With automatic car wash brushes spinning around cleaning dirty car after dirty car you run the risk of having the paint damaged on your vehicle every time it’s washed. Thankfully with a few simple tools and an excellent guide on how to make snow foam car wash. You can clean your vehicle at home and avoid this situation.
Washing your vehicle at home not only saves your paint from possibly being damaged, it comes with other benefits as well. Saving money, avoiding long line ups, being prepared for a long road trip and also enjoying the satisfaction of cleaning your own vehicle are only a few of the great advantages of washing your own vehicle.
Let’s jump in and take a look at how to make snow foam car wash.
Benefits Of A Snow Foam Car Wash
Snow foam liquid car wash is a soap product that is designed to be a no touch pre-wash used when washing your car. Used with a snow foam cannon, a large amount of soap “foam” is sprayed onto the vehicle.
Snow foam washing is designed to stick to the vehicle and break up any dirt buildup that is present. After the soap sits it is easily rinsed off of the vehicle along with any dirt before you begin hand washing your vehicle with the 2 bucket wash mitt method.
The great advantage of the snow foam car wash is the fact that it is a no contact cleaning method. This means that you spray the foam on and spray the foam off never contacting the paint with a wash mitt. By not using a wash mitt to remove all of the loose dirt the chance of swirl marks in your car paint is greatly reduced.
Even the cleanest wash mitt can leave scratches if the vehicle is not clean before you begin washing. This makes a snow foam car wash an excellent choice for washing a vehicle with a high end ceramic coating.
How To Make Snow Foam Car Wash
Tools You Will Need
Snow Foam Gun
There are many different snow foam guns or snow foam cannons available to purchase. If you have a single vehicle and wash your vehicle “once in a while” a less expensive version will work great. However, if you have multiple vehicles and always have the cleanest vehicle on the block, I would recommend going with a higher quality snow foam gun.
There are snow foam guns available for regular garden hoses and pressure washers. Make sure you purchase the one that is right for you when you are shopping.
Snow Foam Car Wash
Just like snow foam guns there are many different types of snow foam car washes out there on the market. Purchase an excellent snow foam from a reputable company to ensure you get a product that works great.
Garden Hose
A good quality garden hose is important to get fresh clean water to your hose spray nozzle or to supply water to your pressure washer. When looking for a garden hose make sure that you focus on length.
Where you will be washing your vehicle is important to know as you will need a hose to reach this far. Also remember that not only does the hose need to reach the vehicle, you will need 20 feet extra for working length. This will allow you to wash all corners of the vehicle without having issues with too short of a hose.
Pressure Washer (optional)
A pressure washer is not required when you are learning how to make snow foam car wash. However, a pressure washer makes the job more efficient. And let’s be honest with ourselves, it makes the job a little more fun as well.
Do-It-Yourself Snow Foam
If you spend a long enough time on the internet looking up this subject I am sure that you have found people suggesting using shampoo to make your own snow foam. Do not do this!
Car wash snow foam is a unique product that has a controlled PH. By using household products for making snow foam you do not know what the PH level of the product is.
This can quickly damage any coatings or waxes that you have applied to the paint of your vehicle. After all, we are trying to make the paint look clean, not create damage.
Fill The Snow Foam Gun, Make Sure The Mixture Is Correct
Using water and the snow foam that you selected you will need to dilute the snow foam to the correct mixture. Snow foam rates vary from manufacturer but generally it will be 8 parts of warm water to 2 parts of soap.
Once you have finished mixing, place the soap and warm water mixture into the snow foam cannon and screw on the soap holder.
You will need to adjust the mixture of the snow foam gun after you get the foam gun connected and spraying. Most guns have a mixture control that allows you to adjust how much soap is dispensed with the water that is being sprayed out of the gun.
The foaming rates that you use will be unique to the tools that you are using. Water pressure from the garden hose or varying pressures from different types of pressure washers will all change the mixture rate of the snow foam lance.
Tips For A Better Pre-Wash
While pre-washing a vehicle may seem simple, after all, how hard is it to spray a vehicle off with the garden hose or pressure washer. As simple as it is, if you follow a few simple tips and tricks that we have learned you will have your vehicle looking great quick!
Make Sure Your Vehicle Is Cooled Down And Out Of The Sun
There are two things that always need to be done before washing your vehicle. You need to make sure that you place the vehicle out of the direct sunlight. You also need to wait until the vehicle is cooled down before washing the vehicle.
If you do not wait until the vehicle has cooled down properly the water that is part of the soap dries up very quickly. This causes the soap to build up on the paint and leave water and soap spots.
Lot’s And Lot’s Of Soap
Did I mention that you should use a lot of soap? This is key when it comes to how to make a snow foam car wash work correctly. Coat the car’s surface as completely as possible. The technique I use when soaping the vehicle is starting at the roof of the vehicle and moving down.
Using this cleaning method allows the best use of the soap. By spraying the roof first, any soap that is running off will slowly drip down the vehicle before it falls onto the ground.
This allows the soap foam to dwell on the vehicle as long as possible for the snow foam to suspends dirt and helps break it down so it can wash off easily. Washing bird poop off your paint can be one of those hard to remove things. With a good quality pre wash there is practically no scrubbing needed.
Rinse The Vehicle Thoroughly
Let the soap sit on the vehicle as long as possible before it dries out on the vehicle’s surface. This is called dwell time, the longer the soap can dwell on the vehicle the better job of cleaning it will do. As we mentioned above, do not let the soap dry out when waiting.
Rinse the vehicle with fresh clean water from either your garden hose or power washer.
I suggest rinsing the vehicle from the roof down again. Any dirt that was on the vehicle has the chance to rinse down leaving the vehicle free of dirt and ready to be hand washed using the two bucket method and a quality microfiber wash mitt.
Hopefully you have learned everything about how to make snow car wash. The keys to a good snow foam pre-wash come from following the proper procedures and ensuring the vehicle is covered with a layer of thick foam. It may seem like a simple job that is made more complicated by the use of a foam cannon for spraying snow foam on your vehicle.
However, by making sure that you follow the simple guidelines above you will have your vehicle looking great in no time with an excellent snow foam car wash. Thankfully for everyone that does not own a pressure washer, you can still use a garden hose for car washing with a foam cannon.
