Seen loads of references on here and utube about foam cannons. ESP those using a pressure washer.  But if I understand their use, you STILL have to wash by hand after using one. So is the process, spray vehicle all over with soap foam, then go at it with your microfiber cloth and then rinse/dry?  If so, what’s the benefit to the extra step of foaming everything.  

I’ve watched a ton of utubes and I’m just not getting the appeal.

I use a foam cannon on my RZR.  Along with that and a pressure washer, I do not hand wash.

The foam gets all the sand, mud, dirt, etc dislodged, and then I rinse.

Think of it like a touch-less car wash.

It works really well.

Used my neighbor’s foam cannon.

It’s puts a fuck ton of soap on the vehicle.

Maybe I missed something but I was unimpressed.

Helps prevent micro scratches in the paint.

Pressure wash the vehicle first to knock the nasty stuff off, the foam, and hand wash with soapy water in a bucket, then pressure wash again and dry.

Ahhh ok. In my case the microscraches will be concealed by the regular scratches so definitely sounds like not useful to me.  If it was a faster process to just soap down, spray off, dry and done it’d be one thing and worth it to me. But not if it’s adding another whole step to my washing.  

Thanks

The foam starts the cleaning process  like a presoak and loosens up all the crap. If all you do is foam it up and spray it off your car will still be dirty. Its just like going to a touchless car wash. They are useless. I use it to soap  up the car them run around with a bucket of water and a car wash brush on a long handle and scrub the entire car and then power wash rinse before it has a chance to dry.  If I am feeling ambitious I will get out the chamois  and dry it off.

It looks cool but to be honest I think they are more valuable for making visually appealing detailing content than they are for washing. IMO with rinseless washing chemicals being what they are, foam cannons seem to be primarily useful for loosening heavy dirt and deposits. If you keep up with washing though I think you’re mostly just blasting through soap for fun.

I want to see some side by side tests with a foam cannon and fancy soap vs a normal hose with a dispenser filled with dish soap and see if there's much difference as a pre wash. When I let my car get too bad and I was lazy I'd take a spray bottle of simple green and wet my car down a few minutes before I drove into the carwash.

Never ever use dish soap on a cars finish

So you've seen video's....and read reviews........Then why start a thread ??

What new piece of information do you expect to uncover with starting a thread, that you didn't already see with the videos, or already read about ??



.

If this theory was used these discussion forums would shrivel up and die. Discussion of different topics is why they exist. It always drives me nuts when someone asks a question and 10 people jump down their throat telling them to use the search when every one of them could have just as easily taken that time to answer the question.

I use one for cleaning the ATV's. Pressure wash, Foam Cannon with Wash Chems Pro 50 , Pressure rinse. Makes it look WAY cleaner than a pressure wash alone.

The foamy soap does a really good job of emulsifying dirt/debris from the surface, but it doesn't take away the elbow work if you're going for perfection.

Unless your plan is to completely strip off all the older waxes and sealants to start over.

Consider the next statement about spraying down the car with Simple Green, I didn't think stripping wax with dish soap was the problem.

My son bought a foam cannon, and it works well, but pulling out the pressure washer and hooking it up every time you want to wash the car is a pain.
I think someone makes a foam cannon that you hook up to your hose, which makes thing s a lot simpler.
I use a bucket and a large horsehair brush that I bought from Eastwood years ago, and it does an excellent job.

Missing the point.  Bikini car wash.

Attached File

For those questioning my reason for starting this thread after watching vids, it’s simple. I wanted to see if I was missing some benefit that wasn’t covered and to get other’s perspective. My apologies if I’ve wasted site bandwidth and will remember that guidance for any further topics. For the rest of the responders, thanks for your inputs and I appreciate your own experiences.

For me, my son thinks it's cool, so he'll wash the cars!
Best $20 I've spent in a while.

I love my foam cannon.  Pressure wash the car, foam cannon it, then let it set and drip off for a while.  I usually foam it again as I wash it down with my mit at that point.  Then rinse and dry.  It doesn't take a lot more time and it keeps the soap on the car while cleaning it.

It’s all about reducing scratching. Any time you contact the paint there is a chance of scratching, therefore washing and drying the vehicle are the main sources of inducing love marks to the paint. If you pre wash the vehicle using a foam cannon this will remove all the sand mud dirt and debris off the paint surface. Then when you follow up with your contact wash all you are removing is road film, not dragging abrasives across the paint. If you follow this up by drying the car using the non contact method of a leaf blower, you are good to go.
Obviously this is vehicle dependent. If you are washing your jeep that you just got back from wheeling where tree branches scrapped down all sides of it then you probably don’t care too much about micro scratches in you paint and using a foam cannon is a waste. Different story if you are washing a clients $250k show car…

If the car is just dusty, foam cannons do fine.  It wont clean road film/bugs/mud/bird crap so if your car is actually dirty, it wont do a good job.  You will still need to scrub.

REPORTED!

Nah, actually I learned a bit on the subject, so thanks for starting it. Foam cannons are pretty cheap, so I'm thinking it'll be a good tool to have on hand.

Disagree. If you have good paint protection that is exactly what you do.  The exceptions are the rims & exhaust tips.

I'm sure it's been said but incase it hasn't, don't get caught up on how much foam it creates.   There r 3 different "levels" **imo**.

Using a regular garden hose
Using an electric pressure washer
Using a gas pressure washer.

It all comes down to psi.  The higher the psi the more/thicker foam.  I went with a electric version cause I don't need to use it for anything else around the house.  Use good soap to eater ratio and u will be fine.  


As far as soap cleaning the car, short of you having a ceramic type costing in the car, just hosing the car off and spraying it with foam. That won't get all the dirt off.  **I do pre rinse by spraying foam on the car abd letting it dwell for a few minutes then hose it off.  Then foam the car down for year to wash.

If you mean just pure cleaning, both will be fine.  The issue is how many "love marks" you will leave cleaning it with regular soap vs foamed.  Just using a bucket and wash mit (1 or 2 bucket method) u will have to swipe over the same spot more than once.  With a foam cannon, you SHOULD only have to wipe in 1 direction and that's it.  Mostly because the soap should be given enough time to set and loosen/pick up the dirt and suspend it in the foam. This way the wash mit it is just picking it up.  

Side note.  The simple green is fine on wheels and such.  But the paint...

What are the chances.

Exactly. That’s not how discussions/conversations work.

I use one a lot for cleaning dirt bikes, mowers, pollen covered cars & engines. I also use it to clean the mold off the house using a mixture of dawn and bleach. Makes the degreaser/soap/whatever else you put in it, not run off so fast. This is offset by the massive amount of product it sprays out but it's less overall effort imho.

It can certainly be used that way, and with excellent results - most of the time^*.

I bought a gen 6 Camaro SS in 2016 and wanted to take REALLY good care of it, so I went down the detailing rabbit hole. Not all the way, but pretty far.

Below is what I have arrived at as "good" after 5 years of Camaro (now sold), Jeep, motorcycle, and WRX washing. Will try a different soap when this one is gone, just to try something else. Am happy with all of this, though.

I bought the inexpensive Amazon foam cannon. (< $30)


I bought a modest Karcher electric pressure washer (~$125 a few years ago)


A jug of Duragloss 902 car wash soap.


Zwipes waffle weave microfiber towels, and some small cheap Harbor freight ones.


CarPro Hydro2 Ceramic paint protectant


For what I think of as routine washing, in a shaded area, I:

1. Rinse the vehicle off with the pressure washer.
2. Cover the vehicle in foam. Allow foam to sit for 3-5 minutes, give or take.
3. Rinse off foam with pressure washer.
4. Dry with microfiber towels. Waffle for the major painted surfaces, smaller cheap HF towels for door opening areas, cladding, wheels, anything that might have any grit or was not reached by the spray.

This is good for the kind of dirt that gets on a vehicle just driving around, mostly paved roads, even after rainy days where the road spray has left visible dirt on the paint, ESPECIALLY if you have treated the paint with a sealant.

You have to experiment with the cannon - you have a control for mixture from the bottle containing your soap dilution, and one for the nozzle pattern. Don't be afraid to play with either control.

Fastest and easiest way to wash a car I have known.

^*For REALLY heavy dirt like when you took your Jeep offroading and there was mud involved, you may need to go more hands on, or not. If your pressure washer has a nice flat stream, it may be able to knock off all the dirt. You can also foam and rinse twice if you want to. When rinsing the foam off is the time to lightly rub your hand on the paint to feel if the soap emulsified and lifted the dirt off or whether you will need to re-foam and then go over it with a microfiber wash mit. Sometimes, just the foam and rinse is enough. Sometimes, it isn't.

WARNING: electric pressure washers are generally safe for automotive painted surfaces, but a carelessly wielded gasoline powered one may strip the paint right off.

Treating paint with a sealant like Hydro2:

I originally got Hydro2 for the Camaro wheels. It has 20" wheels and big brakes and the semi-gloss black wheels were always coated in brake dust. An application of Hydro2 and it could easily be rinsed off as it wasn't really sticking like it did to the bare wheels. Now, I use it all over the car paint. Makes a very glossy finish that sheds water and dirt easily. You have to do an old-fashioned thorough 2 bucket hand wash before applying it so you don't seal in any dirt. Then, I only reapply maybe every 6 months. These sealants like Hydro2 are ridiculously easy to apply. You don't even have to spray it all over. Just sort of casually then hit with high pressure water and it spreads all over. Kind of amazing. I have no connection or affiliation; I am just really happy with the product. There a lots of products out there and many may be as good or better, I don't know, but I do know this one works well:

Emoto, thanks. This info is really what I was hoping to hear. It’s very rare for my farm truck to be coated in mud and my road car gets just road grime to contend with.  I’ve got a gas washer and may suck it up and pick up an inexpensive foamer just to see if it’ll help. I’m not obsessed with having a constantly pristine car but if it’ll make my washing faster and easier then that’s a worthy effort.

It's pretty much a piece of cake this way. Aside from drying off with towels, it is a contactless wash. Very easy. Some guys use leaf blowers or compressed air to dry their cars. I haven't done that, but could if I get motivated. Those waffle weave towels are real easy. I just lay one out on the painted surface then slowly pull it along and it grabs ALL the water as it goes. Much better than the various other microfiber or cotton towels I've tried.

Browsing around through some youtube car wash soap reviews (is there anything NOT on you tube?) it seems that there are soaps out that are better foam producers than the one I have. I want to use this one up before I buy another, but I do want to try one that "they" claim is top tier.

I use a foam cannon on a PW.  I still have to use a lambs wool mitt. But it puts a lot of soap on the car, and gravity helps to move dirt lower.