Best foam cannons for car wash

What are foam sprayers (Foam Cannons)?

Welcome to our foam cannons test. First, let’s clarify what foam sprayers actually are and what they are used for.

Foam cannons are needed for the pre-wash or main wash of the car. They create a cleaning foam with the help of foam shampoos. The foam is sprayed onto the car with the foam cannon. This dissolves much of the dirt on the vehicle without causing scratches.

Laymen often use sponges to remove dirt from the car. This will rub the dirt on the paint and cause scratches.

Foam treatment is a very nice way to wash your car yourself.

After a short soaking time, the foam can then be sprayed off with a pressure washer and the washing of the car can continue.

Attention danger of confusion: If one searches on the Internet for foam sprayer, one often finds the designation pressure sprayer. These are used in the household and garden to spray on certain agents. They are not suitable for creating foam. Therefore, try to pay attention to terms like “foam sprayer”, “foam generator”, “snow foamer”, “foamer”, so that you buy the right product. Or just look at the well-rated products of our foam cannons review in our test table. There you can be sure that you also get a device for foam.

How to use Foam Cannon?

Foam sprayers are quite simple to use. You mix a car shampoo with a foam-generating agent and water. This usually involves 50 ml of Snow Foam and 5 ml of car shampoo to one liter of water. However, pay attention to the mixing ratio indicated on the respective products. This can differ greatly for some products.

We also recommend using ph-neutral foam and shampoo. These will protect the parts of your car and your snow foamer. The devices are rarely designed for particularly alkaline or acidic products. Therefore, they should also be thoroughly rinsed with water after each use.

We are going to show you the steps to follow to use correctly your foam cannon:

• First, it is necessary to remember that it is advisable that the car is not directly in the sun or hot.
• Prepare the dissolution of the product: It is very important to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. They are concentrated shampoos, so it is necessary to make the right mixture.
• Fill the bottle with water and then add the product, otherwise, it will fill with foam, preventing a good mixture.
• Spray the foam all over the vehicle: Without previously wetting the car, spray all over the surface.
• Let it act for a few minutes: It is necessary to let the product do its job to properly remove the dirt, the manufacturer tells us how long to let it act, but it should never dry on the bodywork.
• Rinse with pressurized water: Remove all traces of foam with pressurized water, be careful with the nooks and crannies, that nothing is left.
• Continue with the normal wash: Now you can continue with a normal wash, use your shampoo, wool glove, and your two buckets for an unbeatable finish.

Foam Cannons Best Choice

Best foam cannons on the market:

What to look for when buying?

The capacity of the tank

Common sizes for the tank are 33-340 Fluid Ounces. When deciding which size to buy, you should first have your own vehicle in mind. The larger the tank, the greater the pumping effort. Because only if proper pressure on the tank is, also results in a nice spray pattern.

In addition, for a small vehicle, of course, only a little foam is needed. So if you want to spray a small car with a 340 Fluid Ounces tank, then you first pump a lot of foam and then have foam for 3 more vehicles at the end. This is of course a waste of time and money. Basically, we recommend foam sprayers with 33-66 Fluid Ounces capacity for normal cars and foam cannons from 169 Fluid Ounces for vans and trucks.

Hand pump

Serious differences can already occur in the quality of the pump. In our foam sprayer test, for example, it happened that two products with the same capacity required a very different number of pumping operations to build up to full pressure. Of course, it is annoying when one 2 liter sprayer has built up to full pressure after 30 pumps and another foam cannon only after 80 pumps.

Spray head

The spray head is responsible for regulating the degree of foam discharge. Of course, this should result in a clean foam. With poor models, you often see the foamer dripping or the foam not being sprayed out evenly. Often you can also find felt inserts in the heads, which additionally promote the formation of foam.

Relief valve

A pressure relief valve is responsible for ensuring that there is not too much pressure in the tank. As soon as the pressure gets too high, the valve lets the air out of the foam cannon. The valve is also a good signal to stop pumping and spray the foam. If a foam sprayer does not have a pressure relief valve, we strongly advise against buying it.

Types of Foam Cannons

We can find several formats of foaming snow foam sprayers on the market, usually depends on whether it is completely manual without the need to attach to a hydro cleaner, for example, thus having its own pressure that is generated through a stainless steel rod compressing. Or we have sprayers that need an external machine that generates pressurized water, Kärcher type.

Foaming atomizer: it does not need any external machine, it creates its own internal pressure through the compressing rod. They are also widely used in other tasks such as fumigation, garden cleaning, household, etc.

Advantages:

• High detergent capacity
• Mobility, no need for external machine or hose.

Disadvantages:

• Lower washing pressure, resulting in higher foam or denser foam.
• Larger storage space, if you carry your products in your van it can affect you.

Foam Lance: This other type of foam cannon sprayer is very practical if you have a pressure washer, there are several types of quick coupling, such as Karcher type, hoses in inches, etc. The disadvantage is that their capacity is lower than manual pumps.

Advantages:

• It has a good washing pressure, depending on the external machine.
• With the regulator, you can choose to use the foam or use it as normal washing.

Disadvantages:

• Lower detergent capacity if you need to clean a large vehicle.
• It can hinder free movement as it has to be coupled to a hose.