My Foam Gun Review - Long w/Pics

[Accumulator]

The quick connectors and the shut off valve were the best 10 bucks ive ever spent at home depot! ... The only problem that i had was the shut off valve was hard to turn when my hands were soapy...

There are different types of shut offs- there's one by Gilmour that has a big wide pad for the valve control that's really easy to manipulate with just one finger. I've seen them at both Lowe's (grey/green) and Sears (gray/black).

 

[joeyb7]

question for you pros. if you're using a two bucket method, quality mitts and rinsing down your car really well before washing, what exactly is the benefit? Wouldn't just dumping some foam (you can easily generate foam in a big bucket) on your car from the roof down be the same thing? I guess I'm just not understanding the benefit exactly. Is it due to ultimately less contact with your paint?



Can you guys help me out on this one?

 

[imported_Neothin]

Spraying down the car beforehand doesn't really seem to remove much dirt IMO. after the spraydown, there's a good 90% or so of the original dirt left on the car. This is where the foam gun comes in. The foam helps lift the dirt off the paint. With the dirt off the paint when a mitt is wiped across it, the chance of dirt sliding across the clearcoat (and therefore causing swirls) is significantly reduced. Also, on the really dirty areas, the foam gun allows the user to have a constant stream of soapy solution flowing to the area. This greatly aids in lubrication of the mitt and the dirt particles so that neither swirls the paint. This is why I believe the foam gun is "worth it"

 

[Accumulator]

The foam helps lift the dirt off the paint. With the dirt off the paint when a mitt is wiped across it, the chance of dirt sliding across the clearcoat (and therefore causing swirls) is significantly reduced. Also, on the really dirty areas, the foam gun allows the user to have a constant stream of soapy solution flowing to the area. This greatly aids in lubrication of the mitt and the dirt particles so that neither swirls the paint...

Yeah. The idea behind the foamgun is to make washing a "dislodge and flush" process as opposed to a "scrubbing" process. This way there's virtually no pressure against the dirt, the pressure being what grinds it into the paint. You only touch the paint with enough pressure to knock the dirt loose and the foam floats it away.



One of the freaky things you notice with the foamgun is that the water in the rinse bucket stays awfully clean. The dirt isn't sticking to the mitt (which could cause marring), it's getting flushed away.

 

[AutoCadillac]

I used my newly acquired foam gun for the first time this weekend. I used approximately 1 oz of Meguiar's Deep Crystal soap diluted in the quart bottle on the Simple Green branded gun, and experimented with the gun's dilution settings. Even at the lowest setting, I was very happy with the amount of foam achieved but finally decided the 3rd strongest setting was best for this soap.



To say I was happy with the results is an understatement. I washed both of our cars and was thrilled with the results. I rinsed my mitt in a bucket of water at least once for each body panel. I wasn't constantly re-soaping my mitt and there was less to do as each body section basically just need a swipe of the mitt instead of going back over several areas to work on stuborn dirt areas.



Most noticable was on my wife's 5 year-old Tahoe. I don't wash it as often as I do my car and since she doesn't put forth effort to keep it clean herself, I don't feel too much guilt from the lack of attention. And, I have to admit it had been about a month since I last washed it. She parks directly beneath a maple tree and it had several remnants of bird droppings along with general contaminants from the tree. I rinsed it first and then foamed it up. Because of how dirty it was, I then rinsed the soap completely off so as to remove the first layer of grundge. Gosh! It was as nice looking after this rinse as most cars on the street. Then I proceed to re-foam and go over it with the mitt. After washing and drying, I don't think the Tahoe looked this good since it was new.



With the foam gun, I'll probably give her Tahoe at least a soap rinse on the weekends when I don't completely wash it.



My Cadillac gets a good bath every weekend weather permitting. Generally after a wash, but before I dry, I give the car a good look over to find a few areas that needs a little more work to remove contaminants from the maple tree. This time, it was a clean as a whistle and I did not have to go back over any areas before drying. This saved me considerable time - I'd say at least 10 minutes per vehicle.



Deep Crystal is not my normal soap (Gold Class is) but I had some left over from when my local AutoZone was out of Gold Class. This pretty much used up my Deep Crystal and look forward to trying out Gold Class in it next time.