Foam Gun-1st Impressions

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FreeBIZZ

New member
I just used my new foam gun on a 6 week old VW GTI-Red. I mixed 2 oz. of PB Super Slick Suds in the qt. jar, and filled it with water.

1st use: Last Friday-car was slightly dirty from rain spray, condition of paint is very good, shiny, waxed, with a PB S&G coat on.

Initial Mix ratio: 128:1-not enough suds....moved to 64:1 and got plenty of suds. Went over car and foam stayed on for the most part,....soaked wash mitt in foam, and very lightly went over car. Rinsed. Rseult----very nice. total time: 10 min.

2nd use: Today---had more rain over weekend and today. Used same 64:1 ratio, but did not even need to use wash mitt. Plenty of suds. Rinsed with nozzle, and 2nd sheet rinse w/nozzle off. Total time: 5 min.

Dried with MF.....EXCELLENT results. Product left in qt. jar-over 2/3 left, so I'm estimating about 6-7 washes from 2 oz. of car wash!!

Im' glad I purchased this. For a car that has a good sealant/wax on, it saves a lot of time. I'll be using it next on a dirtier car with no wax, so I'll need to hand wash that one after the foam app.

This is a nice time-saver~!
 
yeah......... +1, the foam gun definately conserves the amount of soap you need to use.....and like you said you can clean the car in no time
 
what model an were di dyou guys purchase your foam guns, i'd be interested in getting one since it takes quite a while to wash a truck and an mid size suv.
 
ronmart said:
Cool, which version? There is a quart and half-gallon version by several companies (autogeek, wolfgang, etc...).

I have water pressure issues too so has anyone tried the brass hose connector?
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X2----Mine works good, but it would be so much better if I had more pressure. Does the brass shut-off valve increase pressure by restricting the flow, and do you connect it at the nozzle? Anyone know?
 
Canadian people might try looking in janitorial supply places in their home towns. The local Acme Janitorial Supply Co. in Victoria (I'm not making up that company!) had 6 on the shelf, all the same Gilmore model. I bought one for $45ish.
If you want to save even more time, use a hose splitter. Foam gun on one wing, multipurpose spray nozzle on the other. Definitely a time saver because the spray nozzle gives the good water volume for proper and quick rinsing.
-John C.
 
I usually fill half with water, and the other half with soap. I couldn't tell the difference in the foam with straight soap as opposed to the 50/50 mix. The foam gun definitely saves time too, especially with the two hose setup as mentioned.

As for the smaller diameter hose outlet, it will not increase the pressure of the water, but only the velocity in which it comes out of the hose.
 
jdoria said:
Do you (all users) mix the soap with water in the canister or run pure soap?
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I use about 2 oz. of soap and the rest water. I get plenty of foam/suds using PB SSS or Meg's Gold.
 
FreeBIZZ said:
I use about 2 oz. of soap and the rest water. I get plenty of foam/suds using PB SSS or Meg's Gold.
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I ultimately went the same route as well with Meg's GC after trying pure soap. It works much better to dilute the 2 oz of soap with water....I filled my quart jart to the top with water and used 1/64 setting. So far, I've tried it out completely spraying the entire vehicle with light to moderate soiling, letting it dwell 5 minutes and hosing off. Found that only the rocker panels needed an extra wipe but the rest of the car was beautifully clean without any wiping at all. The second time out, I tried the same settings/mixture with the gun, soaping the whole car and then following with Meg's long handle VersaBrush on all surfaces, applying another spray from the gun before using the brush with no pressure applied to each section. A two bucket rinse in plain water for the brush after each section. Resoaped the entire vehicle with the remaining solution until empty and did a quick rinse of the vehicle to completely rinse the gun and a higher pressure rinse with the sprayer portion (mine came with a quik connect to remove it from the trigger type spray nozzle) detached followed by a low pressure sheeting "water dry" rinse. Completely cleaned moderate soil although I still find the VersaBrush very heavy to work with one-handed and I think I'll have to stick with my sheepskin mitt for everything but the roof of my SUV. I was a great deal more impressed with GC's performance from the gun than from the bucket, seemed to have more lubriticty and would probably do fine with less than 2 oz in the quart jar. I haven't tried it yet with SS&S, but I imagine that will be great was well. The gun will be perfect for adding an extra spray of soap to clay while washing. I noticed Autogeek sells extra quart jars with lids which would allow different soaps or concentration of soaps to be stored if not used completely or have an empty one to fill with water to clean the gun for 6-7 bucks. The guns they sell are all Gilmour FoamMasters as far as I can tell. Gilmour will sell extra quart jars for about $2.30 but they don't have lids and I couldn't find a lid that would fit anywhere.
 
mtwedt said:
I ultimately went the same route as well with Meg's GC after trying pure soap. It works much better to dilute the 2 oz of soap with water....I filled my quart jart to the top with water and used 1/64 setting. So far, I've tried it out completely spraying the entire vehicle with light to moderate soiling, letting it dwell 5 minutes and hosing off. Found that only the rocker panels needed an extra wipe but the rest of the car was beautifully clean without any wiping at all. The second time out, I tried the same settings/mixture with the gun, soaping the whole car and then following with Meg's long handle VersaBrush on all surfaces, applying another spray from the gun before using the brush with no pressure applied to each section. A two bucket rinse in plain water for the brush after each section. Resoaped the entire vehicle with the remaining solution until empty and did a quick rinse of the vehicle to completely rinse the gun and a higher pressure rinse with the sprayer portion (mine came with a quik connect to remove it from the trigger type spray nozzle) detached followed by a low pressure sheeting "water dry" rinse. Completely cleaned moderate soil although I still find the VersaBrush very heavy to work with one-handed and I think I'll have to stick with my sheepskin mitt for everything but the roof of my SUV. I was a great deal more impressed with GC's performance from the gun than from the bucket, seemed to have more lubriticty and would probably do fine with less than 2 oz in the quart jar. I haven't tried it yet with SS&S, but I imagine that will be great was well. The gun will be perfect for adding an extra spray of soap to clay while washing. I noticed Autogeek sells extra quart jars with lids which would allow different soaps or concentration of soaps to be stored if not used completely or have an empty one to fill with water to clean the gun for 6-7 bucks. The guns they sell are all Gilmour FoamMasters as far as I can tell. Gilmour will sell extra quart jars for about $2.30 but they don't have lids and I couldn't find a lid that would fit anywhere.
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That was a super helpful post - thanks! I've been trying to figure out if I need a quart or half gallon version. I was concerned that the quart might be enough for the SUV, but I also figured I could always add more. Now I think I'll go with the quart based on your feedback.

Knowing about the cap with the half gallon contianer is handy too, so I'll probably do that as well since I'm placing an order anyway.

I've collected over 350 responses on people's favorite products on this thread:

http://autopia.org/forum/showthread.php?p=728663#post728663

and post #29 has the current running list of favorites. One of those is Meguiars Gold Class, which I have in my garage. I personally prefer Griots Garage Car Wash MUCH better when using a bucket, but for a foam sprayer GC might be sufficent. If so, that is good news because I'll save some $$$.
 
You're welcome, Ronmart. My SUV is a Honda CR-V, but there is plenty of soap in the quart size for a larger SUV, I would think. I saw the extra bottles with lids in the quart size version at Autogeek, but I was looking at the quart foam gun and not the half gallon one. I have yet to try my gun with SS&S, I tend to save that for washing when I clay and use the GC for general washing. Has anybody tried the gun with QEW yet? Not that I expect to foam much but I wondered how it would come out in terms of quicker application, better cleaning etc..... I might have to give it a shot myself next week, just for curiousity's sake. A really sweet "accessory" to the foam gun I treated myself to is one of SMP's foam core waffle weaves for drying. Holy smokes!.....I was totally blown away by it. Has to be some of the best detailing dollars I've ever spent.
 
mtwedt said:
You're welcome, Ronmart. My SUV is a Honda CR-V, but there is plenty of soap in the quart size for a larger SUV, I would think. I saw the extra bottles with lids in the quart size version at Autogeek, but I was looking at the quart foam gun and not the half gallon one. I have yet to try my gun with SS&S, I tend to save that for washing when I clay and use the GC for general washing. Has anybody tried the gun with QEW yet? Not that I expect to foam much but I wondered how it would come out in terms of quicker application, better cleaning etc..... I might have to give it a shot myself next week, just for curiousity's sake. A really sweet "accessory" to the foam gun I treated myself to is one of SMP's foam core waffle weaves for drying. Holy smokes!.....I was totally blown away by it. Has to be some of the best detailing dollars I've ever spent.
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I'm a computer geek, so SMP means Symmetric multiprocessing to me. What SMP are you referring to? Got a link?

I ended up ordering a quart foam gun with a half gallon foam container with lid from AutoGeek. I'm looking forward to trying it out with Griots Garage Car Wash which appears to be very much like SS&S from what I've heard from others.
 
Used the foamgun for the 1st time this weekend. The 1st car wasn't so dirty but the 2nd car certainly was.The 1st time I just used a wool mitt and a rinse bucket. With the 2nd car being so dirty I used the gun and the 2 bucket method. I found just using the gun and the rinse bucket the wet mitt destroyed the soap layer on the car and it seemed like I was just pushing the soap around and off the car. With the gun and the soapy water I felt like I was actually cleaning the car with the mitt.
I used the foamgun as a prewash on the filthy car. I used the soapy mitt as the primary washing tool.Most of the dirt came off the dirtier of the 2 cars in the prewash soap as when I was finished my rinse bucket was a lot cleaner than I expected. I figure a few more times using this gun I'll have the right amount of soap and water and the correct setting. The first day of using this gun I wasn't all that impressed.The second day on the 2nd car I realized this tool has a place in my carwashing process.:passout:
 
Rabbi,

I too was a little underwhelmed when I first used the foam gun. I had read all of the positive comments on it and truly expected to be able to move heaven and earth. I figured I had already spent the money and I wasn't hurting anything by using it so I just kept playing around with shampoo's and the mix ratio's. Having used it for a couple of years now It's just part of the routine and I really like using it.
 
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