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Bill D said:
Yes it does, the sliding brass slot adjuster adjusts to the ratio you want and the ratios are printed on the bottle.
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Thanks Bill! This is important IMHO; in my experience using too strong a concentration of wash soap will shorten the life of LSPs, especially carnaubas.



Can you tell me the minimum and maximum dilution ratios your foamer allows? I 'm leaning towards buying this more expensive foamer, especially if I can use it with concentrates and more normal washes like NXT.



Thanks very much for your time,
 
Per Accumulator's method, I alwyas use it with a pretty strong ratio and have no LSP compromise issues and incidentally I have washed with NXT.



Here are the ratios for the Gilmour brand shower foam gun:



1-128---1oz/gal



1-64---2oz/gal



1-32--4

1-20--6



1-10--12



Now all you gotta do is get in touch with the supplier I mentioned to you.
 
Another factor in the dilution is the strength of shampoo mix you start with. You don't (or at least *I* don't) put straight shampoo in the gun's cup, you mix it with water and *then* put it in. So it gets diluted twice.



I am *far* from scientific about it, some would say I'm downright careless :o I just mix up some shampoo/water mix in an old gallon shampoo jug, entirely by eye (as in, "yeah, that looks about right") and then adjust how it comes out of the gun (again, purely by eye, judging by how the foam looks) using the sliding mix valve. And as Bill D said, I use a pretty strong mix.



Even though this is just *so* hit-or-miss sounding, I never have a problem with it compromising my LSP. Maybe my "by eye" concentration just happens to be right :nixweiss



Or maybe the shampoo I use (Griot's) is just very gentle on my LSPs. I suspect that *this* is the case, since my 6 layers of KSG lasted over a year.



In any event, the exact concentration you use doesn't seem to be a huge factor in my experience.



OI812- Love the "in action" pics :D Works better without the pistol grip part, huh?
 
I'm not sure if it worked better or not. What I did like since my gun is a quick disconnect, I could disconnect and have free flowing water with and on/off. Bill actually put me onto the idea of taking the sprayer off.



Toward the Gilmore/Simple Green/ Butcher foam gun, I think they are probably all the same. I believe my dilution ratio's are the same as what Bill said. Different gun-same dilution-- you can draw your own conclusions.



NXT wash in the gun. Because I got my gun so late in the year I didn't have enough time to play with it. I also use nxt wash, and what I found to work for ME, is to dilute it down some and then put it in the gun. NXT is very thick and I'm not sure it will suck up in the gun. Towards the ratio's I'm not so sure it matter's 100%. My gun anyway produces alot of foam. What you saw in the pics was about 4 oz of soap diluted with water in the container and then shot out of the gun. How much NXT are you suppose to use per gallon? I can easily do one pickup with that much soap, and that is probably wasting some of it.



Bill I have been here awhile just haven't posted that much. But I like it here to.



Any ? on the gun please P.M. and I can maybe answer it.
 
OI812 said:
Bill actually put me onto the idea of taking the sprayer off.



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That idea originated from Accumulator



I used NXT wash straight in the foam gun with no clogging/poor foaming issues at all but I will dilute car washes in the future
 
So how does the process work? This foamer looks really neat and a cool way to spend more money :p



Do you wet your car down, screw on the foamer, spray the car and then wash with mitt followed by a rinse?



Do you dunk your mitt in soapy water and then wash the car that you sprayed with foam?



Where / how do you rinse your mitt?



A process write up would be great :xyxthumbs
 
Hey Bill I have never tried NXT straight in the foam gun. I just looked at it and assumed it was to thick for the gun. I might just have to try it that way. The diluted down version does go fairly fast, but I don't seem to use as much soap. I also want to try different dilution ratio's to see what works best.
 
Full strength NXT doesn't seem to be used much by the foam gun either. Sometimes I really cant tell where the amount in the bottle was before a wash.
 
Spilchy said:
So how does the process work? This foamer looks really neat and a cool way to spend more money :p
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Well actually it is a great way to help the economy:D The process is fairly simple. Put soap in bottle and your ready to go. As Bill said see the write up washing by the Accumulator.



Spilchy said:
Do you wet your car down, screw on the foamer, spray the car and then wash with mitt followed by a rinse?
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Actually I fill my foamer up, put it on hose and use that to wet down car. If you look at the second picture of the foamer I posted, you will notice a cylinder with a small rod at the top of the gun. By turning that cylinder 90 degrees you can turn the foamer on and off. Another words you get foam or you get clear water.



Spilchy said:
Do you dunk your mitt in soapy water and then wash the car that you sprayed with foam?
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No need to dunk mitt, and that's what I like about the gun. I spray some water on my mitt, foam my vehicle and start washing. I haven't need any buckets since I bought the gun.





Spilchy said:
Where / how do you rinse your mitt?
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To rinse the mitt, you can either turn the cylinder 90 degrees or use the quick disconnect on the sprayer and go straight to hose.





Spilchy said:
A process write up would be great :xyxthumbs
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Do as Bill said.





I think you are correct Bill, now that you say that about it not really moving in the bottle, I do recall that. I think that is why I started diluting it down. I just feel more comfortable when I can see things moving or being used.
 
I guess doing a quicker wash I could eliminate the buckets but still I do use bucketsbut only for rinsing, actually a pair one inside the other, one with the bottom with holes drilled in it inside the other ( see the recent bucket thread ) on each side of the car
 
Spilchy said:
So how does the process work?
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As you can see, there are different ways of using the foamer. I find it really *is* more than just a gadget/toy, it really can help reduce wash-induced marring.



Do you wet your car down, screw on the foamer, spray the car and then wash with mitt followed by a rinse...Do you dunk your mitt in soapy water and then wash the car that you sprayed with foam? Where / how do you rinse your mitt?
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You could use it that way to improve the "normal" way of washing as opposed to using it in some wacky, involved way like some of us do. Just using it as a pre-soak will help loosen contamination/dirt. In that case, you'd just rinse the mitt per usual and consider the foamer an extra step. I use it this way on vehicles I'm not gonna knock myself out over.



Even spraying the foam through a BHB can work well, if the paint is hard enough for BHB use in the first place.



I find that even with my "balloon mitt"/ foamer nozzle-in-the-mitt method, rinsing the mitt can be worthwhile. My rinse water is never really *dirty*, but it's never clean either. And I always use the two-bucket method no matter what I'm doing with the foam gun. Yeah, I go through a lot of shampoo, but the Griot's stuff doesn't seem to strip my LSPs even with as much as I'm using.



I don't rinse by turning the mixture rod, I get better water flow through my regular hose nozzle so I have one hose set up with the foam gun and another with the regular nozzle. But if turning the rod works for you, it does make for a quick and simple method :xyxthumbs



Oh, and one more advantage to taking off the pistol grip part is that the foamer (well, at least the one I have) will sit upright better with less chance of falling over (and spilling all the solution) without the grip on it. For some reason that grip just doesn't work for me at all...
 
I use those quick disconnects to quickly switch to an Ultimate Nozzle after using the foam gun sans pistol as Accumulator mentioned
 
Well, I bought the $25 nozzle from Brookstone last night and will try it out this weekend. I doubt it will be nearly as effective as what Bill D and others have, but it is worth a try.



Bill D - Quick observation: I have to say that I really enjoy your posts. I always learn something from you, and I really like your enthusiasm for detailing. Its a lot of fun reading what your write.
 
The Uncle said:


Bill D - Quick observation: I have to say that I really enjoy your posts. I always learn something from you, and I really like your enthusiasm for detailing. Its a lot of fun reading what your write.
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Jeez, thank you :o I'm a strong believer in seeking out others for help and in turn sharing whatever I've learned. I can honestly say I like it even more than detailing if I can help someone else.

:xyxthumbs



I'll post whatever I know if I feel I can contribute to any given topic
 
I could not agree more with The Uncle! I have also learned a lot from Bill. But I have to say I learn from Everyone on these forums.



Accumulator



I could not agree more about pulling the nozzel of so that it sits upright.



I should clarify my statement: I run water on the vehicle first, then I soap it, then I rinse it with the gun by turning the rod. Then I resoap it, was with the mitt. Then on my rinse, I have a full port ball valve (3/4") behind the foam gun. I disconnect the foam gun (thats on a quick disconnect), and I rinse my mitt, and then I rinse the car. I'm hoping by doing that, that I always have a clean source of water by my mitt, and under my mitt. I am sure the two bucket method is probably the best, but what I am not sure of is this. You take a dirty mitt and stick it into a dirty pail, and then you go to the clean pail. The hope is that the dirt, comes off in the first pail. Then when you hit the second pail you get any final dirt off. If there is clay or light weight dirt particles that can float or suspend for days in water, is there not a chance that those could be re-introduced to the paint? I'm just asking, I'm just try to learn or pick your brain a little. Thanks
 
OI812,



That is exactly my procedure. Regarding the mitt, I rinse it with the clear water from the gun first, then dunk in the 2 bucket (the one inside with holes drilled on the bottom) inside one another setup. Also, I use white buckets only so I can see all contamination and I dump and refull the buckets A LOT. This technique, involved and tedious but you get the hang of it, works very well for me :xyxthumbs
 
I see what you are saying, and I really like the idea of the bucket with the holes in it, and if I understand you correctly you have the bucket with holes in side another bucket. That is filled with clean water, so the sediment can settle to the bottom bucket. Is that correct? White buckets is a great idea. You know that is such a simple idea, and yet I never even thought about that. Sometimes it is just the simplest of ideas that escapes us.
 
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