Snow Foam - where am I going wrong?

[8bit]

I've had a snow foam lance since forever but I've never really gotten on with it that well - by which I mean, I never find that it seems to remove any more dirt than simply blasting the bodywork down with the pressure washer on it's own does. I've tried a few different foam products, used it with two different pressure washers now and tried different concentrations and left it for varying lenghts of time.

As far as I can make out, snow foam appears just to be snake oil. Am I doing something wrong or is it my expectations that are unrealistic?

[8bit]

Thanks for the responses. I wasn't expecting the car to instantly become spotless, but I was disappointed when as I said, it didn't appear to have done anything very much at all.

Crafty_ said:

The snow foam doesn't clean the car. What it does do is provide a vehicle to hold the shampoo in emulsion that you're also putting in to the lance bottle. The idea is that got get a thin film of shampoo all over the car and can get to work on all the grime and muck before you start washing by hand.

If you want snow foam to work you need a good covering of wax, makes it harder for grime to stick, therefore the foam/shamppo solution can remove it easier.

If you don't have that it should loosen up all the muck so when you rinse the foam off dirt and grime gets removed, leaving less for you to remove by hand, which is one way you'll get swirls..

Some argue that a prewash solution applied with a low pressure pump sprayer is just as effective...

+1 on Bilt Hamber stuff, take care with the shampoo, its hugely concentrated (and expensive) so only use what you need, something like 10ml for a bucket, you'll notice it doesn't produce lots of bubbles either, but does work very well.

OK, are you saying I should mix some shampoo in with the foam/water solution?

[8bit]

I'd forgotten about this thread, thanks for resurrecting it. To close out my OP, I got some Bilt Hamber Auto-Foam. The instructions say to "Dilute as required to obtain a PIR (panel impact ratio) of between 1:100 and 5:100". I haven't a clue what that means so I've been diluting it maybe 8:1 in favour of warm water in the bottle. I've also found it seems to work well with a bit more time to dwell, so I rinse the car with clean water from the pressure washer first, then apply the foam then go fill the buckets and get the mitts etc. ready while the foam sits on the car.

I'd say that just the rinse, foam and second rinse probably get the car about 95% clean at this time of year (the car is ceramic coated, granted) so I'd say it's working pretty well for me.

[8bit]

_Hoppers said:

Extract from the instruction on the BH website

"Use on cool surfaces. Dilute product as required to reach a PIR (Panel Impact Ratio) of 1 part in 100
for light cleaning and up to 5 parts in one hundred for heavily soiled vehicles. It is important to know
the flow rate of your equipment to determine the correct add rate.


To correctly calculate the required quantity of auto-foam to use in a pressure washer reservoir or
foam lance bottle;
For virtually touchless cleaning 4% is needed at the panel not in the detergent bottle or reservoir. To
obtain this fill up the detergent bottle or reservoir. Take a large container and discharge the lance into
this until the detergent bottle is empty of water. Measure the total amount of water collected, and
multiply this number by 0.04. Fill the detergent bottle or reservoir with the calculated amount, and
top it up to full with water. This method will create the correct concentration of auto-foam discharging
from the lance."

Thanks - doesn't say that on the product page "how to use" panel for some reason so not sure where you found that?