Foam gun as a quick wash?

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HellDemon

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Hey guys, I was just wondering...

Personally, since I wash with a 2-bucket method, while there is a certain value added for me, i don't find it TOTALLY necessary to use a foam gun (though if I get one I'd definitely use it).

However for my dad (especially since I live on campus and not at home), he has a bad back and he recently just finished his chemotherapy, so he's really not in a position to do his own washing, and while he insists that going to a gas-station car wash is fine, it makes me cringe, even if they're touchless (since I take care of his care too haha).

So I was just wondering, would using a foam gun, let it dwell abit, and then just hosing the whole car off, be a good substitute as a quick wash? Or is most of its cleaning power purely from the fact that I'm hosing it?

(P.S. I don't have a power washer, so if I were to buy a foam gun, it'd be the foamaster 2)
 
HellDemon said:
Hey guys, I was just wondering...

Personally, since I wash with a 2-bucket method, while there is a certain value added for me, i don't find it TOTALLY necessary to use a foam gun (though if I get one I'd definitely use it).

However for my dad (especially since I live on campus and not at home), he has a bad back and he recently just finished his chemotherapy, so he's really not in a position to do his own washing, and while he insists that going to a gas-station car wash is fine, it makes me cringe, even if they're touchless (since I take care of his care too haha).

So I was just wondering, would using a foam gun, let it dwell abit, and then just hosing the whole car off, be a good substitute as a quick wash? Or is most of its cleaning power purely from the fact that I'm hosing it?

(P.S. I don't have a power washer, so if I were to buy a foam gun, it'd be the foamaster 2)
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Hey man,

first off, sorry to hear about your pops. Hope he'll be ok.

Second of all, you're right...the touchless washes use degreasers to strip the dirt...and guess what else it strips...the wax! My girl went thru one and the sticks she had on her window on the back literally melted off...so yeah, avoid those :). They're worse in someways, they dont swirl but they leave you with a false sense of clean and false sense of protection.

Im kinda 'eh' on the foam GUN. I mean...its a nice too....but it doesn't really FOAM imo...it gets it pretty soapy, but there really isnt a thick layer of foam like from the foam cannon. If you do it, you still want to pre-rinse the vehicle, foam it, rinse it and then dry. Honestly the part that makes me nervous is the drying, because the foam/rinse process isn't gonna remove all the dirt and then when you go to dry, you'll be drying dirt along with water lol. The foam lifts a LOT of the dirt up, but some still needs to be agitated. If his car isn't totally swirl free..you could consider a boars hair brush. It w/an extension pole might allow him to still pretty easily agitate most of the vehicle, then just rinse and dry. Those brushes make quick work of even big conversion vans (i have the brush and MY pops has the van) so, im sure it can make quick work of your dad's ride. Just have him go top to bottom and only use it on paint, not tires and rims...and it should make a good 'quick wash'


Is he going to be able to towel dry it or just rinse and let it set? If you dont have hot water it'll spot up...

Im not sure how much $ you have to spend but, if you have a cpl $100..id recommend just splurging for the PW and foam CANNON set up. I used the foam gun..but after the cannon, man the gun is childs play lol. If you PM me i can send you a couple links to some pretty good and reasonably priced PW's and a cpl other things that might help you out.

So, i dont know if i totally answered your question...but just a little feedback from my experience w/those tools. Hope this helps man.
 
I have found that it will depend on just how dirty the car is. My Jet Black car was recently really filthy from being out in Eastern Long Island. I felt bad, but had little time, so just rinsed foamed with a Gilmour gun and rinsed. Nope, not even a towel dry. I just wanted to get the dirt off and didn't care about water spots at 7:00PM :). Long story short, it only got a little bit cleaner. A ful wash came the following Saturday, with the foam gun and my black came back.

So, I think the foam gun is great aid, but not a standalone tool. In a pinch, however, go for it. If you attempt to dry it with a towel, (1) it will get very dirty, (2) wiping/dragging may give you, um, undesirable results. Air drying with a leaf blower is better.
 
Hey guys, thanks for your responses!

I definitely wouldn't want him towel drying anyways since that was kind of the whole idea of just foaming and rinsing (water spots are probably the least problematic thing to get rid of so it's fine), but it seems like foaming + rinsing doesn't really do much standalone.

I guess I'll be holding off on the foam gun for now! Thanks guys!
 
I'd skip the foam gun, and use the money to get some Opti-Coat and us it on the car - your father can then bring it to the touchless without any worries about the paint being left unprotected (David Fermani's long-term test showed that Opti-Coat isn't really affected by touchless washes).
 
umi000 said:
I'd skip the foam gun, and use the money to get some Opti-Coat and us it on the car - your father can then bring it to the touchless without any worries about the paint being left unprotected (David Fermani's long-term test showed that Opti-Coat isn't really affected by touchless washes).
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Hmm that's actually a really good idea... Though I'm probably going to substitute the opti-coat with reload or wolf's body wrap; cause his car does take alot of beatings, so that would make OC expensive to consistently repair all the scratches haha.

Thanks so much guys!
 
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