I just received this for Christmas and was looking for a recommendation for a soap to use. Also, I'm thinking about buying a pressure washer. Should I get an actual air pressure device or a high pressure washer like the Sun Joe SPX3000 2030 PSI 1.76 GPM Electric Pressure Washer, 14.5-Amp for washing and detailing my car?
Gilmour 75QGFMR Foamaster Adjustable Multi Ratio Cleaning Gun
- Thread starter wadebart
- Start date
VISITOR
Active member
- May 10, 2007
- 9,859
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if you're only looking to pre-soak/foam the car then the foam cannon is more beneficial which will require a electric/gas pressure washer. it's a waste of money to only use the foam gun (the one that attaches to the hose) only as a pre-soak which doesn't utilize the tool to it's maximum benefit. try using 3oz's of car soap in either the foam cannon/gun canister and fill the rest with warm water and lightly shake in a circle before use. you'll have to play around with the dilution levels to your liking...
Shortspark
New member
- Jun 14, 2012
- 671
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I found this a long time somewhere. I go to it often - good info for various shampoos:
Meguiar's Gold Class wash is 4:1 water to shampoo in foam gun (estimate).
Since Gemini suggested that we have a thread dedicated to foam gun ratios, I figured I'd volunteer my time for it (hey I'm on summer break and I love helping everyone at DB). However, I'll only be offering what I know for my Gilmour Foamaster II #95QGFMR.
The particular Gilmour model I have has a multi-ratio dial with 5 mixing head settings. All these settings/specifications can be seen at the Gilmour website for your own personal reference.
The most common used setting, at least for me anyways, has always been the C setting with an output volume of 4 oz./gal. In most cases car wash shampoos suggest having 1 oz of car wash shampoo added for every gallon of water. Initially you might ask, why not just keep it simple and use the A setting where its output volume is 1 oz./gal? The answer is the foam gun is not capable of sucking such a viscous liquid through its siphon tube. Now I can not attest to whether this is true or not but I don't dare try it myself. However, there is the exception with some of those cheaper car wash shampoos in which they are pretty watery (and probably not great car wash shampoos altogether).
There's also the B setting (2 oz./gal.) which can be used as well but just remember that your shampoo mixture may still be too viscous for the foam gun to handle. One nice thing about the B setting though is that you will not be required to refill as often as you would as the C, D, or E settings.
Since I mentioned the D and E settings, I will say that these settings are definitely not ideal. Their output flow, 6 oz./gal. and 12 oz./gal. respectively, is just too fast and will require a lot of refilling! For me, these are simply not an option almost all the time but perhaps maybe it is for others. I won't even bother with the E setting as it's just not practical for me but I will mention the one occasion in which the D setting is actually useful later. Anyway, on to the hard numbers!
We'll start with the most common dilution, 1 oz of car wash shampoo to 1 gallon of water. The 95GQFMR is a quart container which is the equivalent of 32 oz. At the C setting, we have an output flow of 4 oz./gal. Now in essence, we want 1 oz of that 4 oz./gal. flow to be car wash shampoo and in order to achieve that, we must have a 3:1 ratio in the 95GFQFMR container. So how do you do that? It's pretty simple. You add 8 oz of car wash shampoo and 24 oz of water so that your ratio comes out to 3:1. So what if you want to use the B setting? Sure, that can be done. Your ratio will then effectively be 2:2 or 1:1 and you will be adding 16 oz of car wash shampoo and 16 oz of water. The only concern with using the B setting is whether or not your mixed solution will be soluble enough to be sucked up through the siphon tube and provide the proper volume output. Of course as I mentioned before, the B setting will require less refilling than using the C setting which is nice.
Ok, so what about car wash shampoos such as Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss? Well, they have 2 different dilutions for separate applications. There is one dilution that is ideal for the weekly wash in which 1/2 oz of CWG is required for every 2 gallons of water or 1/4 oz of CWG for every gallon of water. There's also the paint cleanser dilution which is 2 oz of CWG for every gallon of water.
In order to achieve the proper dilution for CWG as a weekly wash, we need 1/4 oz of car wash shampoo for every gallon of water. Now this gets a little tricky with the 95QGFMR and I may lose you in its translation. Since our previous dilutions have been 1 oz of car wash shampoo to 1 gallon of water, we need to figure out what setting we'll be using before we dive further into the numbers.
If we want to go with the most common C setting, the short answer is we divide by 4. Now if we divide our original 8 oz of car wash shampoo by 4, that gives us 2 oz of car wash shampoo and leaves us with the remaining 30 oz of the 95QGFMR to be filled with water. To fully understand how this calculates out, we have to remember that at the C setting we are outputting at a rate of 4 oz./gal and we want 1/4 oz./gal. If you think about it, 2 oz of car wash shampoo to 30 oz of water is simply 30:2 or 15:1. However, we are still at a ratio to 1 and what we really want is to 1/4 or .25 in order to understand the numbers in a simpler form. To keep it fairly simple, we divide both sides of the ratio (15:1) by 4 which gives us 3.75:.25. Well what do you know, these two numbers add up to a total of 4, meaning 4 oz, which also meets our requirement of 4 oz./gal. output flow.
So what if you want to use the B setting? It's pretty simple. Just use 4 oz of CWG and 28 oz of water, with the ratios working out as follows (keep in mind these are all equivalents): 28:4 -> 14:2 -> 7:1 -> 3.5:.5. -> 1.75:.25.
Okay, now that's out of the way. What if you want to use it as a paintwork cleanser? So it's 2 oz of car wash shampoo to 1 gallon of water. Ok, simple enough but it's doubtful that you'll be using the B setting for this one. Essentially if you do decide to use the B setting you'll have to fill the entire container with solid CWG, non-diluted. As I mentioned before, the 95GQFMR will not be likely to successfully suck this viscous liquid through it's siphon tube. So C setting it is and it's simple. You need 2 oz of car wash shampoo for every gallon of water and at the C setting we have an output flow of 4 oz./gal. Essentially, we just need a 1:1 ratio here, 16 oz of CWG and 16 oz of water. Now if that mixture may be too viscous still (I haven't tried it myself yet), this would probably be the only occasion in which the D setting would be feasible, IMO. At the D setting we have an output flow of 6 oz./gal. which would mean that in order to achieve a 2 oz of car wash shampoo for every gallon of water, we'd need a 2:1 ratio, which roughly comes out to 11 oz of CWG and 21 oz of water (the ratio isn't exactly 2:1).
Ok so that was a lot of reading (if some of you actually read it all) but below you will find the short and sweet version for your reference. I'll continue to add to it if need be. I hope my English was structured well enough to understand, LoL. Either way, I hope it helps out some of the fellow foam gun users who are still new to its dilution ratios or just need some refreshing of their memory. Enjoy!
Gilmour Foamaster II #95GQFMR
Any car wash soap at 1 oz per gallon of water
C setting - 8 oz of any car wash soap + 24 oz of water
B setting - 16 oz of any car wash soap + 16 oz of water
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss at 1/4 oz per gallon of water (weekly wash), also applies to Citrus Wash & Clear and Maxi Suds II
C setting - 2 oz of CWG/CWC/MSII + 30 oz of water
B setting - 4 oz of CWG/CWC/MSII + 28 oz of water
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss at 2 oz per gallon of water (paintwork cleanser)
C setting - 16 oz of CWG + 16 oz of water
D setting - 11 oz CWG + 21 oz of water
Detailer's Pride Xtreme Foam at .4 oz per gallon of water
C setting - 3.2 oz of DPXF + 28.8 oz of water
B setting - 6.4 oz of DPXF + 25.6 oz of water
Detailer's Pride Xtreme Foam at .5 oz per gallon of water (for simplicity and/or rounder numbers)
C setting - 4 oz of DPXF + 28 oz of water
B setting - 8 oz of DPXF + 24 oz of water
Meguiar's Gold Class wash is 4:1 water to shampoo in foam gun (estimate).
Since Gemini suggested that we have a thread dedicated to foam gun ratios, I figured I'd volunteer my time for it (hey I'm on summer break and I love helping everyone at DB). However, I'll only be offering what I know for my Gilmour Foamaster II #95QGFMR.
The particular Gilmour model I have has a multi-ratio dial with 5 mixing head settings. All these settings/specifications can be seen at the Gilmour website for your own personal reference.
The most common used setting, at least for me anyways, has always been the C setting with an output volume of 4 oz./gal. In most cases car wash shampoos suggest having 1 oz of car wash shampoo added for every gallon of water. Initially you might ask, why not just keep it simple and use the A setting where its output volume is 1 oz./gal? The answer is the foam gun is not capable of sucking such a viscous liquid through its siphon tube. Now I can not attest to whether this is true or not but I don't dare try it myself. However, there is the exception with some of those cheaper car wash shampoos in which they are pretty watery (and probably not great car wash shampoos altogether).
There's also the B setting (2 oz./gal.) which can be used as well but just remember that your shampoo mixture may still be too viscous for the foam gun to handle. One nice thing about the B setting though is that you will not be required to refill as often as you would as the C, D, or E settings.
Since I mentioned the D and E settings, I will say that these settings are definitely not ideal. Their output flow, 6 oz./gal. and 12 oz./gal. respectively, is just too fast and will require a lot of refilling! For me, these are simply not an option almost all the time but perhaps maybe it is for others. I won't even bother with the E setting as it's just not practical for me but I will mention the one occasion in which the D setting is actually useful later. Anyway, on to the hard numbers!
We'll start with the most common dilution, 1 oz of car wash shampoo to 1 gallon of water. The 95GQFMR is a quart container which is the equivalent of 32 oz. At the C setting, we have an output flow of 4 oz./gal. Now in essence, we want 1 oz of that 4 oz./gal. flow to be car wash shampoo and in order to achieve that, we must have a 3:1 ratio in the 95GFQFMR container. So how do you do that? It's pretty simple. You add 8 oz of car wash shampoo and 24 oz of water so that your ratio comes out to 3:1. So what if you want to use the B setting? Sure, that can be done. Your ratio will then effectively be 2:2 or 1:1 and you will be adding 16 oz of car wash shampoo and 16 oz of water. The only concern with using the B setting is whether or not your mixed solution will be soluble enough to be sucked up through the siphon tube and provide the proper volume output. Of course as I mentioned before, the B setting will require less refilling than using the C setting which is nice.
Ok, so what about car wash shampoos such as Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss? Well, they have 2 different dilutions for separate applications. There is one dilution that is ideal for the weekly wash in which 1/2 oz of CWG is required for every 2 gallons of water or 1/4 oz of CWG for every gallon of water. There's also the paint cleanser dilution which is 2 oz of CWG for every gallon of water.
In order to achieve the proper dilution for CWG as a weekly wash, we need 1/4 oz of car wash shampoo for every gallon of water. Now this gets a little tricky with the 95QGFMR and I may lose you in its translation. Since our previous dilutions have been 1 oz of car wash shampoo to 1 gallon of water, we need to figure out what setting we'll be using before we dive further into the numbers.
If we want to go with the most common C setting, the short answer is we divide by 4. Now if we divide our original 8 oz of car wash shampoo by 4, that gives us 2 oz of car wash shampoo and leaves us with the remaining 30 oz of the 95QGFMR to be filled with water. To fully understand how this calculates out, we have to remember that at the C setting we are outputting at a rate of 4 oz./gal and we want 1/4 oz./gal. If you think about it, 2 oz of car wash shampoo to 30 oz of water is simply 30:2 or 15:1. However, we are still at a ratio to 1 and what we really want is to 1/4 or .25 in order to understand the numbers in a simpler form. To keep it fairly simple, we divide both sides of the ratio (15:1) by 4 which gives us 3.75:.25. Well what do you know, these two numbers add up to a total of 4, meaning 4 oz, which also meets our requirement of 4 oz./gal. output flow.
So what if you want to use the B setting? It's pretty simple. Just use 4 oz of CWG and 28 oz of water, with the ratios working out as follows (keep in mind these are all equivalents): 28:4 -> 14:2 -> 7:1 -> 3.5:.5. -> 1.75:.25.
Okay, now that's out of the way. What if you want to use it as a paintwork cleanser? So it's 2 oz of car wash shampoo to 1 gallon of water. Ok, simple enough but it's doubtful that you'll be using the B setting for this one. Essentially if you do decide to use the B setting you'll have to fill the entire container with solid CWG, non-diluted. As I mentioned before, the 95GQFMR will not be likely to successfully suck this viscous liquid through it's siphon tube. So C setting it is and it's simple. You need 2 oz of car wash shampoo for every gallon of water and at the C setting we have an output flow of 4 oz./gal. Essentially, we just need a 1:1 ratio here, 16 oz of CWG and 16 oz of water. Now if that mixture may be too viscous still (I haven't tried it myself yet), this would probably be the only occasion in which the D setting would be feasible, IMO. At the D setting we have an output flow of 6 oz./gal. which would mean that in order to achieve a 2 oz of car wash shampoo for every gallon of water, we'd need a 2:1 ratio, which roughly comes out to 11 oz of CWG and 21 oz of water (the ratio isn't exactly 2:1).
Ok so that was a lot of reading (if some of you actually read it all) but below you will find the short and sweet version for your reference. I'll continue to add to it if need be. I hope my English was structured well enough to understand, LoL. Either way, I hope it helps out some of the fellow foam gun users who are still new to its dilution ratios or just need some refreshing of their memory. Enjoy!
Gilmour Foamaster II #95GQFMR
Any car wash soap at 1 oz per gallon of water
C setting - 8 oz of any car wash soap + 24 oz of water
B setting - 16 oz of any car wash soap + 16 oz of water
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss at 1/4 oz per gallon of water (weekly wash), also applies to Citrus Wash & Clear and Maxi Suds II
C setting - 2 oz of CWG/CWC/MSII + 30 oz of water
B setting - 4 oz of CWG/CWC/MSII + 28 oz of water
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss at 2 oz per gallon of water (paintwork cleanser)
C setting - 16 oz of CWG + 16 oz of water
D setting - 11 oz CWG + 21 oz of water
Detailer's Pride Xtreme Foam at .4 oz per gallon of water
C setting - 3.2 oz of DPXF + 28.8 oz of water
B setting - 6.4 oz of DPXF + 25.6 oz of water
Detailer's Pride Xtreme Foam at .5 oz per gallon of water (for simplicity and/or rounder numbers)
C setting - 4 oz of DPXF + 28 oz of water
B setting - 8 oz of DPXF + 24 oz of water
Shortspark
New member
- Jun 14, 2012
- 671
- 0
The Foamaster is a nice thing to have and spend some time with. It is not necessary of course but it helps. Don't pre-rinse the car. Some people say this is important but I like the foam to sit on the dirt a little, not fall off immediately which it would do if the car is soaking wet to begin with. This may not be a problem with the much thicker foam you get with a canon and high power washer, but it is with the Foamaster and a regular hose.
After you let the foam soak for a few minutes, rinse it off and then follow up with a normal two bucket wash. The Foamaster should be considered a preliminary step. There are people who follow up with another blast from the gun and clean as they go with a wash mitt but I don't do that. I prefer the follow up to be a regular two bucket wash.
Like I said, this gun is not necessary but it is nice to have. So enjoy it and have fun (I wish someone had gotten me a nice gift like this!!).
After you let the foam soak for a few minutes, rinse it off and then follow up with a normal two bucket wash. The Foamaster should be considered a preliminary step. There are people who follow up with another blast from the gun and clean as they go with a wash mitt but I don't do that. I prefer the follow up to be a regular two bucket wash.
Like I said, this gun is not necessary but it is nice to have. So enjoy it and have fun (I wish someone had gotten me a nice gift like this!!).
The way I think about it is like this - you want to have the same ratio (more or less* - more on this later) of shampoo vs water hitting your paint as the ratio recommended by the manufacturer. I said "more or less" because not all traditional car shampoos are good with a foam gun.
Taking Meg's Gold Class, for example (a traditional OTC car shampoo that remarkably performs very well with a foam gun and leaves a very nice scent you smell a few houses away.) If it's saying 1 oz/gallon on the label for a car wash, you want 1 oz shampoo mixed with 1 gal water hitting your paint, correct?
Foam gun ratios is the output from the container vs the hose steadily streaming over time, e.g. 4 oz/gal. Going back to my first statement, then you want 1 oz of that 4 oz solution that is output from the container to be the shampoo, if it was Meg's Gold Class. Your foam gun container will then require a mix of 1:3, Meg's GC shampoo vs water.
Mr. Pink Suds is super-concentrated in its traditional wash method, 1 oz per 5 gallons. You always want to break it down to the "per gallon" basis. So this shampoo is 1/5 oz per gallon. If you set your foam gun to 4 oz per gallon, you'd need 1/5 of that 4 oz to be Mr. Pink Suds. That is a 1:19 shampoo vs water ratio inside the foam gun.
*Again, unless specifically made for a foam gun, not all shampoos work well inside the foam gun. You may need to boost up the shampoo ratio after you derive the "required" ratio.
Taking Meg's Gold Class, for example (a traditional OTC car shampoo that remarkably performs very well with a foam gun and leaves a very nice scent you smell a few houses away.) If it's saying 1 oz/gallon on the label for a car wash, you want 1 oz shampoo mixed with 1 gal water hitting your paint, correct?
Foam gun ratios is the output from the container vs the hose steadily streaming over time, e.g. 4 oz/gal. Going back to my first statement, then you want 1 oz of that 4 oz solution that is output from the container to be the shampoo, if it was Meg's Gold Class. Your foam gun container will then require a mix of 1:3, Meg's GC shampoo vs water.
Mr. Pink Suds is super-concentrated in its traditional wash method, 1 oz per 5 gallons. You always want to break it down to the "per gallon" basis. So this shampoo is 1/5 oz per gallon. If you set your foam gun to 4 oz per gallon, you'd need 1/5 of that 4 oz to be Mr. Pink Suds. That is a 1:19 shampoo vs water ratio inside the foam gun.
*Again, unless specifically made for a foam gun, not all shampoos work well inside the foam gun. You may need to boost up the shampoo ratio after you derive the "required" ratio.