Discussion
Is it useless without a pressure washer?
I fell for a Facebook advert and bought a hand snow foam applicator. I sprayed it on the car and washed it off with my reasonably high pressure hose. Well the results were 💩.
I ended up just using my long handled brush on the snow foam and it was fine but more work than I anticipated.
Was I hoping for too much?
t and you still have so wash the car after foaming it. bloody fad if you ask me.I've also found it doesn't really do much. That said, the neighbours think I really know what I'm doing and must be an expert when it comes to washing cars so there's that I suppose. I only keep using it because I've got 15L of the stuff left so might as well. Also my 7yr old daughter loves it so I let her apply it now.
It needs to be agitated with a brush around the nooks and crannies otherwise it just a half-decent job of degreasing the dirt on the paintwork. I would pressure-wash first before applying otherwise any agitation will likely causes scratches which is what you're trying to avoid in the first place.
richhead said:
it does nothing more than car shampoo and costs 3 times the amount, still fools and money etc.
When i used to work in a body shop all we used was tfr/power wash followed by some good wax, perfect results every time, and didnt take more than 10 mins from start to finish.
So no physical "washing" with a sponge/cloth/brush at all?When i used to work in a body shop all we used was tfr/power wash followed by some good wax, perfect results every time, and didnt take more than 10 mins from start to finish.
I've tried that with my Hilux and despite using a pretty serious pressure washer as close as I dare, you could still write your name in the grime left behind.
pghstochaj said:
I use “touch less” and pressure wash afterwards, gets the car 90% clean with minimal effort so that’s all I do on a regular basis.
same here. it 100% does work and works very well. it gets most of the road film and grit off so when you then do the contact wash your not scratching the car.
it all depends what you're trying to remove. it won't touch tar spots.
the hand foamers are only good for the wheels or engine bay tbh.
There's all sorts of misconceptions and misunderstandings in this thread.
Snow foam is not meant to be an alternative to shampoo. It is not intended to clean the car. it is not meant to replace handwashing.
The whole idea is to assist shampoo in removing an initial layer of dirt and/or soften it up before you start touching the car with a sponge/mitt/brush/whatever else.It does that by thickening up the mixture of shampoo/water so it takes longer to drain off the car, in doing so means more dirt gets carried off the car.
It is much more effective when you have a wax / coating on the car because the dirt sits on top of that, when you use the snowfoam/shampoo mix it can remove the dirt even more easily. You can get to the pint that the dirt runs off so easily during this stage that and washing is barely needed.
There are other prewash methods, which might be better or worse... Its not new either, I'd guess its been around 20 years or so already.
The entire point of this and other prewashes is to prevent you having to actually touch a dirty car with a sponge/mitt/whatever, which means there is less chance of you wiping dirt (however microscopic) across the paintwork which is the main cause of swirls in paintwork.
It is not infalliable or some wonder weapon, it can only help.
Do note that "just wash a car with TFR" is fine and perfectly acceptable to do on occasion, but this will strip any polish / wax and will shorten the life of a ceramic coating. Certainly not something you'd want to do on a regular basis.
Snow foam is not meant to be an alternative to shampoo. It is not intended to clean the car. it is not meant to replace handwashing.
The whole idea is to assist shampoo in removing an initial layer of dirt and/or soften it up before you start touching the car with a sponge/mitt/brush/whatever else.It does that by thickening up the mixture of shampoo/water so it takes longer to drain off the car, in doing so means more dirt gets carried off the car.
It is much more effective when you have a wax / coating on the car because the dirt sits on top of that, when you use the snowfoam/shampoo mix it can remove the dirt even more easily. You can get to the pint that the dirt runs off so easily during this stage that and washing is barely needed.
There are other prewash methods, which might be better or worse... Its not new either, I'd guess its been around 20 years or so already.
The entire point of this and other prewashes is to prevent you having to actually touch a dirty car with a sponge/mitt/whatever, which means there is less chance of you wiping dirt (however microscopic) across the paintwork which is the main cause of swirls in paintwork.
It is not infalliable or some wonder weapon, it can only help.
Do note that "just wash a car with TFR" is fine and perfectly acceptable to do on occasion, but this will strip any polish / wax and will shorten the life of a ceramic coating. Certainly not something you'd want to do on a regular basis.
Snow and Rocks said:
richhead said:
it does nothing more than car shampoo and costs 3 times the amount, still fools and money etc.
When i used to work in a body shop all we used was tfr/power wash followed by some good wax, perfect results every time, and didnt take more than 10 mins from start to finish.
So no physical "washing" with a sponge/cloth/brush at all?When i used to work in a body shop all we used was tfr/power wash followed by some good wax, perfect results every time, and didnt take more than 10 mins from start to finish.
I've tried that with my Hilux and despite using a pretty serious pressure washer as close as I dare, you could still write your name in the grime left behind.
Crafty_ said:
There's all sorts of misconceptions and misunderstandings in this thread.
Snow foam is not meant to be an alternative to shampoo. It is not intended to clean the car. it is not meant to replace handwashing.
The whole idea is to assist shampoo in removing an initial layer of dirt and/or soften it up before you start touching the car with a sponge/mitt/brush/whatever else.It does that by thickening up the mixture of shampoo/water so it takes longer to drain off the car, in doing so means more dirt gets carried off the car.
It is much more effective when you have a wax / coating on the car because the dirt sits on top of that, when you use the snowfoam/shampoo mix it can remove the dirt even more easily. You can get to the pint that the dirt runs off so easily during this stage that and washing is barely needed.
There are other prewash methods, which might be better or worse... Its not new either, I'd guess its been around 20 years or so already.
The entire point of this and other prewashes is to prevent you having to actually touch a dirty car with a sponge/mitt/whatever, which means there is less chance of you wiping dirt (however microscopic) across the paintwork which is the main cause of swirls in paintwork.
It is not infalliable or some wonder weapon, it can only help.
Do note that "just wash a car with TFR" is fine and perfectly acceptable to do on occasion, but this will strip any polish / wax and will shorten the life of a ceramic coating. Certainly not something you'd want to do on a regular basis.
Nicely put Crafty. It's a huge misconception that it's a spray on and wash off, job done.Snow foam is not meant to be an alternative to shampoo. It is not intended to clean the car. it is not meant to replace handwashing.
The whole idea is to assist shampoo in removing an initial layer of dirt and/or soften it up before you start touching the car with a sponge/mitt/brush/whatever else.It does that by thickening up the mixture of shampoo/water so it takes longer to drain off the car, in doing so means more dirt gets carried off the car.
It is much more effective when you have a wax / coating on the car because the dirt sits on top of that, when you use the snowfoam/shampoo mix it can remove the dirt even more easily. You can get to the pint that the dirt runs off so easily during this stage that and washing is barely needed.
There are other prewash methods, which might be better or worse... Its not new either, I'd guess its been around 20 years or so already.
The entire point of this and other prewashes is to prevent you having to actually touch a dirty car with a sponge/mitt/whatever, which means there is less chance of you wiping dirt (however microscopic) across the paintwork which is the main cause of swirls in paintwork.
It is not infalliable or some wonder weapon, it can only help.
Do note that "just wash a car with TFR" is fine and perfectly acceptable to do on occasion, but this will strip any polish / wax and will shorten the life of a ceramic coating. Certainly not something you'd want to do on a regular basis.
Joe M said:
Also depends on the snow foam itself..
I've got autoglym polar blast, really thick foam and hangs around forever, but doesn't seem to actually do much...
Recently got some bilt hamber, runs off the car quicker, but can actually see the dirt coming off with it.
Agreed about Autoglym Polar Blast, does a very minimal job but the foam takes forever to dissipate from the driveway afterwards! Finally near the end of the tub so will be trying Bilt Hamber next.I've got autoglym polar blast, really thick foam and hangs around forever, but doesn't seem to actually do much...
Recently got some bilt hamber, runs off the car quicker, but can actually see the dirt coming off with it.
@Crafty_ has it pretty much spot on from how I understood it. My process has always been to try and soften the dirt on the car to encourage it off eventually with little contact. My process is typically:
1) rinse with hose
2) pump spray with citrus power/apc solution
3) snowfoam and rinse
4) snowfoam with citrus/apc and use this as a shampoo with the washmitt (I have been trying to use up as much of the snowfoam product as possible)
5) rinse
Sadly too busy with kids to dry it and go over it with any wax or polish these days but results are satisfactory!
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