How do you get better foam out of your foam cannon?

Thick foam from your foam cannon?

How do I get better foam out of my foam cannon? That's the question we usually hear. Although more foam therefore does not work better than normal light coverage many people love spraying their foam cannon and white coating all of their car. In addition, most people also tend to think the more foam the better.

However, a snow foam pre wash is made to loosen the dirt, and to pull it off the car even before you start washing. If you spray very thick foam, it often sticks very hard to the car so it can loosen the dirt, but it does not pull dirt off the car. So if you spray thick foam, you should always rinse the car first, best with a pressure washer so the dirt can already be removed from the car. This is recommended anyway.

However, the advantage you have with a slightly more liquid foam is that if it already pulls the top layer of dirt off the car as it starts to run down, it also loosens the dirt under the top layer of dirt which you usually don't have when you spray thick foam. So more foam is not always better. It is of course important to know this before you decide to read on.

Good foam cannon

Kind of obvious of course. But of course it is important to have a good foam cannon if you want good foam. Not only for that but also for ease of use. A good foam cannon will also always be able to adjust how much soap you want to use when spraying your foam cannon and how you want to aim the jet. In addition, good foam cannons are also built to last and the nozzles and filters are easy to replace if needed.

We are the largest importer and distributor of MJJC Foam Cannon's in Europe and therefore work almost exclusively with MJJC's foam cannons. Their reputation for good foam cannons is known internationally by even the most awarded detailers and also supply to well known brands so they can sell MJJC their foam cannons as their private label. So chances are very good that if you have a foam cannon that looks like MJJC's they are also made by them and sometimes just a different brand is stuck on it. Since we are so familiar with MJJC's foam cannon we will use them to clarify everything regarding the foam cannon.

Nozzle

There are mainly 3 factors in the foam cannon that determines how much foam you will get. The first is the nozzle. Internal to the foam cannon is a small nozzle. By default, a 1.25mm nozzle is installed in the foam cannon. However, we also supply it with a spare 1.1mm nozzle in a bag.

The larger the nozzle opening the more water can easily flow through the foam cannon with the disadvantage that you must have a pressure washer that is strong enough to move enough water so that you get good foam. If your pressure washer does not have that much flow rate it will not be able to make as much foam because the water just flows through the nozzle without giving it time to be able to make foam.

If you install a smaller nozzle such as the 1.1mm then the opening becomes smaller which will give you more foam, with the disadvantage that the pressure washer will now have to work harder to get rid of the water through the smaller opening. If you have a powerful pressure washer that can move more than 8 liters per minute, we recommend using the standard 1.25mm nozzle anyway. You can achieve perfect results with this in normal cases. If you do use the smaller nozzle, you may damage the machine in the long run. If you have a pressure washer with a flow rate of 8 liters per minute or less, you may be interested in using the smaller nozzle.

Internal filter

As a second point, the foam cannon has an internal mesh filter. This filter makes the foam effective. Think of when you are washing dishes and you have put soap in a pan. There is no foam to be seen when you put the soap in the pan. If you just run water on it you will see a little foam appear. But if you mix water with the soap and while rubbing it with a foam sponge you suddenly see a lot of foam appear. This is the same in the foam cannon.

The water and soap mixture pass through the internal filter. The more time the filter has to make the foam the more foam you get. This is what the nozzle is for. If you put a smaller nozzle the filter gets more time to make the foam.

However, the internal filter is a consumable part of the foam cannon. As time goes on, it will begin to wear down, allowing it to make less foam. If your foam cannon used to work well and suddenly it seems to do less and less then it is wise to check the filter and replace it if necessary. Since it is a consumable part we also sell it separately so you do not have to buy a whole new foam cannon.

In addition to endure, these filters, like all filters, can also get clogged. This often happens when you don't have clean water, hard water with lots of minerals and lime or when you have used bad soap. When these filters get clogged, they are less effective and you get less foam. Some people don't use good soap, or soap with wax or other protective agents in it, which clogs the filter. We will get into this in a moment.

Rotary knob

Finally, there is the dial on the foam cannon that allows you to control how much soap you want the foam cannon to suck up from the container. When you turn it fully open, the foam cannon will suck up as much soap as possible from the container to create foam. When you close it completely, nothing at all will come out. This can be useful when you have filled your bottle with soap and water and suddenly there is a lot of foam coming out of the foam cannon. Because you can turn the foam cannon slightly closed you save product.

Pressure washer

So, as we just pointed out, the pressure washer is also important when you want good foam from your foam cannon. Usually people look at how much bar the pressure washer has. However, the pressure of the pressure washer hardly matters. We recommend about 110 bar to use to wash your car. With more pressure you can sometimes damage yourself and 110 bar is enough to remove dirt and make good foam. Virtually all pressure washers are even above 110 bar so this is often not the problem.

What the problem is often is that the pressure washer has too little flow rate. The more gallons per minute the pressure washer can move the more foam you will get from your foam cannon. The cheaper models of pressure washers often only have a flow rate of 6 liters per minute. This is actually too little to be efficient. The in-between models are often around 7 to 9 liters per minute. Here you will have to switch nozzles once and see what feels best. Finally, there are the premium pressure washers which often move 10 or more gallons per minute. These are ideal for making foam and washing your car.

Soap / Shampoo

So as mentioned earlier, it is indeed possible to use the wrong soap in your foam cannon. Not every soap is the same and not every soap can be used for the same thing. It is best that you just avoid general soaps like Dreft, green soap and the like. We made a separate blog post about this as it is also a common topic. You can find the blog post about these soaps on our website.

So it is best to choose a specific car shampoo. Sometimes there is also a distinction between a regular shampoo for washing your car with a sponge and a snow foam shampoo. This is because the mixing ratios are often different and because they use a different formula. The soap for contact washing should be able to glide as well as possible to minimize the chance of scratching. Whereas with a snow foam shampoo, we just want the shampoo to stick to the car, work the dirt loose and then slide off the car along with the dirt it has worked loose.

Then there are shampoos with protective agents in them such as wax, sealants or with ceramic properties. However, these shampoos are not made to foam anyway. The formula in these shampoos is always designed to make little to no foam. However, it has another disadvantage and that is that they will clog the internal filter. And when this filter is clogged you will have no foam or much less foam until you replace the filter.

Therefore, always use a good quality shampoo in your foam cannon. We use Sonax Acitfoam Energy since we find it a very good shampoo, especially compared to the price. Since it also glides well in the bucket we can also use it in bulk which makes the price even more interesting. If you want to know if your shampoo is the problem, use the Sonax Actifoam Energy at a ratio of 1 to 10 in your foam cannon. If you still get bad foam with this then you already know that the shampoo is not the problem and you can continue your search.

Water

So if you have a good foam cannon with the right nozzle, a new filter and the dial is all the way open. You use a good pressure washer with the right soap and still don't have good foam? Then it could still be because of the water you are using. The purer the water is the more foam you will get. If you live in areas where the water is very hard because of the minerals it contains then you will have trouble getting good foam.

The minerals and lime in the water fight with the soap and filter in the foam cannon, resulting in no or poor foam. The only way you can solve this problem is to use filtered water. You can do this by installing a water filter and using pure water. Be sure to provide enough filtered water for your wash. If you place the filter for the pressure washer on the line then the filter may not get enough water filtered so that your pressure washer can pass it on. So it's best to provide a separate tank with already filtered water that you can use during the wash and then refill back into the tank.

Conclusion

So as you can see, getting good lather is not as easy as is often thought. Sometimes it can also simply be a combination of several factors that prevent you from getting good foam. For example, a bad foam cannon with a pressure washer that is too weak combined with no suitable soap and water that contains a lot of lime. So because it is a combination of problems you may not get good foam and so you will have to look at all possible causes and improve where you can.

If you have already tried everything except installing a water filter and you still have bad foam then the problem is probably with the water. Of course, we can understand if you don't feel like installing a water filtration system with an extra tank. In that case, you can still just add extra soap to your container. If you add more soap, you should normally also get more foam, which could circumvent the hard water problem.