Karcher Foam Lance

[Parthiban]

Saw this in Halfords the other day, and wondered if anyone actually has one? At £15, they're not exactly expensive, but that also makes me wonder if it's actually any good!

Any advice would be appreciated :)

[Unregistered_User]

Karcher is good brand, so I'd be suprised if they'd put their name to a unsuccessful product.

However, not used one myself so cannot speak as an owner sadly :(

Jamie

[Rikos]

If you give it a go let us know how you get on mate

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Worth a read of this:

http://www.meguiars.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2417

[Parthiban]

Worth a read of this:

http://www.meguiars.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2417

Cheers for that link, exactly what I wanted to know and even more! Seems to do exactly what I wanted it to, so think I'm going to get me one of these at the weekend if I get time :)

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Yes, it's tempted me too :)

[Webby@Scunthorpe]

If you want foam you need to use a snow foam lance with a product called snow foam its the dogs!!!!!!!!

Gets the kids excited aswell.

Webby

[Rikos]

Wheres the car gone

[Parthiban]

Where do you get this snow foam stuff and who makes it?

That detailing link above shows using proper car shampoos - does this stuff actually clean the car? The point behind foaming is that you let the soap do all the work, meaning less scrubbing of the paintwork.

Does this snow foam stuff do exactly that? If so, I'll be needing to get some of that too! Got to say, it does look very impressive! :winky:

[Steve ( West Mids )]

You want Snow Foam:

http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/product_info...products_id=302

[Giblet]

i bought a karcher once and the handle kept coming apart. The thing was it kept opening a gap between the two halves of the plastic handle and the nozzle that fits into the handle kept coming off. i finally gave up with it when the nozzle (made of brass) with hose attached flew off and hit (and dented) the wheel arch of my other car behind me. Neither the retailer or Karcher wanted to know about it, but i did notice that later versions had a more secure fitting, but i'd warn anyone to just be careful when using and keep them away from anything that they could damage if the end was to com off.

[caspian sky]

Does this give the car a proper clean and would it fit my rac powerwasher

[Webby@Scunthorpe]

Where do you get this snow foam stuff and who makes it?

That detailing link above shows using proper car shampoos - does this stuff actually clean the car? The point behind foaming is that you let the soap do all the work, meaning less scrubbing of the paintwork.

Does this snow foam stuff do exactly that? If so, I'll be needing to get some of that too! Got to say, it does look very impressive! :winky:

If you take a look at www.detailingworld.co.uk oyu will find everything you need to know about this stuff.

Its supplied by quite a few traders on there but the lance i got from autobrite. He does group buys on these for about £45 delivered with 5ltrs of snow foam aswell. Ive been using it for a while now with a mixture of TFR (traffic film remover) that he sells, you only need a couple of cap fulls of each in the bottle thats supplied with it. Then top up with water and away you go.

You can also get it off eBay by another trader.

I had only ever used Meguiars stuff untill i started reading about other waxes polishes shampoo's etc on there and realised theres alot more out there other than Megiuars.

You really need to go to one of there meets that happen quite often all over england and see some of the stuff etc in action.

[Tango]

Ive been using it for a while now with a mixture of TFR (traffic film remover) that he sells, you only need a couple of cap fulls of each in the bottle thats supplied with it. Then top up with water and away you go.

The TFR is OK if you want to strip off all the wax protection as well, but just use a decent shampoo for foaming during a normal detail or you'll have to reprotect the paintwork.

[Jiberjaber]

So any progress on this then?

I bought some of the cheapo (1.99) Halfords car shampoo yesterday which seemed to come out well on the foam test on the meguires site. I have a bottle attachment for my cheapo B&Q power washer which I am going to try it in. I suspect it wont foam looking at the nozzle, but worth a shot seeing as it will have only cost me 1.99 to try :)

Might get a Karcher if I am impressed further by the idea :)

[Parthiban]

I bought myself the foam lance attachment last weekend, but with the awesome weather we've had recently, I haven't actually had a chance to use it - hopefully this weekend if the weather's nice.

Planning to just use with Autoglym car shampoo to start with, and see how that works before thinking about getting some snow foam or something similar.

Will report back with results as soon as I've had a chance to try it out :winky:

[Steve ( West Mids )]

I bought myself the foam lance attachment last weekend, but with the awesome weather we've had recently, I haven't actually had a chance to use it - hopefully this weekend if the weather's nice.

Me too, with NXT wash as it's meamt to give plemty of suds where as Gold Class you have to whip up.

[Parthiban]

Finally got round to using my foam gun this weekend, and gotta say I was impressed! Just used it with the Autoglym car shampoo that I already had, and got a really good foam from it (nothing like the snow foam pic above, but still pretty good)

My car was filthy, so I still had to use a sponge to clean it, but wondered if I do this like once a week, will the foam actually clean the car off without me having to do anything else? It did seem like the windows were clean when the soap came off, but the car wasn't - if a good coat of wax will mean this is the case, I'm going to be very happy!

[Tango]

Finally got round to using my foam gun this weekend, and gotta say I was impressed! Just used it with the Autoglym car shampoo that I already had, and got a really good foam from it (nothing like the snow foam pic above, but still pretty good)

My car was filthy, so I still had to use a sponge to clean it, but wondered if I do this like once a week, will the foam actually clean the car off without me having to do anything else? It did seem like the windows were clean when the soap came off, but the car wasn't - if a good coat of wax will mean this is the case, I'm going to be very happy!

Cleaned four cars over the week-end using the Karcher PW, Lance and SnowFoam. My IS250, the wife's IS200 and my son's Corsa SXi still have their P21 wax coats and the dirt just floated off, but my daughters sadly neglected Corsa GL needed the foam agitated with the Karcher softbrush :shutit: .

Still had to blade off and dry with the microfibre drying towel though...haven't got the in-line water filter for the rinse yet

[Parthiban]

Forgot to mention, also picked up a silicone blade when I got the lance and used it for the first time yesterday - those things are so useful! Can't believe I haven't had one so long, dried the car in a matter of minutes!

If I didn't need to do anything with it after, would just leave it to dry after using the Flash filter thingy, but as I wanted to polish it, used this to get all the water off and was very pleased at how effective it is :D

Might need to invest in some of this snowfoam stuff though when my other shampoo runs out - mainly because it looks like fun, but also for it's cleaning power of course!

[Tango]

Forgot to mention, also picked up a silicone blade when I got the lance and used it for the first time yesterday - those things are so useful! Can't believe I haven't had one so long, dried the car in a matter of minutes!

If I didn't need to do anything with it after, would just leave it to dry after using the Flash filter thingy, but as I wanted to polish it, used this to get all the water off and was very pleased at how effective it is :D

Might need to invest in some of this snowfoam stuff though when my other shampoo runs out - mainly because it looks like fun, but also for it's cleaning power of course!

I bought 5 litres of Snowfoam from http://cleanandshiny.co.uk/. Not sure how much to use but it covered my 250 in a snowy white blanket with about 25 mm depth of concentrate in the lance bottle. Haven't fiddled too much with the mix, could be I'm using it at full strength as it was quite difficult to rinse off, especially where the foam got into the panel lines. The wheels needed agitation too because as usual the fronts were black with dust. I use a 60mm wide brush with 100mm long pure bristle for those.

[Jiberjaber]

Tango - take a look in the link in this thread about the foam lance there are details in there about dilution.... you might not have it dilute enough and actualy be stripping any wax / protection you have on there off the car paint!

[Tango]

Tango - take a look in the link in this thread about the foam lance there are details in there about dilution.... you might not have it dilute enough and actualy be stripping any wax / protection you have on there off the car paint!

I guarantee the wax is still on there ...the dilution is set by the mixing valve on the lance which regulates how much Snowfoam is siphoned by the water from the pressure washer. It's impossible to spray concentrate on its own. The Snowfoam isn't a detergent so shouldn't remove the wax, although I wouldn't want to use the concentrate at full strength. My Karcher lance is one of these, not the £14.99 job from Halfrauds (although I doubt there's much of a difference).