with gaseous products of combustion.
 
Of course, the hot gases are injected into the liquid from a depth as low as possible in relation to the surface of the liquid because the deeper the level of the gas outlet, the more time is spent by the hot gases in contact with the liquid to be heated, thus providing the maximum amount of heat transfer before the rising gases exit the liquid.
 
Unavoidably, the pressure inside the combustion chamber will be increased by the increase of depth resulting from the lowering of the gas outlet because any increase in depth of a liquid always results in an increase in pressure.
 
The result of the elevating of the combustion chamber pressure is that the combustion is more rapid with increase of the pressure.
 
Unfortunately, as is well known in the snow melting industry, there will result a condition of cyclical instability of the combustion process and the result will be a "chugging" or "sneezing" effect whereby the liquid will be violently pushed out of and away from the combustion chamber exit, resulting in a lowering of the combustion pressure from the tendency of the momentum of the liquid to evacuate the combustion outlet area, whereupon the combustion process will be naturally slowed by the lower pressure.
 
This lower pressure and slower combustion will allow the liquid to reverse flow back toward the combustion area causing an immediate rise in pressure, giving rapid ejection of the liquid and another cycle will occur as though the liquid were a piston being ejected from the outlet and immediately re-entering.
 
The net result is such that our own tests resulted in about 20,000 pounds of loaded snow melting machine moving around so violently that we had to grab the hand rail so as not to fall off. Submerged combustion appeared to be very distressing to the equipment.
 
The fix for this situation was that we changed the process so that the water to be heated is now pumped into the hot air duct, instead of the reverse, and the exit is not now submerged.
 
This makes it possible to operate the combustion process at nearly atmospheric pressure because the discharge of co-mingled water and hot gases (by then cooled as a result of the injection of the water) is accomplished at nearly the level of the liquid surface, only skimming the water for purposes of agitation.
 
The result is a very smooth combustion process with completely adjustable rates of air and water flow.
There are currently two sizes of melters that we produce.
 
The large size is the 707, which can either use one industrial furnace burner assembly or two.
 
Each burner is capable of a fuel flow of 60 GPH and the fuel should be home heating oil. Diesel fuel will work but is slightly messy.
 
The small size has a melting tank 1/2 the size of the 707 and is the 606. It is limited by space and uses one burner of the same type.
 
The 606 machine is offered as a portable or stationary arrangement, with option of either oil or natural gas as fuel choice.
 
The following spec list gives features of the two models, and melting rates are given as a starting point and can be increased.
 
Both machines use our patent pending super efficient heat transfer technology.
 
MODEL 707 MELTER
 
FUEL FLOW MAXIMUM 120 GPH WITH 2 BURNERS OPERATING
4,3200,000 BTU PER HOUR PER BURNER
8,640,000 BTU PER HOUR WITH 2 BURNERS
MELTING RATE 60,000 POUNDS PER BURNER PER HOUR. TOTAL MAXIMUM RATE 60 TONS
THIS MELTING RATE CAN BE INCREASED FURTHER BY USING MORE OR LARGER BURNERS
 
SIDE LOADING FOR 12 FOOT DUMPING WIDTH
MELTING TANK DIMENSIONS 8 FEET WIDE BY 12 FEET LONG
POWERED BY GASOLINE ENGINE GENSET WITH EXTRA POWER FOR LIGHTING SYSTEM IF DESIRED
FUEL IS DOUBLE FILTERED
300 OR 500 GALLON FUEL TANK
12, 120, AND 240 VOLT POWER OUTLETS
120 VOLT IGNITION TRANSFORMER AND ALL SAFETY DEVICES INCORPORATED INTO THE BURNER ASSEMBLY
ENGINE CONTROLS LOCATED ON STANDARD GENSET ALONG WITH BATTERY CHARGING SYSTEM
HIGHWAY LIGHTING AND WORK AREA LIGHTING SYSTEMS OPTIONAL
YOUR CHOICE OF PINTLE, BALL, OR DROP-PIN HITCH AND 3 OR 4 AXLES
ELECTRIC BRAKES WITH SAFETY BREAKAWAY SWITCH
 
ALL EQUIPMENT FOR MODEL 606 IS SIMILAR WITH MELTING TANK 6 FEET WIDE BY 8 FEET LONG, SIDE LOADING
MELT RATE 15 tons will keep a skid steer loader busy.
SINGLE AXLE FOR MAXIMUM MANEUVERABILITY
THESE MACHINES ARE CUSTOM BUILT TO ORDER AND SPECS CAN BE ALTERED TO THE CUSTOMER'S REQUIREMENTS.
 
BASE PRICE 707 IS $135,000               BASE PRICE 606 IS     $70,000