How do I get thick snow foam? It’s a question that most snow foam users have asked at one time or another, and luckily, it doesn’t have a difficult answer. As with most things in life, getting the results you want from snow foam is simply a matter of getting the right tools for the job and a little bit of practice. We’ll give you all the advice you need to help you get the thickest snow foam every time, so read on for a step-by-step guide.
Step 1: Get a Snow Foam Lance to Match Your Snow Foam
To use snow foam in the first place, you need a bottle of snow foam, a snow foam lance, and a pressure washer. These three things have to work together to give you thick snow foam, so it makes sense to pick a washer, lance, and foam that are all designed to work together in the first place. There isn’t much point in getting a top-quality snow foam and using it with a cheaply-made lance, and vice-versa.
If you want to use our Snow Foam (and why wouldn’t you?), we recommend using it with our Snow Foam Lance and a quality pressure washer. If you use a snow foam liquid and a lance which aren’t designed to work together, the lance might not agitate the snow foam liquid solution into the really thick foam you’re after.
Step 2: Mix the Snow Foam
Many people forget about this step, but it’s key to getting thick snow foam; put your snow foam liquid into the snow foam lance bottle and mix it with some warm water. This will help the liquid activate, giving you the thick, clingy foam that you’re after. You should use a (roughly) 3:1 mix of water and Snow Foam, with three parts of water for every one part of foam liquid. The exact quantities can vary, as the thickness of the foam can be affected by the settings of your lance as well as water hardness. Which leads into our next tip…
Step 3: Experiment
It’s important to play about with small quantities of snow foam first to see what works best. It can take a couple of tries, but once you get it right the first time, you’ll never look back! Common problems can include mixing the snow foam at the wrong ratio – usually, mixing in too much water and diluting the foam. Remember, when you spray your snow foam mixture onto your car, you’re basically diluting it again as it’ll mix with the water jet coming from your pressure washer. Experiment with your mixture and nozzle settings a little bit until you end up with a thick foam that clings to your car.
Another common problem is a lack of water pressure – try and keep your water hose as short as possible as a long hose can cause your spray to lose pressure. If your water pressure is too low, it won’t be pushed through the nozzle forcefully enough to agitate the foam, so try and make sure you keep water pressure reasonably high (but not so high that it damages your paintwork, of course!).
If you live in a very hard water area, you might find it a bit harder to get thick snow foam. Try mixing a little less water in with your snow foam liquid to get the desired results in this case.
Step 4: Dry Your Car Off
After you’re happy with your snow foam thickness, you can start properly applying it onto your car. Before you do, though, make sure your car’s paintwork is completely dry. Snow foam works by clinging to the surface of your car and breaking down any dirt that’s on there. If you spray it onto a wet car, the water acts as a barrier that stops it from working properly. It also has the effect on diluting your snow foam even further – bearing in mind you’ve already diluted your snow foam twice, diluting it a third time by spraying it onto a wet car basically guarantees you’ll get a runny foam!
Step 5: Spray!
Once you’re happy with your snow foam, all that’s left to do is spray it onto your car. It’s best to spray the bottom of your car first and work from bottom to top. This means the foam has more contact time with the bottom of your car, which tends to be the dirtiest bit. Now you’ve mastered the art of thick snow foam, you should notice the foam clinging to the surface of your car a lot better, meaning it’ll give you a more effective clean!
When you go to rinse your snow foam off, rinse off from top to bottom as you normally would. This will stop dirty snow foam from dripping onto the newly-cleaned parts of your car.
Proud of your thick snow foam? Let us know about it! Tag us in your car photos on Instagram and check out our feed to see how it’s done!
