Have you tried using snow foam on your car before? If not, then you must have some questions. With all car care products, there are endless choices and trying to get to the bottom of which is best isn’t always easy. For example, with snow foam, you might see some are fragranced, pH neutral or just regular. How much do you use at what concentration or want to know how it will benefit my car? What is the best car snow foam?
What is Snow Foam?
Snow Foam is a type of pre-wash for your vehicle. You spray snow foam, which aids in removing grime, oil, dirt and general junk that attaches itself to your car during its everyday life. Snow foam works on this debris and loosens it so you can rinse the majority off your vehicle. Meaning shampoo goes further and doesn’t have to work so hard to be as effective.
We’re going to look at the features that make up the best car snow foam, making it easy for you to choose the best car cleaning snow foam.
Top 6 Best Car Snow Foam
If you want to generate a massive amount of thick, slippery foam for a foam cannon, choose Adams Ultra Foam.
To ensure cleaning your vehicle with the maximum suds without leaving any scratches behind you need a foam gun or cannon and Adams Ultra providing five times the average car shampoo concentration.
While Adam’s Ultra is powerful enough to remove all manner of rubbish that accumulates on your car paintwork, it’s kind to trim and plastics, will not remove wax or sealants and doesn’t dry out plastic and rubber. Combine Adam’s Ultra with your foam gun or cannon, and you’ll have a pH formula which will thoroughly clean your vehicle. Don’t worry if the mixture will create enough suds, there will not only be plenty, but they’ll be the thickest and longest-lasting suds you could wish for your vehicle.
After use and rinse off, Adam’s Ultra will leave you with a protective layer and an incredible shine. After you rinse, you won’t see any streaks on the paintwork even if you’re washing the car in direct sunlight. In lifting and dissolving dirt and debris, it leaves behind a glistening and slightly oily feeling on the car’s surface.
Key Features
- Safely removes dirt and other contaminants.
- Will not remove wax or any sealants on your car.
- Will not dry out rubber or plastic trim.
- Creates a massive amount of thick suds.
- Rinses clean without leaving behind streaks.
- pH neutral formula.
Why We Like It:
Adam’s Ultra is superior quality and over five times the concentration of car shampoo with a pH neutral formula creating optimal foam.
Chemical Guys Mr. Pink will tackle any dirt and debris your car will naturally collect on its paintwork, but what it won’t do is damage any sealants or wax coatings. This super suds shampoo creates a neverending flood of frothy foam bubbles.
The issue with many car shampoos is they strip wax and sealants from cars because they are too harsh. Many people think that because the kind of grime and dirt the average car picks up out on the road, it needs a powerful shampoo, sometimes even thinking washing liquid will do a good job. It’s not the case.
Mr. Pink’s gentle, but powerful cleaning action will still remove the junk without harming expensive wax coatings. Mr. Pink is pH balanced and protects all areas of your vehicle.
You need to use a slick, lubricating shampoo to remove the junk on your vehicle gently. If you wash your car with Mr. Pink, you’ll see a massive difference in the quality of your car washing results, such as no swirl marks or tiny scratches leftover from too abrasive shampoos.
You can use Mr. Pink as either a regular car shampoo in the two bucket system or add it to a foam gun attached to a pressure washer and foam cover the vehicle.
Key Features
- Impressive surface cleaner.
- pH balanced.
- State-of-the-art foaming technology.
- Ideal for use with foam cannon and foam gun.
- Residue-free rinses.
- Safely lifts grime, debris and dirt.
- Will not spot or stain in sunlight.
Why We Like It:
Mr. Pink is a powerful foaming solution that removes dirt and grime without damaging wax and sealants.
Polar Blast is a snow foam which you apply to your vehicle via a foam gun. The idea is to completely cover the car in an extensive covering of creamy foam. The foam is slick and lubricating and gradually slides off the vehicle gently lifting dirt, grime and whatever other debris has collected on your paintwork and trim. By removing dirt this way, it will prevent scratches and swirls when you later wash your vehicle.
Polar Blast is pH balanced, so you needn’t worry it will remove your car wax or polish.
How To Use Polar Blast
- You should ensure your car’s wheels and bodywork are cool, and you haven’t parked in direct sunlight.
- How dense you want the foam is up to you, and you can dilute the solution to your requirements. As a guideline try using 100ml solution to 500ml water in your foaming bottle. Then you can adjust the settings of your foam gun to increase or decrease the amount of foam.
- Starting from the bottom of your car work your way up ensuring you cover all surfaces, windows, mirrors and wheels.
- Leave Polar Blast foam on your vehicle to loosen the grime for up to 10 minutes, but don’t leave it so long it dries.
- Rinse your car from the bottom to the top.
Key Features
- Produces dense, thick foam using a foam gun.
- pH balanced to prevent damage to existing wax and sealants.
- One 2.5L container will last for 25 washes.
- Foam residue rinses away, leaving no swirls.
- Quickly softens and lifts dirt and debris from the vehicle.
Why We Like It:
Autoglym Polar Blast stays on the car as it should and is excellent for softening bird droppings, baked-on mud, dirt and spattered insects.
Mothers Triple Action Foam Wash contains a polymer surfactant capable of lifting all kinds of baked-on gunk from your car. But it does this very gently by using thick foam suds that are slick and lubricating. After softening the debris, it slides off the car or dissolves.
Mothers is a flexible solution depending on your needs. It can be a shampoo for washing the car or increasing the solution mix and using a foam gun, and you can turn it into a super snow pre-wash. Whichever way you choose the solution will still leave you with a streak and swirl-free finish to your paintwork.
The solution is pH neutral, so you aren’t going to strip wax or sealants from the car, irrespective of the strength of solution you choose.
Dilute 1 ounce per gallon in a bucket for all-purpose (regular) washing. Dilute 3 ounces for extra-strength. And 5 ounces for massive power suds.
Key Features
- 3x triple-action wash.
- pH neutral.
- Will not strip wax or sealants.
- After rinsing it leaves a streak and swirl-free finish.
- Safe to use with a foam gun.
- Creates a polymer surfactant foam to cut through grime.
Why We Like It:
Mothers 3X Triple Action Foam Wash delivers a smooth and lubricating foam experience that leaves vehicles free of grime and dirt.
Combining hydrophilic glass fibers and fluoropolymers CarPro Hydro2 is a pH balanced foaming wash. After using CarPro Hydro2, you’ll find that water beads well for up to three months on a non garaged vehicle. It’s best not to apply this product in the sun because it will streak.
CarPro Hydro2 is a pre-wash car foam and will not fill in swirl marks. You’ll need something like an orbital polisher for that and then a good sealer. Once you have removed swirl marks, use Hydro2 pre-wash foam every month to add additional protection and prepare your vehicle for detailing. You apply it over the entire vehicle metal, plastic, glass and wheels, giving them water shedding ability.
CarPro recommends rinsing Hydro2 off within 30 seconds to cut down on any streaking. To further reduce the streaking, you could reduce the mixture down to 6 ounces per gallon instead of the 14 ounces per gallon that CarPro recommends.
Key Features
- pH neutral foaming wash.
- Adds protection to a vehicle for up to three months.
- Combines hydrophilic glass fibers and fluoropolymers.
- CarPro Hydro2 is versatile and usable on all vehicle surfaces.
- Washes and coats the vehicle in one step.
Why We Like It:
CarPro Hydro2 does not require any cure time, once the vehicle has been rinsed, it’s ready for use.
Chemical Guys’ products have an excellent reputation for vehicle detailing products, and their line of snow foam is no exception. So if you’re familiar with detailing products, you won’t be surprised at their inclusion in our list. They have some pretty assertive marketing and enjoy the hype surrounding their products. But the question for us is, does all this promotion equate to a great product and one worth buying?
The bottle’s description reads high foam cleansing wash safe for wax and sealants, with intense cleaning action. The foam is pH neutral, which is why it will not strip the wax and sealants from your vehicle.
The watermelon snow foam smells like fresh watermelon, but I’m not sure why this matters for the outside of the vehicle unless you enjoy the smell while you’re detailing the car.
Both professional and Sunday afternoon detailers understand correctly that the usual way of washing vehicles pushes the grime around the paintwork before you can remove it and creating tiny scratches on your paintwork in the process.
Key Features
- Includes super-premium polymers and hyper surfactants.
- Softeners to reduce the effect of hard water (calcium).
- The pH-neutral formula prevents harm to waxes or sealants.
- Safe to use every week.
- Highly concentrated solution one cap to five gallons of water.
- Safe to use on all vehicle’s surfaces.
- Safe to use on any vehicle type.
- Does not strip wax or sealants from the vehicle.
- Leaves no residue behind after rinse.
Why We Like It:
The Chemical Guys watermelon snow foam cleanser is a top-quality snow foam that performs as described.
Is Snow Foam Necessary For A Car Wash?
Snow foam isn’t trying to compete with shampoos or soap because it’s a pre-wash solution that removes all the dirt, grime, bird droppings, baked-on gunk and whatever else your car has accumulated since it’s last wash. Without a snow foam pre-wash, you’re going to wash the car with the dirt already there, and that will undoubtedly cause tiny scratch marks in the paintwork with the pressure you’re going to apply.
How To Apply Snow Foam To Your Vehicle
Applying snow foam to your car or any vehicle is not really tricky, but we thought we would put together a short guide for first-timers.
Choose Your Area To Work
Where you use the snow foam on your vehicle is pretty simple, you can use where you usually wash your car. Remember to keep the car out of direct sunlight and make sure the car is cool before you start.
An essential factor to consider is the use of non-eco-friendly products welcome? Some areas ban washing vehicles and the use of car wash products. There’s a lot of adverse publicity surrounding these kinds of detergents entering the water supply. So before you get going research your local regulations for this particular endeavor to make sure you don’t fall foul of your local laws.
Following the law is one thing, but that isn’t going to stop annoying your neighbors when they see all that foam taking 20 minutes to wash away. If you live nearby one of these people be prepared to take some flack when they see all that snow foam.
Trust The Manufacturer’s Guidelines
Trust what it says on the tin, at least when you first start using the product. After you have been washing your car with snow foam a few times, then experiment with the dilution ratio. You might not want the solution to be as concentrated, or you might not be getting the density of foam you think it should be. Once you’ve seen how the snow foam performs, then start fiddling away.
Applying Snow Foam
Always start from the bottom of the vehicle and work your way up. Make sure you cover all parts, including wheels and lights. You might like to set up your foam gun to spray on a broader arc, so you don’t remove the foam you’ve already applied.
When you’ve covered every part of your vehicle, it’s time to grab a quick coffee while you let snow foam get to work. The maximum time you should leave it is ten minutes, but some foam may only last up to six or seven minutes.
How long the ‘dwell time’ is will depend on the manufacturer’s instructions. Also if it’s a hot day, the foam will dry much more quickly. So it’s a balance that you need to gauge. Check the recommended ‘dwell time’ but pay attention to the weather and prepare to shorten the ‘dwell time’ if necessary. But whatever, don’t allow the snow foam to dry on your vehicle because you will get streaks and it’s arduous, unnecessary work to clean off dry snow foam.
Rinsing Off Snow Foam
Once you’ve left the foam long enough now comes the time to rinse down your vehicle. Most of the time, if the snow foam has done its job most of it, will have slipped off the car and taken the vast majority of dirt and junk with it. The texture of snow foam is slick and lubricating, so it’s part of the magic of snow foam. Rinse the whole vehicle down, starting from the bottom again.
You’re going to be amazed at just how good the car will look when you use the best car snow foam.