Foam Gun test with various shampoos

**JJ_** · 12-16-2005, 06:19 AM

Well here we go quite a few pictures and some details!

Car Plan triple wax shampoo

One capful for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 mins

Cleaning ability 2/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 4/5

Dwelling 5/5

Excellent foam produced this would probably dwelled for 10 mins since it was the last one tested just to add some protection after ALL the shampoo tests. I found this was one of the best "dwellers"

Just at the time of foam application

Around 10 minutes later

Hyper Wash

5ml for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 mins

Cleaning ability 3/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 3/5

Dwelling 4/5

Good product not the best but it did dwell well as I feel the thickness of the mixture did let it sit on the bodywork a little longer than others. Good foam but not brilliant.

Just after spraying the foam

5 Minutes later

**JJ_** · 12-16-2005, 06:24 AM

Soft Wash

5ml for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 mins

Cleaning ability 2.5/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 3/5

Dwelling 3/5

Ok for dwelling it may be due to the mixture the foam wasn`t fantastic, Halfords, Carplan and Tutrtle wax platnium were all better. Dwelled ok but it was thinning nearer the end.

Just after application

5 minutes later

Clear vue turtle wax

Capful for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 mins

Cleaning ability 2/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 1/5

Dwelling 1/5

Totally hopeless product, nearly zero foam produced. Did not dwell well at all. Did enhance the look of the car but this would be better for an after wash protectant. Reminded me of the product Steve uses from autoglym the post rinse thing. I wouldn`t bother with this, crap.

Poorest product from the whole test

2 minutes after, really didn`t last.

Armour All bug and tar wash. (Heavy Duty)

Capful for the foam gun

Dwell time n/a

Cleaning ability 4/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 3/5

Dwelling n/a

It produced really good foam, its about as thick as hyper wash and smells like lime. Very strong shampoo, I did not let it dwell as it does remove wax protection very quickly. Excellent product when trying out new glazes etc as it does remove most waxes etc.

Just after applying, the foam was much thicker as I forgot to shake the foam bottle lol!

**JJ_** · 12-16-2005, 06:28 AM

Meguiars Gold Class

Capful for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 minutes

Cleaning ability 4/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 4/5

Dwelling 4/5

Excellent product, really good foam, dwelled nicely letting it really clean the bodywork up nicely.

Just after application

5 minutes later

Poorboys slick suds

Capful for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 minutes

Cleaning ability 3/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 5/5

Dwelling 4/5

By far the best foamer, good dwelling time but it did not dwell as long as others.

Excellent foam!

Forgot to take and after pic but resembled this one.

Turtle wax platnium

Capful for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 minutes

Cleaning ability 3/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 5/5

Dwelling 4/5

Really good product again didn`t clean as well as it foamed but again as thick as hyper wash, excellent product.

Good amount of foam at the time of application.

Foam not really visible 5 minutes after but it was ok.

Halfords own shampoo

Capful for the foam gun

Dwell time 5 minutes

Cleaning ability 4/5 (score out of five?)

Foaming ability 3/5

Dwelling 3/5

Good cleaning ability, left a nice coat of "protection" as it states, when rinsing off the water just sheeted off.

Good foam not the best but for 1.99 it was good enough

Still a good amount of foam left after maximum dwell time of 5 minutes. I was pleased

So there we have it a list of shampoo`s to try out, Poorboys was probably the best foamer, halfords was the best cleaner I think. Armour All was excellent although it did remove protection.

Thanks!!

John.

**gav'spurplez** · 12-16-2005, 06:41 AM

what are you going to do with all that car wash

thanks for showing results, but what "foam" gun did you use ??

i use the gold class car wash / shampoo on all my cars, parents, g/f`s etc ....... :getdown

**Spilchy** · 12-16-2005, 06:50 AM

:LOLOL Crazy test! Nice, detailed experiment and pictures :xyxthumbs

Did you just squirt the shampoo into the foamer and then fill with water? Did you allow it to dissolve first then spray?

I use Gold Class in my foamer now. If I want a little less "harshness" I use Meguiar`s #62.

Good job :clap:

**JJ_** · 12-16-2005, 06:54 AM

I use the karcher foam lance.

The procedure when filling the foam gun include pouring the shampoo in, then filling the rest with water and finally giving it a really good shake to mix it all together.

I guess you guys will get a similar result.

Lol i have lots of products since I do a bit of Detailing OCD maybe??? hahaha.

You should give #62 a go heard really good foam news about it lol!

**imported_Neothin** · 12-16-2005, 12:21 PM

hmmm I get far more suds on my initial spraying of foam with my simple green gun. are you using enough soap in your gun?

**JJ_** · 12-16-2005, 12:24 PM

I think the solutions were maybe on the strong side to be honest.

Bare in mind this is a KARCHER foam gun which attaches to the jet wash so its not really comparable to the simple green.

But please post your results so we can all refer to this.

**s2skimon** · 12-16-2005, 01:18 PM

nice write up.. i`m PB`s is up there, as that what i use solely

**WX51 TXR** · 12-16-2005, 01:57 PM

Nice write up JJ, going to be trying my gun out very soon - think I`ll start with PW SnS. :up

**pontman43** · 12-16-2005, 01:59 PM

I should post results of my cheapo one. I just have to get time and some light.

Great review BTW!!!

**MorBid** · 12-16-2005, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by JJ_

I use the karcher foam lance.

The procedure when filling the foam gun include pouring the shampoo in, then filling the rest with water and finally giving it a really good shake to mix it all together.

I guess you guys will get a similar result.

Lol i have lots of products since I do a bit of Detailing OCD maybe??? hahaha.

You should give #62 a go heard really good foam news about it lol!

This write-up could not have come at a better time (for me that is).

Because as it so happens I just got my Foamer from Karcher earlier this week, and have been itching to try it. It also so happens that Meg`s GC is my shampoo of choice.

I was wondering on what ratio to use (Karcher reccommends 18:1) although I haven`t measured the capacity of the gun yet but Meg`s says to use 1 oz (4 caps) to a gallon bucket of water.

How many times did you need to re-fill the lance to cover the entire car?

Gr8t write-up. Very good work, if I lived in Scotland and ran out of car shampoo I would know who to ring up

**Lowejackson** · 12-16-2005, 04:31 PM

Interesting and well written article :up

**sbkang** · 12-16-2005, 05:29 PM

How did you assess/score cleaning ability when you were spraying the car multiple times with multiple products? It seems nothing after the first spray would be able to provide a valid assessment. For me the one and only factor that would matter is how much dirt comes off when I foam and then rinse.

**JJ_** · 12-17-2005, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by MorBid

This write-up could not have come at a better time (for me that is).

Because as it so happens I just got my Foamer from Karcher earlier this week, and have been itching to try it. It also so happens that Meg`s GC is my shampoo of choice.

I was wondering on what ratio to use (Karcher reccommends 18:1) although I haven`t measured the capacity of the gun yet but Meg`s says to use 1 oz (4 caps) to a gallon bucket of water.

How many times did you need to re-fill the lance to cover the entire car?

Gr8t write-up. Very good work, if I lived in Scotland and ran out of car shampoo I would know who to ring up

lol I doubt the shampoo will last long as Im washing my car and 2 others three times a week probably, so I just buy shampoo constantly!

As for ratios its difficult to estimate I just put in the ratio of the shampoo into the 35ml lance bottle. It is difficult to accurately measure the absolute ratio since it all depends on the karcher model water going to the karcher per minute and water being pumped out the karcher per minute.

I just worked out the solution for the small foam lance as I said and maybe put a little extra in since the water coming from the karcher dilutes it too.