Winter can be a harsh time for car enthusiasts. If you have to drive your pride and joy throughout the year then you have to drive it through the worst conditions winter can hurl in your direction, then we need to offer you something to make life just that little bit easier.
Snow foam is a great way to loosen up some dirt before giving your car a full wash. There are lots of different snow foams on the market and lots of different ways to use it.
One of the most popular snowfoams on the market is Auto-foam by English company, Bilt Hamber. Bilt Hamber have an impeccable reputation for high quality cleaning products at a very reasonable cost. Auto-foam comes in a 5L container for only £16.95. It’s a high alkaline cleaner and performs at the very top level when it comes to cleaning. However, if you want suds and high volume foam, this maybe isn’t the foam for you. To get what we consider a ‘normal’ foam compared to others on the market Auto foam requires us to use about 300 – 400ml of product in a 1L snow foam lance. While this would be the recommended dilution according to some sources, we don’t believe this is necessary and this foam is capable of cleaning at a much high dilution ratio.
KKD Blizzard is a premium high powered and highly concentrated foam wash which gives the cleaning power of alkaline cleaners but at a neutral pH. Blizzard is safe on all exterior surfaces. At only £7.99 for a litre of snow foam it is also great value. KKD also produce a stronger alkaline snow foam called Blizzard Force for that extra little bit of ‘bite’ and cleaning power.
Other popular PH neutral snow foams include Auto Finesse Avalanche, Autoglanz Piste, and 50cal Combat.
It’s a common misconception that snow foam strips off wax from a car. In the vast majority of cases your coating of wax or sealant will be completely unaffected and you’ll not notice any changes in the appearance or performance of your wax. In the case where you are using a particularly high alkaline snow foam then you may notice your wax being affected after a dozen washes. Sooner than this would suggest that your wax may not have been applied to a thoroughly prepped surface or that the performance or condition of the wax was sub standard.
Ideally for using snow foam a snow foam lance and pressure washer will give you the best results. However, a hand pump sprayer, spray bottle or spray bottle with a foamer head can also be used.
When using a snow foam lance on a pressure washer, these lances typically dilute at 10 parts water to 1 part bottle contents. For example, if you filled the bottle with ‘neat’ snow foam, the spray when it reached the car would still be diluted at 10 to 1. Typically most snow foams are designed to be used at 100 parts water to 1 part foam concentrate. This means that with the average 1 litre snow foam bottle you should use approximately 1 inch of foam concentrate or 100ml and top the rest of the bottle up with water. It’s as simple as that.
You can check out all the snow foams available at blok 51 here and we also stock a wide range of snow foam lances and fittings to suit most pressure washers.
