Who uses a “Foam Cannon” for pressure washers?

[BigMarty]

Ya, I was mislead too. You can't just foam your vehicle, rinse it off and have a washed car. You still have to wash it by hand. Cannons are basically a toy.

They are not toys. Doing a pre soap, rinse, and then soap again before doing a contact wash is the best way to avoid adding swirls and marring your paint when you do a contact wash. Being able to see where exactly soap is applied on your paint can give you a piece of mind that there will be minimal amounts of friction between your paint and your wash mitt as you go over it. If you don’t care about your car’s paint, do whatever you want. But don’t make comments about tools being toys when I’ve been using this tool and wash method since I got my Maverick ceramic coated a year ago, and my paint still looks better than when I first picked up my truck off the lot. I can’t find a swirl in my paint even if I tried to look.

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[PNWMaverick]

I have a Chemical Guys cannon.

 

[BigMarty]

Wasting 3X the soap doesn't get the car any cleaner. It a solution to a problem no one had.

Wasting 3x’s the soap?? You’re only supposed to use 1-2 oz. per 1000 mL. Foam cannon. Read the directions on the soap label before using it

 

[dhill59]

I’m thinking of buying this foam cannon. It looks simple enough to use. Spray foam on, let it do its job, then rinse off. No more washing by hand. What do you think?

Water Cannon

I use the “Foam King” from Amazon. Attaches to a regular hose and works great. But as others have said, you do need to use a brush to remove the dirt better. The foam gun cuts washing time by at least 2/3. https://a.co/d/7d84UoH

 

[dn325ci]

hauling out that PW is a pain

Yeah, I never used a power washer when I had to get stuff out.

Last year I bought an electric PW intended for car washing (lower 1,100 psi, higher flow 2 GPM), mounted it on a shelf in the garage, and put 50ft of high pressure hose on a reel. Now I just pull a car out and flip it on to get straight to the rinsing, foaming, washing.

 

[Mareys]

having no working outside hose i wait till it is pouring rain. go out with soap in bucket (Meguairs Gold)and mitt, i wash it working my way around the truck then turn around and wash it again the other way. Grill, then wheels and let the rain wash it off. Always looks great! Hasnt rained in a couple of weeks so looking forward to tomorrows down pour. The only trick is being sure it will continue to rain for an hour or so when you are done. Neighbors must think i am nuts out there in the rain but it actually feels great! Especially in the summer!

 

[billybud]

My Mav is ceramic coated...a foam...wait to work...and a quick mitt scrub...rinse....and the truck gleams...I do recommend a ceramic coat....and on my FXR gloss black wheels, the foam does the job.

 

[BuddyS]

I use one to pre-soak/suds my boat when I already have the pressure washer out to do a real cleaning, but it's not worth the time and trouble to set up the PW and foam cannon for just a car wash. A quality car soap and wash mitt (I use stuff from Adam's) is just as effective and a lot easier.

 

[AlpineKid74]

I’m thinking of buying this foam cannon. It looks simple enough to use. Spray foam on, let it do its job, then rinse off. No more washing by hand. What do you think?

Water Cannon

For $20 a month I can take my vehicle through the car was once a day. Back & knees cannot take punishment of washing vehicle any more. In Winter I am not washing it is the cold

 

[mktmgrjrm]

I use an Adam's standard foam cannon attached to a Ryobi electric pressure washer with Adam's Mega Foam soap. Soap, rinse, re-soap and wash, rinse again, chamois dry.

 

[Deleted member 5597]

For $20 a month I can take my vehicle through the car was once a day. Back & knees cannot take punishment of washing vehicle any more. In Winter I am not washing it is the cold

That’s completely understood. I was taking my truck through the car wash a few times a week with the $40 membership per month level. However, I just had graphics put on the truck and the sign shop told me it needs to be washed by hand now. Plus, I live in Florida. Anything below 60 is too cold for us.

 

[notfast]

I have a pressure washer but will never use it on my truck.

Same. Unless your vehicle is really dirty, like caked in mud and tar to the point that it's hard to tell what the original color is, anything more than hose pressure (about 40-60 PSI) isn't needed on a car.

Thanks for all of the advice. I'm going to stick with my microfiber wand and just wash it that way.

For home use, I suggest you look into rinseless car washing. We actually did that at the shop when we had no water for a week while the city got their stuff together. Rather than close and have no revenue at the shop, we filled buckets with spotless water and offered rinseless car washes. We got the spotless water from the tank in the mobile truck. That tank gets filled at a detail supply shop.

It worked out so well that we offered rinsless car washes as a "greener" alternative to regular car washes at both the shop and for the mobile truck. Like if a customer was conscious about wanting to save water, well, we could wash their entire SUV with 4 gallons or less.

We didn't even use any special sponges like what is available now from places like The Rag Company. We just used microfiber towels dipped in Optimum No Rinse.

Ya, I was mislead too. You can't just foam your vehicle, rinse it off and have a washed car. You still have to wash it by hand. Cannons are basically a toy.

They have their uses, such as it's a lot less work to soap up a large vehicle like an enclosed trailer or an RV. Also, for a professional, time is money, so if it saves time and can let you squeeze in one more job for the day, that's extra revenue that would be otherwise forfeited.

Does the foam remove your sealers or waxes?

No. You just use whatever soap you'd like, so it's no different than soapy water in a bucket.

Every few washes I use Simple Green in water to remove oily residue.

I hope you mean Simple Green's car wash soap. If you use traditional Simple Green, that'll strip off everything (dirt, wax, sealant, etc) better than Dawn dish soap.

To me and without seeing photos, that "oily residue" sounds like either the wax wasn't buffed off entirely or the soap wasn't rinsed off entirely.

not to mention the clay bar every once in a while-now thats work

Synthetic clay mitts work 80% as good and about double the speed. We used natural clay for stubborn spots or if the customer requested it, but natural clay takes a lot longer, so we definitely charged extra for it. Very few hesitant customers opted for it after we demonstrated the minimal difference in appearance.

I've used it with an electric pressure washer and while it does work, unless you have a really good one with high GPM and PSI (not really possible unless going 240v) they don't produce great foam.

Car washing requires flow more than pressure. The pumps in our pressure washers were rated for about 350 PSI max, but we rarely set them to more than 100 PSI. But they also did 2.5GPM, whereas most electric pressure washers are around 1.5GPM.

Side note on pressure washers...basically all 120V electric machines will have marginal differences in performance. At least for me, it mostly comes down to the attachment compatibility and the form factor.

This is because, as you pointed out, there is only so much performance you can get from 120V/15A single- or split-phase electric motors. If a company claims their 120V electric machine can do 2500 PSI, it's either an unfounded claim or has really low flow.

If you need more performance than 1500ish PSI at 1.5ish gallons per minute, you'll need something powered by a 230V, 3-phase motor (pressure washers with this capability are uncommon), or gas-powered pressure washers (which are cheaper and much more common).

A 120V, 15A motor tops out at around 2HP. A 230V, 30A, 3-phase motor tops out at over 14HP. Your typical 200cc gas lawnmower engine is around 5HP, very few residences have 3-phase power, and commercial buildings with 3-phase power don't tend to have 230V, 30A outlets at convenient locations, so it's easy to see why 3-phase pressure washers aren't common.

The Maverick goes through the car wash. I know a lot of people are against car washes, but it’s just more convenient for how often I need to wash it.

I'm not, and I used to detail cars for a living. I used to keep my vehicles absolutely swirl and scratch free, but that was a lot of work for not a whole lot of return. Now I just pay $6 and let the machine do the work.

Being machine-washable was one of my stipulations for a new vehicle. At the time, I drove a crew cab long bed F-250, which was too tall and too long to fit in a standard gas station car wash. Those machines generally can't fit a vehicle longer than 19' (about the size of a full-size, crew cab, short bed pickup).

That’s completely understood. I was taking my truck through the car wash a few times a week with the $40 membership per month level. However, I just had graphics put on the truck and the sign shop told me it needs to be washed by hand now. Plus, I live in Florida. Anything below 60 is too cold for us.

It depends on the quality of the material as well as the design. If it's standard outdoor 3M or Avery vinyl and there are a lot of sharp edges or corners in the design, then you stand a higher chance of the graphics lifting off with the high pressure water in a car wash tunnel.

OEM-grade graphics are typically printed on multilayer clear vinyl that is foil-backed (for the opaque portions) and they deliberately have rounded corners and large clear borders, such as the "4x4" stickers seen on pickup trucks. Those tend to fare better than the paint itself.

 

[TwoTone]

Whatever you feel justifies it to you.

Not feels, but SCIENCE!

 

[Snox801]

Sounds like alot more work and expense than just simple hand washing.

That’s actually the proper way to hand wash with a foam canon.
Obviously buckets can be used also, but that’s the proper way and works.

 

[Vafordman]

I'm a former professional auto detailer. Foam cannons work great to soap up a car faster and some customers like the theatrics. I suggest you watch some product demonstrations. You still have to agitate the soap in some fashion unless your car is perhaps just dusty. Otherwise you'll leave a thin film of road grime and/or soap grime on the car (also the same reason as to why I don't like touchless carwashes).

Personally I don't see the value in having a foam cannon for home use unless you have large vehicles like boats, enclosed car trailers, or RVs.

Is the 2 bucket method recommended to use?

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