Autoglym Snowfoam - is it me or the foam that's rubbish?

[Krikkit]

Hey everyone,

Last year I spied the karcher snowfoam attachment on a silly offer, bundled with 5L of Autoglym Polar Blast foam, for about £25 posted, which seemed like good value.

Anyway, I've tried it a few times and honestly I can never tell what the foam manages to do. My routine is:

• Power wash the car to remove as much loose dirt as possible
• Foam in the attachment diluted 40:60 (Foam:Water), slightly less than max concentration on the bottle which is 50:50
• Attachment set to near max
• Spray away, leave for 5 mins having completely coated the car and emptied the bottle, then rinse off again

Honestly on the rinse down I can't see any difference - it foams up fantastically well, completely covers the car etc.

Is it the foam, me or both? If this foam's crap then what would you recommend? Or is it the own-brand Karcher foam lance?

[mmm-five]

I've always sprayed the snow-foam on a dry & dirty car, so that it loosens everything before I start with the pressure washer/buckets.

Not a big fan of some of the Autoglym stuff though.

My normal winter concentration (which will vary by brand) is 10:1 and will use 20:1 if I'm doing a quick summer clean to get rid of dust/pollen.

Even then, it's not that great for baked/caked dirt like this - at my half-way point in a 250 mile winter Welsh hoon - which I had to 'peel' off like thin render at times.

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 17th December 12:20

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 17th December 12:27

[Summit_Detailing]

Completely pointless step in the process 99% of the time.

A good pre-spray with a wax/coating safe TFR, like Autosmart Prestige XLS diluted down to the correct ratio through a pump sprayer, leave to dwell for a few minutes and pressure rinse off then crack on with your wash process as normal.

The only time when snowfoam offers a benefit is in the summer when if you apply over the aforementioned TFR it increases the dwell time as it stops it drying out.

Emperor's new clothes and all that

Cheers,

Chris

[p4cks]

Summit_Detailing said:

Completely pointless step in the process 99% of the time.

This. It's largely hopeless.

[5harp3y]

Autoglym foam is pants

the bilt hamber stuff actually shifts dirt

[Gandoolie]

If you are going to use it then put it on a dry car in my experience, AG foams up more but as above Bilt Hamber is probably better but less photogenic

[Jonny_]

Gandoolie said:

If you are going to use it then put it on a dry car in my experience, AG foams up more but as above Bilt Hamber is probably better but less photogenic

Yep, I've tried both Auto Glym Polar foam and Bilt Hamber Auto Foam, definitely more impressed with the latter in terms of shifting dirt.

Also found that a 5 litre bottle lasts forever (bought mine 2 and a half years ago and it's still half full, probably done 90-100 washes in that time) as the stuff is so highly concentrated.

[tr7v8]

Bought some cherry smelling stuff from Amazon. Works ok and most importantly doesn't affect my sensitive skin. Which is important as I react horribly to meguiars stuff

[Depthhoar]

Bilt Hamber Surfex HD at somewhere between 10-20% concentration (depending on the amount of muck) applied with a simple pump sprayer has worked far better than any snow foam I've used. Remarkably economical, too.

[Evanivitch]

Depthhoar said:

Bilt Hamber Surfex HD at somewhere between 10-20% concentration (depending on the amount of muck) applied with a simple pump sprayer has worked far better than any snow foam I've used. Remarkably economical, too.

Mix surfex HD with Autofoam 1:5 works for me.

[p4cks]

Depthhoar said:

Bilt Hamber Surfex HD at somewhere between 10-20% concentration (depending on the amount of muck) applied with a simple pump sprayer has worked far better than any snow foam I've used. Remarkably economical, too.

You can save a bit of money by using Screwfix's own degreaser as opposed to Surfex HD - it's incredible stuff!

https://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsense-heavy-duty-...

[Zumbruk]

CheesecakeRunner said:

I’ve tried a lot of snow foams in a decent gun, and I’ve never found them to do anything more than just jet washing the car does. Complete waste of money IMO.

I just bought some Autoglym "Polar Blast" to see if it works, so that's a bit depressing. Oh, well, I needed some more carwash detergent anyway. (I generally use Flash. It works just as well as anything else.)

IMNHO, there's more nonsense talked in car detailing threads than with audiphools, Teslerati and Apple fanbois put together. It's detergent, colour, thickener, scent and maybe a pH buffer. How many different ways can you spin that?

[_Hoppers]

I started off with the Autoglym product and found it didn't work too well. I then tried the BH Auto Foam and found that to work really well! From following the BH product/water mix ratio instructions, I needed 600ml of Auto Foam with 400ml water. I later tried that ratio with the Autoglym product and it worked much better.

For a more intensive pre-wash I spray on some Surfex HD then Auto Foam. Along with waxed paintwork topped up with detail spray once every 2-3 washes this method gets the car clean enough not to need a contact wash (well, almost!)!



Clicky for video

Edited by _Hoppers on Saturday 18th December 17:56

[Jonny_]

Evanivitch said:

Depthhoar said:

Bilt Hamber Surfex HD at somewhere between 10-20% concentration (depending on the amount of muck) applied with a simple pump sprayer has worked far better than any snow foam I've used. Remarkably economical, too.

Mix surfex HD with Autofoam 1:5 works for me.

Interesting, I've got a bottle of Surfex too, but have so far only ever used it on interior trim and fabrics.

(It did a superb job on the interior of the Galaxy, which was as grubby inside as you might expect of a 10 year old family transporter when purchased, and is now spotlessly clean after attacking it with Surfex and a Bissell spot cleaner).

Haven't tried the stuff on the exterior, but might just give it a go as pre-wash.

[Shanksy87]

I've found simply spray on snow foam and rinsing off is pointless.

My process now is to use the foam to add lubrication, which is one of the purposes of the soap in the first place. To this end, I rinse, spray on the foam, then without rinsing I do a 2 bucket wash, then rinse off and dry. This seems to help cut down on swirl marks and gets everything thoroughly clean.

Moving away from Autoglym a few years back was another positive step, there are many alternatives out there.

[roscopervis]

Depthhoar said:

Bilt Hamber Surfex HD at somewhere between 10-20% concentration (depending on the amount of muck) applied with a simple pump sprayer has worked far better than any snow foam I've used. Remarkably economical, too.

That’s way too strong for paint! Bilt Hamber recommend that it should be used no stronger than 5% on paint. 10% is what I used it at for tyres, arches and engine bays. 5% is ridiculously effective. You must be removing all the wax you have every time you clean it!

[Evanivitch]

Shanksy87 said:

I've found simply spray on snow foam and rinsing off is pointless.

My process now is to use the foam to add lubrication, which is one of the purposes of the soap in the first place. To this end, I rinse, spray on the foam, then without rinsing I do a 2 bucket wash, then rinse off and dry. This seems to help cut down on swirl marks and gets everything thoroughly clean.

Moving away from Autoglym a few years back was another positive step, there are many alternatives out there.

Ditch the rinse. Snowfoam on dry, then rinse off, then snowfoam again if you want before hand wash.

When the daily car was a higher priority in life, snowfoam and a pressure wash was enough to keep it presentable day to day, the wax doing the hard work.

[Depthhoar]

roscopervis said:

Depthhoar said:

Bilt Hamber Surfex HD at somewhere between 10-20% concentration (depending on the amount of muck) applied with a simple pump sprayer has worked far better than any snow foam I've used. Remarkably economical, too.

That’s way too strong for paint! Bilt Hamber recommend that it should be used no stronger than 5% on paint. 10% is what I used it at for tyres, arches and engine bays. 5% is ridiculously effective. You must be removing all the wax you have every time you clean it!

Scottish Highlands...winter...copious road filth and salt. Tried Surfex HD at 5% concentration for my x2 daily beaters' monthly wash and wouldn't it shift it. 10% - 20% conc. seem to be the magic numbers for me. Paint hasn't melted yet even on the 'plastic pig' (my i3)!

[roscopervis]

Depthhoar said:

Scottish Highlands...winter...copious road filth and salt. Tried Surfex HD at 5% concentration for my x2 daily beaters' monthly wash and wouldn't it shift it. 10% - 20% conc. seem to be the magic numbers for me. Paint hasn't melted yet even on the 'plastic pig' (my i3)!

So many things, but they’re your cars.

[T1berious]

I moved over to Bilt Hamber Auto foam after being disappointed with the Autoglym Foam Product. I used a similar ratio as mentioned earlier (60:40) and found a decent foam, leave it to dwell, then rinse off followed to a Two bucket method wash.

If you treat it as a pre-wash you'll be in a happier place.

I used to use Surfex HD as a pre wash before getting a foam lance.