Snow foam alternative

[zelda]

Hi,

 

I've used Auto Glym's Polar Blast twice now and to be honest I've been left pretty disappointed with how little it seems to lift the dirt.

 

Maybe my expectations of foam are too high..

 

Can anyone recommend an alternative that they've personally used?

 

Thanks

[davey_83]

I would recommend this as an effective pre wash via a pump sprayer or spray bottle.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bilt-Hamber-Auto-Foam-Litre/dp/B002OHSH1Q

[Jack94]

+1 for Bilt hamber auto foam, it's what I use having tried a few.

It does a great job as a pre-wash but as with any snow foam you can't expect it to fully clean the car, still need a proper 2 bucket wash after. 

[ballistic]

Another Bilt Hamber user here. Its regarded as one of the best. However, no snow foam is going to completely lift dirt.

 

Think of it like this, your attempting to remove as much dirt as you can before doing a 'contact wash'.

Pre rinse, decontamination (iron/bug removing sprays) and snow foams are there there to remove as much as you can before your mit comes into contact with your paint. The aim being to reduce swirling/micro scratches as much as possible. 

 

So yes, gotta have the right expectations for what a foam can do as you say 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by ballistic

[ilogikal1]

What dilution rate are you using your foam at? How long are you leaving it to dwell? And how thoroughly are you rinsing afterwards? All of these have a significant impact on how well a foam works and without getting that right it won’t really matter what you’re using for foam.

 

However, the alternative is a citrus pre-wash - Auto Finesse Citrus Power and Car Chem Citrus being the best two available. That said, still dependant on good dwell times and proper rinse technique.

 

Also, Bilt Hmaber Autofoam (at 4% PIR) or Car Chem snow foam (as at 4% PIR) will be considerably better than anything Auto Glym have to offer, but you do have to get the dilution right.

[zelda]

As ballistic says, that was my logic for why I bought a pressure washer, snow foam and decent lance so I could reduce the contact wash.

 

I realise I'll always be doing a 2 bucket wash after but thought visually, it would look cleaner after the prewash. Maybe it's also because it's a black car and the sun was out so showed up more.

 

The instructions said 100ml to 500ml water but I upped the foam part to 200ml.

 

Admittedly I left my phone indoors so couldn't time 10 minutes but gave it my best guess.

 

Thanks so much for the recommendations. I'll check out Bilt and the citrus options. I have the Bilt claybar and I'm impressed with that so maybe I'll stick with a brand I know.

[ilogikal1]

Ignore instructions when they talk about how much to put in the bottle, they don’t know the flow rate of your pressure washer so it’s highly irrelevant and pure guess work.

Measure your flow rate (only need to do this once) and work out between 4-8% PIR (panel impact ratio, I.e what actually hits the panel) and stick with the thy. The dirtier the car, the higher the PIR. Anything that doesn’t work at 8% (and there are many) isn’t worth it.

 

Sounds like you’re letting it dwell for long enough - this doesn’t have to be exact, you want to leave it long enough to soften and pull off as much first as possible but once it starts to dry out or it’s not running off the panels anymore it’s not doing much.

 

Rinsing properly is more important than dwell time though. If you’re just running water over the car to get the foam to run off, you’re not doing enough to be honest. You need to take your time and thoroughly rinse to shift the underlying dirt with the pressure of the water (ideally at a safe distance and angle).

 

You might be doing all this already, AG are typically middle of the road products as a rule. I posted a pre-wash demonstration here a while ago to demonstrate the different between foam/citrus/just rinsing that might be useful to seek out to set expectations on what each can do.

[ilogikal1]

Scrap that last bit, Photo*ucket ruined it. Pretty sure I don't have those pictures anymore either.

[zelda]

Fair enough. Thanks for the flow rate tip!

 

Have been using the pressure washer to do the rinse. The instructions say to rinse from bottom to top.. which I find odd. Is that right?

[ilogikal1]

I usually go top to bottom myself.

[coldel]

Top to bottom also, in my layman understanding of things, if I went bottom up I would be rinsing dirty foam down onto previously rinsed panels. 

[davey_83]

52 minutes ago, ilogikal1 said:

Rinsing properly is more important than dwell time though. If you’re just running water over the car to get the foam to run off, you’re not doing enough to be honest. You need to take your time and thoroughly rinse to shift the underlying dirt with the pressure of the water (ideally at a safe distance and angle).

+1 to this, need to treat the jet wash as if you are spray painting the panels. Every bit needs a pass over at the right angle and not square on. Where just running water has flowed over the panel, you will be removing minimal dirty prior to contact. 

 

Depending on how well you rinse the foam or pre wash off, you could with the water pressure write your name in the dirty panels.

[davey_83]

19 minutes ago, zelda said:

Fair enough. Thanks for the flow rate tip!

 

Have been using the pressure washer to do the rinse. The instructions say to rinse from bottom to top.. which I find odd. Is that right?

I always apply pre wash bottom up, then rinse top down. 

[ilogikal1]

Yep, that. ^^^

[zelda]

I reckon that could be it then. It does seem odd not doing top to bottom.

 

Seeing as I've not got any reason to drive her now I suppose I'll just have to wait for some dust to settle on her or something so I have excuse to have another go 

[davey_83]

Its allows the product to dwell for longer on the dirtiest sections.