Adblue as a deicer

[cootuk]

Rocksalt can hurt animal paws as well as attack concrete, so pet friendly substitutes like urea pills are often used. At the moment these seem to be in short supply.
Adblue is a 32% urea solution, freezing point -11degC, so I wondered whether anyone had used it for ice prevention/clearance?

[LDN]

Never thought of it; but I thought Adblu was best kept away from body work and skin, etc so not sure it’d be a good option.

Having said that; I may have been misinformed so would be good to know!

[xjay1337]

Why not just use piss instead?

[mmm-five]

xjay1337 said:

Why not just use piss instead?

I found I kept slipping off the bonnet

[fatboy b]

Doesn’t adblue damage paintwork?

[4x4Tyke]

if you are using rock salt to de-ice the car you are do it wrong.

[cootuk]

I was thinking miee of paths than cars

[227bhp]

mmm-five said:

xjay1337 said:

Why not just use piss instead?

I found I kept slipping off the bonnet

[4x4Tyke]

cootuk said:

I was thinking miee of paths than cars

Yes, I got that, I was taking the micky out of those that didn't.

[4x4Tyke]

Urea can be used as fertilizer and is used commercially on steel structures in preference to corrosive salt.

[MarkwG]

Urea used to be popular for airport deicing, but has been replaced as it causes issues in the treatment of run off into the water system. The volumes we're talking about are different, obviously, but I'd have thought Adblue is quite an expensive answer to the problem, anyway?

[4x4Tyke]

Urea is a nitrogen fixer, good in soil, not so in natural water ways.

[red_slr]

Adblu leaves a really bad residue behind its bright white and does not come off easily. It can (badly) damage trim and paint.

[Willy Nilly]

It's amusing. Farmers get all kinds of issues because of spreading nitrogen fertiliser on land in carefully applied doses when the plans need it with calibrated equipment. Yet here we are advocating slinging Adbue about with gay abandon in the name of de-icing.

[Jimmy Recard]

red_slr said:

Adblu leaves a really bad residue behind its bright white and does not come off easily. It can (badly) damage trim and paint.

I assume your garden path has really nice trim and paintwork at the moment

[pc.iow]

Willy Nilly said:

It's amusing. Farmers get all kinds of issues because of spreading nitrogen fertiliser on land in carefully applied doses when the plans need it with calibrated equipment. Yet here we are advocating slinging Adbue about with gay abandon in the name of de-icing.

Yes but think of the paws n stuff.

[MarkwG]

Willy Nilly said:

It's amusing. Farmers get all kinds of issues because of spreading nitrogen fertiliser on land in carefully applied doses when the plans need it with calibrated equipment. Yet here we are advocating slinging Adbue about with gay abandon in the name of de-icing.

I'm not sure anyone is advocating it? The OP asked if it was a good idea, & the majority of responses explain why not.

[cootuk]

As the OP I think it's a good idea as it's pet friendly. Expensive, but an alternative if the urea pearls aren't readily available.
It's not like I would use gallons, just a few litres

Btw our local paper has several features and warnings to wash animal paws after they've been out as the normal salt burns them.

[mybrainhurts]

mmm-five said:

xjay1337 said:

Why not just use piss instead?

I found I kept slipping off the bonnet

Have you never heard of velcro?

[s p a c e m a n]

We used to store water in old adblue containers to mix screenwash in, one day I managed to fill my screenwash bottle with adblue. 5 minutes later I'm parked on the side of the road unable to see out of the windscreen because it's completely covered in this streaky white residue which won't go away no matter how much screenwash I spray at it