Snow foam without a pressure washer???

[Bluecat]

I have just ordered a Mesto pressure sprayer and a litre of Valet Pro snow foam, as I dont have a drive but do have a Karcher but having all the leads cables etc across the pavement would not work. Dont know if anyone has tried this, but wondered will it work or is there another product out there that will foam up without the use of a pressure washer

 

[TR4man]

I seem to recall that someone asked the same question a few months ago and one reply suggested something on Amazon that looked like a large garden sprayer. I forget what it was called, but can remember that it wasn't particularly successful.

As an alternative, you could wash your car like motorists have been doing for the last 100 years or so before snowfoam became all trendy and a fad? :roll:

 

[maxman]

I seem to recall that someone asked the same question a few months ago and one reply suggested something on Amazon that looked like a large garden sprayer. I forget what it was called, but can remember that it wasn't particularly successful.

As an alternative, you could wash your car like motorists have been doing for the last 100 years or so before
became all trendy and a fad? :roll:

Agree with the above,I have a snow foam gun working off a pressure washer.Car looks impressive covers in foam,you rinse the car off and it still needs a normal wash to be clean.

 

[Bluecat]

I thought the whole point was that the foam lifts the dirt away from the paint and that rinsing it off avoids putting back on the swirls that you have spent the last 15 hours removing with your DA polisher??

 

[mcbeee]

snow foam, never heard of it. we can get "foaming brushes" at the car wash but you'd be crazy to touch your car with one.
someone post a pic of the Snow foam, please....

 

[srhutch]

You’ll need a pressure washer to get snow foam of decent foaming.

 

[ben g]

snow foam, never heard of it. we can get "foaming brushes" at the car wash but you'd be crazy to touch your car with one.
someone post a pic of the Snow foam, please....

Good fun, messy, but ultimately a bit of a waste of time...

Unless as said, you've spent hours removing all the swirl marks from your paintwork.

I'm from the 'as long as it looks clean' brigade, so couldn't really care less about swirl marks.

 

[GBZ4]

snow foam, never heard of it. we can get "foaming brushes" at the car wash but you'd be crazy to touch your car with one.
someone post a pic of the Snow foam, please....

DSC_1178.JPG

I'm from the 'as long as it looks clean' brigade, so couldn't really care less about swirl marks.

‘That’s boardering on heresy sir’

 

[mcbeee]

It looks like a relative of “ scrubbing bubbles” , you spray it in the shower or tub and it eats the grime and soap scum. No way I’m putting anything like that on my cars. Buckets and mitts are just fine with me. 8) 8)

 

[scooobydont]

To answer the OP, yes. Bilt Hamber Auto Foam and a pump sprayer, one of the guys over on the detailing forum gave quite an in depth review:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=400542

More foam does not mean more cleaning ability.

 

[srhutch]

It looks like a relative of “ scrubbing bubbles” , you spray it in the shower or tub and it eats the grime and soap scum. No way I’m putting anything like that on my cars. Buckets and mitts are just fine with me. 8) 8)

No, all it does is cling to the bodywork and lift dirt by soaking.

 

[Bluecat]

To answer the OP, yes. Bilt Hamber Auto Foam and a pump sprayer, one of the guys over on the detailing forum gave quite an in depth review:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=400542

More foam does not mean more cleaning ability.

Interesting article, so will give it a go with the hand sprayer, not expecting loads of foam but that does not seem to stop the dirt being lifted anyway

 

[PerryGunn]

It looks like a relative of “ scrubbing bubbles” , you spray it in the shower or tub and it eats the grime and soap scum. No way I’m putting anything like that on my cars. Buckets and mitts are just fine with me. 8) 8)

No, all it does is cling to the bodywork and lift dirt by soaking.

Yep - it won't get a car 100% clean but it's a great first step as a coating of snowfoam left to dwell for 5-10 mins, then rinsed off with a pressure washer removes all the surface grime and helps prevents scratches when you move to the 'contact wash' using a mitt.

In the winter just applying snowfoam and pressure washing (without doing a full wash) is a good/quick way to remove the dried on salt spray when they've been gritting the roads

 

[srhutch]

That’s what I tend to do with the daily in winter, just snow and pressure wash.

 

[mcbeee]

That’s what I tend to do with the daily in winter, just snow and pressure wash.

I just use real snow

Not really but washing cars can be a wee bit difficult at home here in the winter, things tend to freeze a little. The hose, the driveway, the door locks, my fingers .....

 

[S26-UkZed]

I thought I would give this snow foam a whirl, so I bought the foam gun for my Karcher K4 and 5L of snow foam from Halfords trade value range. After running out the extension lead + extension for hosepipe to reach out of the gate I rinsed off the Zed with the jet wash then attached the snow foam gun, what happens next is hilarious for anyone watching, you have approx 1min to run around like a lunatic spraying foam trying to cover the whole car before it runs out, I then stood admiring my pile of suds for the 3 minute dwell time, back on with the jet wash till all was back to Havanna Brown. I ran the car down the lane for a blow dry then back home to admire my handy work, don't get excited guys I honestly couldn't tell any difference from 20mins before when I started. So for me personally its back to the hose pipe and two bucket method with 2 cap fulls of Simoniz car wash wax and the all important microfibre cloth, I have however invested £8 in 600ml of Carplan No1 super gloss, this is so simple to apply and the result is impressive as is the smell of the product and allegedly lasts 12mths, the shine/water beading that is not the perfume lol.

 

[scooobydont]

I thought I would give this snow foam a whirl, so I bought the foam gun for my Karcher K4 and 5L of snow foam from Halfords trade value range. After running out the extension lead + extension for hosepipe to reach out of the gate I rinsed off the Zed with the jet wash then attached the snow foam gun, what happens next is hilarious for anyone watching, you have approx 1min to run around like a lunatic spraying foam trying to cover the whole car before it runs out, I then stood admiring my pile of suds for the 3 minute dwell time, back on with the jet wash till all was back to Havanna Brown. I ran the car down the lane for a blow dry then back home to admire my handy work, don't get excited guys I honestly couldn't tell any difference from 20mins before when I started. So for me personally its back to the hose pipe and two bucket method with 2 cap fulls of Simoniz car wash wax and the all important microfibre cloth, I have however invested £8 in 600ml of Carplan No1 super gloss, this is so simple to apply and the result is impressive as is the smell of the product and allegedly lasts 12mths, the shine/water beading that is not the perfume lol.

You already did the expensive bit by getting the hardware. I would give it another try with a another snow foam, BH I already mentioned but there are others out there. I have been using auto glanz:

https://auto-glanz.co.uk/piste.html

On the snow foam bottle there should be a screw cap (usually red) on the top that can be used to adjust the ratio, sounds like you had it up to high if it ran out after a few minutes. I can do mine twice over (not that I need too) and still have half a bottle left, or it could be the dilution ratio was wrong itself.

I totally appreciate that this isn't for everyone though, took me ages to figure it all out, but I like this kind of thing. #

With regards to not using one at all, I totally agree with the comments from others. However once you have polished your car and it have seen it swirl free (once you notice the difference you cannot go back, believe me!!), you will do anything to prevent the swirls returning. Snow foam is designed to remove the bulk of debris, not to totally clean the car. Dirt is just very small stones. The thought behind it is to help remove the debris before you have to make contact with a wash mitt (again this these help stop the debris getting in contact with the paint work). The aim is to clean the car as much as possible without actually touching the car as any contact with the car increases the likelihood of damaging the clearcoat (ie swirls).

 

[markeg]

In the winter just applying snowfoam and pressure washing (without doing a full wash) is a good/quick way to remove the dried on salt spray when they've been gritting the roads

That’s what I tend to do with the daily in winter, just snow and pressure wash.

Another one here for that approach (I also do the under chassis foam & rinse bit as well)

 

[scooobydont]

In the winter just applying snowfoam and pressure washing (without doing a full wash) is a good/quick way to remove the dried on salt spray when they've been gritting the roads

That’s what I tend to do with the daily in winter, just snow and pressure wash.

Another one here for that approach (I also do the under chassis foam & rinse bit as well)

It's worth doing the under chassis with this too:

https://www.bilthamber.com/corrosion-protection-and-rust-treatments/atom-mac

I sound like a bilt hamber rep,

 

[Bluecat]

Just tried the Mesto sprayer with the Valet pro snow foam. Once got the thing sealed up properly and 50 pumps later it seems to work quite well, you need to re prime the pump about a third of the way round the car but it does produce a decent amount to cover the car quite well imo, I got a second hand Mesto off amazon for a tenner but Wilko's do their own version for about £4.