Tips to Get Thicker Snow Foam and Mistakes to Avoid

In this video I’ll be talking about some common reasons why your snow foam lance may not be producing the foam thickness you’re looking for and how to get better quality snow foam.

I’m a believer that thick snow foam doesn’t equal effective snow foam, and cleaning power is more important to me than my car looking like it’s covered in shaving foam! Some snow foams are designed to produce thicker foam than others and as long as they do a good job of cleaning, the thickness doesn’t bother me.

However, if your snow foam is so thin it looks like skimmed milk and it has dripped onto the floor completely about a minute after being applied, then something’s probably amiss and hopefully these tips will be helpful to correct the problem!

Here are the links to the products and tools used in the video. Some of the links are affiliate links to In2Detailing so if you make a purchase after clicking the link, then I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

Here is some more info about the snow foams and pressure washers being used at various points in the video. All the clips were filmed using the MJJC Foam Cannon Pro on the maximum setting.
• EZ Meltdown (1:10) with Karcher K2 and 1.25 mm orifice at 0:05 and 0:32
• Wax Planet 8 Below (1:15) with Karcher K4 with 1.1/ 1.25 mm orifice at 2:27
• Car Chem Pre-Soak Plus (1:10) with Karcher K2 and 1.25 mm orifice at 3:10, 6:40, 7:35
• Wax Planet 8 Below (1:10) with Karcher K4 and 1.25 mm orifice at 5:00
• Autobrite Magifoam (1:20) with Karcher K4 and various foam cannons (1.25 mm orifice for non-Karcher cannons) at 6:00
• Bilt Hamber Touch-Less (1:3) with Karcher K4 and 1.25 mm orifice at 6:57

Thanks for watching!

Time Stamps:
0:00 Struggling to Get Thick Foam?
0:43 Flow Rate
1:13 Orifice Sizes
2:31 Keeping the Lance in Good Condition
3:09 Service the Foam Cannon
3:48 Does Warm Water Help?
4:41 Cheap vs Expensive Lances
5:39 Is Thicker Foam Better?

[AutoCareHQ]

I’ve put some extra info about which pressure washer, office size, snow foam and the dilution ratio I was using at each point in the video in the description along with all the product links. Thanks for watching!

[TheAgwarn]

The Bilt Hamber snow foam isn’t very thick at all but it’s brilliant as a non contact cleaner, easily the best I’ve used! 👍🏼

[AB-X]

If I may offer up a suggestion for anyone who thinks about changing the jet in the lance.
If your high pressure washer don't have a pressure gauge built in, get an inline one to install between your handle and hose. That will tell you where your pressure is at. As long as you don't exceed what the machine is rated for, you can keep making the orifice smaller. It's also handy to make sure that your nozzles don't create too much pressure. Some 25 and 15 degree nozzles are quite "tight" and can raise the pressure quite a bit. What flow that comes out of your tap also greatly affect your pressure. My Stihl RE150 Plus is rated for 150 bars and 685 lr/h. That is obviously more than enough for my MTM, but here's the catch. If the flow from your tap is not adequate, it will not create those numbers. I can get it there with my MTM and a 1.25 jet when it is hooked up in my wash bay which has a dedicated high flow tap that bypasses the house. When connected to this tap, it will easily run 150 bars with a 25 degree nozzle and 140+ with my MTM. And when running the 15 degree nozzle I turn it down a bit to get it at 150. It does not pulse, but I don't want to hurt it.
How if I hook it up to my tap for my garden hose, which is actually not that bad. fat chance of getting those numbers. Best it will do with the nozzles is 125 bars and even with a 1.1mm jet in my MTM, it only gets to 135 bars, and with a 1.25 it's below 100. So there's many things at play, and what jet you need in the lance, can only really be determined by knowing the actual pressure.
Few homes actually have enough capacity flow to max out bigger machines, so the chance of a 1.1 being too small, is really low unless your machine is massive.

[kevinb]

Great tip about unscrewing the lance off when you still have product left and flush it out Heather👍. Snow foam the best part of the wash for me, gets the neighbors curtains twitching "what's he doing now" 🤔🤣🤣

[iangriff]

Hi Heather, great vid and very informative. One tip you missed is for people in hard water areas. Hard water really kills foam, so using an in-line Resin filter with hard water specific resin, or use rainwater which is generally soft water can make a massive difference to foam thickness and longevity.

[chriscuthbertson]

I've converted my Ryobi EZ Clean battery washer (600 psi) to 1/4" quick connect and i'm now running a foam cannon with a 0.8 orifice, This is so much better than the Ryobi foam blaster. I've also started using 2.0 nozzles and they have improved the pressure washing no end.

[markmoore]

A very useful video Heather, I've yet the give my new pressure washer a try yet but I've got the Mjjc V2 so that should suit the machine as it's a little down on pressure from my previous pressure washer, can't wait for the weekend to give it a try 😀

[bennevis]

I got the Autoglym lance and snowfoam from Halfords when they reduced the price by mistake. I've got 7.5 liters to use up then I'm looking forward to try Bilt-Hamb or Garage therapy. Clear and informative video to watch.

[RomanticTuna]

Thanks, came to this late, but some handy tips for my cheap Karcher snow foam gun

[simonbradshaw]

I use Autoglym Polar Blaster and Polar Blast and it seems to do a very good job. Very happy with the combo. I have had to stop my snow cannon once to clean out and get back to top performance

[RoadToDetailing]

Excellent and “gap filling” video Heather! You really have covered all aspects and arguments around this subject in the video. I personally love thick foams, however I noticed that if the density is too thick, the weight of the foam pulls the foam down too quickly, as you just mentioned, and in my particular testing that did hurt the performance of cleaning. Recently used an IK foamer, that showed the same lack of cleaning when I compared a shaving type density to a thinner, milkshake kind density with the same dilution (only changed the color stuff around). Looking forward to your next vid! 🔥

[baitaddictbaits]

Another great video! Very informative and effectively summarises many of the variables associated with snowfoams and lances. I do the same as you and flush out the cannon and pick up pipe with water after every use and it seems to keep the clogging at bay.

[richardharvey]

thank you lovely for all the help and advice looking too my foam cannon 😊

[davidcarballo]

Great video, and well explained. Too many variables to get perfect foam every time nowadays. As long as they clean. 👍🏼

[samme]

Another excellent video Heather with some great tips thank you for sharing enjoyed watching

[sixtysecondsofstephens]

So true about leaks. I had to join 3 hoses together at my parents to get to where the cars are parked and each joint was leaking a little, the thickness of the foam decreased.

[craigord]

Hi, Heather, good tips 👍🏻
I use a K4 and recently swapped both lance orifices for 1.1mm and got good results but definitely the product makes a difference, like you said.
From the experiences I’ve had I’d definitely recommend buying a decent foam first, then using tips like this to try to improve the lance.
My spare lance is just a cheap Amazon one but I’m trying a few things currently to get the best foam from it but recently changing to a better product has made noticeable difference!

[steverabbits]

Now that's a brilliant video Heather. I have the MJJC Pro 2 jobby and it's a major improvement on my old one. I've never taken mine apart but now I know how to thanks! I'm not a fan of thick snowfoam although it does look awesome, I find it just sits on the ground for yonks afterwards and is a bit of a pain tbh. It's Bilt Hamber Auto Foam or Touch-less for me every time. Great work Heather, keep them coming 👍👍

[jazzam]

Great advice for this Heather. not many videos around explaining snow foams. currently use a autobrite lance but think i will take the plunge into a mjjc foam, first though need to upgrade to some garage therapy products ☺

[jeffreyrobert]

Awesome video. Thank you for dropping knowledge