Pinnacle Foam Cannon...

Kristopher1129

Kristopher1129

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Anybody have any experience with this thing? In my shop at the moment...we do the traditional pressure wash, soap with a brush, and spray down type of wash. Old school I guess, ha.

I'm seriously considering buying the Pinnacle Foam Cannon to just line the cars up...soap em down, and spray rinse. Planned on using the DP Extreme Foam soap stuff. Anybody have good or bad experience with this thing?
 
i was really disapointed with DP in the Gilmour ... really disapointed the pics they show must be at full strength and not just a few ounces.
 
I use the Foam Cannon, with DP Extreme Foam too. It's awesome!

Obviously this is too much foam for one spot, but there is no disappointment here!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNZaQlVeYYE]YouTube - Autogeek Foam Cannon HP w/ DP Xtreme Foam Formula[/video]

Another video, at the beginning you can see how little soap and water I used, only ~1 oz of DP Xtreme to ~3 oz of water, which would cover the whole car no problem (with good technique). At the end it shows how the foam tends to stick to the paint. Either agitate the foam with a mit or use a power washer to rinse.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-nrssnw0JM]YouTube - AG Foam Cannon HP and DoDo Yeti's Fist[/video]

I definitely recommend the Foam Cannon. As shown above, I always start with the foam adjuster all the way down, while spraying I'll adjust the fan pattern then bump up the foam until it is giving good foam. I think this method saves a lot of soap, instead of just turning it up to "full foam". Although I (my friends and I) only do 2-3 cars at a time so it doesn't really make much difference for me, but you'll be doing production work, efficiency is key!
 
Are those videos of the foam gun, or the foam cannon? Doesn't the foam cannon hookup to a pressure washer? That seems like more water than foam to me. Cause I have the foam gun already...and it works exactly like in those videos.
 
I use the foam cannon and with the DP Extreme soap it is awesome. Now, does it get the car cleaner? Probably not but it will seriously impress people that see it in action. Imagine foaming a car outside when it thaws out up there. Drive by customers might just wheel in to see what is up. Even your tools can be marketing gimmicks.
 
Porsche Pilot said:
I use the foam cannon and with the DP Extreme soap it is awesome. Now, does it get the car cleaner? Probably not but it will seriously impress people that see it in action. Imagine foaming a car outside when it thaws out up there. Drive by customers might just wheel in to see what is up. Even your tools can be marketing gimmicks.
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Those were my thoughts exactly. My shop is setup facing two busy roads. So it's real impressive when there's 3 or 4 preps going on. If we had that foam cannon...it would really be an eye catcher! :dblthumb2:
 
Kristopher1129 said:
Are those videos of the foam gun, or the foam cannon? Doesn't the foam cannon hookup to a pressure washer? That seems like more water than foam to me. Cause I have the foam gun already...and it works exactly like in those videos.
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LOL, What? More water than Foam? I guess in the second video I could have turned up the foam adjustment a little... (Edit- On second thought, no, that's lots of foam as it is) but I'd REALLY like to see a video of a foam gun performing like that, especially with such a small amount of soap! The foam did runoff the glass pretty fast, AG HD Wax was applied to the Glass.

Yes it's the Foam Cannon and yes it's used with a Pressure Washer. Your telling me that your foam gun puts out thick, shaving cream like, foam that stay's on the car just like my videos?
 
A4 1.8tqm said:
LOL, What? More water than Foam? I guess in the second video I could have turned up the foam adjustment a little... (Edit- On second thought, no, that's lots of foam as it is) but I'd REALLY like to see a video of a foam gun performing like that, especially with such a small amount of soap! The foam did runoff the glass pretty fast, AG HD Wax was applied to the Glass.

Yes it's the Foam Cannon and yes it's used with a Pressure Washer. Your telling me that your foam gun puts out thick, shaving cream like, foam that stay's on the car just like my videos?
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I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong. I was just asking if it was the foam gun because it appears to look a lot different than the video on the foam cannon page.

This is what I saw first...
 
why you need a foam cannon if you have a foam gun? The foam gun looks like it puts out enough foam.
 
I have both, foam cannon and foam gun, and the foam cannon produces a lot more foam than the foam gun. The foam from the cannon clings much better because it uses less water. I haven't used my foam gun since buying the foam cannon.
 
Years ago when foam guns were all the rage, I too thought they were just so cool. Now my foam gun sits in a box. I discovered that the whole "foam thing" was all hype...and that you can get a car squeaky clean with no foam or suds at all. Rinseless washes have changed the way I wash cars, whether its winter or summer, and its so much faster. If I were doing production work, the Rinseless washes would be a big part of my work. You save water, time, and you can use a Rinseless wash as a clay lube so you can go from washing to claying immediately saving even more time.

For me, foaming has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
 
Is foaming necessary to effectively clean your paint? No. But does it have its benefits? Yes. I use my foam cannon to pre-treat my vehicles before I rinseless wash them. When used with the right soap, it can help to loosen larger dirt particles from the surface that may be more than the rinseless washes are designed to handle. Follow the foaming with a good high pressure rinse and all that will remain is a light film of dirt that any rinseless wash should easily handle. When used with my foam cannon, my ONR wash solution is only slightly dirty after I finish washing.
 
CleanGene said:
Is foaming necessary to effectively clean your paint? No. But does it have its benefits? Yes. I use my foam cannon to pre-treat my vehicles before I rinseless wash them. When used with the right soap, it can help to loosen larger dirt particles from the surface that may be more than the rinseless washes are designed to handle. Follow the foaming with a good high pressure rinse and all that will remain is a light film of dirt that any rinseless wash should easily handle. When used with my foam cannon, my ONR wash solution is only slightly dirty after I finish washing.
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My original plan was to use the foam, spray it off. Then when the vehicle is dry and inside...do an ONR wipedown before getting started. I find myself doing an ONR wipedown before any exterior work anyways. Even after a traditional wash, I still use ONR. I think it will come in very handy for a prep wash.
 
Foaming may not be a neccesity in detailing, but I wouldn't go back to not using my foam cannon. You can make any mixture you want to tackle all sorts of things. I use mine for two things. I to help get grit and crap off the paint before I wash, and to strip any LSP. To me it works great st striping LSP's because the foam will cling to the car longer than if you just sprayed a APC directly on the car.

As most have said it's not needed, but I do think it has it's use, and of course it is fun to use.
 
:iagree: My soap of preference for my foam cannon is Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Clear. It's highly concentrated and foams very well. It's also pH neutral. I keep two concentrations of it mixed and ready for use. The first is of wash strength and does not strip my protection, and the second is strong enough to strip the paint when needed. There is more to a foam cannon than just the cool factor. :dblthumb2:
 
CleanGene said:
:iagree: My soap of preference for my foam cannon is Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Clear. It's highly concentrated and foams very well. It's also pH neutral. I keep two concentrations of it mixed and ready for use. The first is of wash strength and does not strip my protection, and the second is strong enough to strip the paint when needed. There is more to a foam cannon than just the cool factor. :dblthumb2:
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:wow: Maybe I'm misunderstanding this, "...strip the paint.."? I assume you are referring to stripping the LSP and not the actual paint. But, I've been wrong before :laughing:.
 
mdb917 said:
:wow: Maybe I'm misunderstanding this, "...strip the paint.."? I assume you are referring to stripping the LSP and not the actual paint. But, I've been wrong before :laughing:.
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You assumed correctly. :xyxthumbs:
 
I have the foam cannon w dp xfoam that the way to go. I like someone said I get more Looky loos and one guy said I like that car shampoo Guess what that’s what I call it we don’t wash cars we shampoo them. Plus you can do three cars that’s my max. The customers like to watch the shampoo. one thing I did is I purchace an extra gun for the pressure washer and hooked up the connon attachment to it. Extrat speed less quick disconnet
 
So, it sounds to me like the foam cannon would definitely be great to have regardless. My thing is this. We usually line about 3 to 5 cars up, soak the "trouble spots" with APC, and pressure wash with just water. Then, we scrub with the soft bristle brushes with wash soap...then pressure rinse.

So basically what I'm thinking. Is we can just foam up the vehicles real good, then just pressure rinse. That cuts out 2 extra steps from before. Sounds like a HUGE time saver to me. Plus, once the vehicle is inside and dry...I will do an ONR wipedown before any exterior work is done.

Does this sound like a good plan? Cause to me it sounds perfect in so many ways. We are eliminating any physical scrubbing of the paint. We are also saving time (which is money to me!). We may even be eliminating the step of using wheel acid with the foam in certain cases. Plus, it will look awfully impressive in front of my shop! I like the sound of that. :D
 
Kristopher1129 said:
So, it sounds to me like the foam cannon would definitely be great to have regardless. My thing is this. We usually line about 3 to 5 cars up, soak the "trouble spots" with APC, and pressure wash with just water. Then, we scrub with the soft bristle brushes with wash soap...then pressure rinse.

So basically what I'm thinking. Is we can just foam up the vehicles real good, then just pressure rinse. That cuts out 2 extra steps from before. Sounds like a HUGE time saver to me. Plus, once the vehicle is inside and dry...I will do an ONR wipedown before any exterior work is done.

Does this sound like a good plan? Cause to me it sounds perfect in so many ways. We are eliminating any physical scrubbing of the paint. We are also saving time (which is money to me!). We may even be eliminating the step of using wheel acid with the foam in certain cases. Plus, it will look awfully impressive in front of my shop! I like the sound of that. :D
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great plan to me. You may even be able to charge a little more by selling the foam wash as a premium wash over a standard rinseless wash. :dblthumb2:
 
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