# Autofoam v Touchless Comparison



## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

So recently not managed to clean the car as I would wish due to work commitments and then snow/ice hindering my weekends.

As a result car is looking like this, it frustrates me but always looking to the positives it seems a good canvas to test and compare the cleaning power of Autofoam and Touchless.



Now I'm expecting my delivery tommorow having immediately placed an order upon release however unfortunately work will be taking me out of the country until Friday, however the trip to Heathrow does bring with it 350 miles of additional winter grit and grime build up. Which will only help comparisons.

In addition to this, I have a silver van that has been parked up since September, zero winter grime but has developed a wonderful patina of algae and moss, so 2 entirely different test scenarios. Although the silver paintwork hides it well this hasn't been cleaned in 18 months.

Happy to do half the car in Autofoam and half in Touchless on both vehicles to provide a side by side comparison.

If of interest please post your preferences below and I can undertake the comparison test to best suit the general conscensus Of the forum.

Currently my thoughts are as follows:

4% PIR through Foam lance, although I do have IK Foam Sprayer 2's if that would be preferred. I will use the same foam lance on both vehicles for fairness at the same settings.

Dwell time of 5 minutes?

Apply touch on to see how this varies in application / durability over AF/TL. Happy to do this on my Range Rover as it will show results better. Must stress however it's only got Gyeon wetcoat on it currently which was freshly applied 2 weeks ago at last wash.

Let me know your preferences if it's of interest, gives me something to look forward to for the next few days at least!


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## grunty-motor (Aug 11, 2016)

Foam lance for me - looking forward to this one


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## LeeH (Jan 29, 2006)

In on this!


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## David Herron (Jan 29, 2012)

Sounds good! I usually leave a 10 minute dwell time using my AutoFoam through a lance.

I'm looking forward to viewing any differences in dirt removal between the 2 products!


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## Rappy (Oct 2, 2020)

Foam lance for me :thumb:

I would suggest increase dwell time.


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

Happy to up dwell time to ten mins, I'll take close up photos of the dwell at intervals as well for comparison.

Well the bits arrived just as I'm about to leave the house, I'll update Friday/ Saturday with comparisons &#55357;&#56397;&#55356;&#57339;

I'll review this thread before doing it in case any further preferences &#55357;&#56397;&#55356;&#57339;


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## noorth (Jul 10, 2019)

Great packaging that's for sure. Blue is one of my favorite colors. 

The car doesn't care about the packaging but i do. 

Love to have a 5L container of touchless on my shelf!

Wow 5l of touchless is only 35 canadian! Great value. I can see why its so popular here.

1 liter of reset is like 34 cad here.


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## Johnyb (Feb 5, 2018)

Evolution380 said:


> Happy to up dwell time to ten mins, I'll take close up photos of the dwell at intervals as well for comparison.
> 
> Well the bits arrived just as I'm about to leave the house, I'll update Friday/ Saturday with comparisons ����
> 
> I'll review this thread before doing it in case any further preferences ����


What are them snazzy looking pouches?


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## Kenan (Sep 7, 2015)

50/50 via the foam Lance would be great please. I use AutoFoam in a pump spray but think most will use the Lance. 

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

Will be an interesting read thanks for biting the bullet first!

Visually most snow foams with the help of the pressure washer will remove the worst of the crud, it's the traffic film and road grime beneath the loose dirt that may be the differentiator for more powerful foams such as these. Once wet it's very difficult to capture what's remaining on camera without letting the car dry again, if your other half had any cotton makeup swabs a little swipe on each side would illustrate it a bit better and make the test that bit more objective!

Regardless of the above it'll be an interesting comparison. Would also suggest a little control area (middle of the back of the car) where no foam is applied, just so you can see A) what Auto Foam has removed, B) what Touchless has removed and C) what the PW alone has removed.


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## noorth (Jul 10, 2019)

Kenan said:


> 50/50 via the foam Lance would be great please. I use AutoFoam in a pump spray but think most will use the Lance.
> 
> Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk


Thats a lot more product that is typically used on this side of the pond.

Interesting. Very expensive though if your using carpro lift for instance.

I'm going to play around with carpro lift and carpro muilt-x mixed together when i get home. Going to start at just %10 product and test a few areas. The car will be very dirty.


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## Kenan (Sep 7, 2015)

noorth said:


> Thats a lot more product that is typically used on this side of the pond.
> 
> Interesting. Very expensive though if your using carpro lift for instance.
> 
> I'm going to play around with carpro lift and carpro muilt-x mixed together when i get home. Going to start at just %10 product and test a few areas. The car will be very dirty.


I meant 50/50 on the car  I wasn't very clear to be fair.

However 50/50 in my Lance works out as 4% PIR so so was right lol

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

atbalfour said:


> Will be an interesting read thanks for biting the bullet first!
> 
> Visually most snow foams with the help of the pressure washer will remove the worst of the crud, it's the traffic film and road grime beneath the loose dirt that may be the differentiator for more powerful foams such as these. Once wet it's very difficult to capture what's remaining on camera without letting the car dry again, if your other half had any cotton makeup swabs a little swipe on each side would illustrate it a bit better and make the test that bit more objective!
> 
> Regardless of the above it'll be an interesting comparison. Would also suggest a little control area (middle of the back of the car) where no foam is applied, just so you can see A) what Auto Foam has removed, B) what Touchless has removed and C) what the PW alone has removed.


Yes I'll do some swab tests in line with the above good Input 👍🏻 The boot will probably be the best test area it's filthy!


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

So eventually here is my comparison apologies for the delay! The images are edited with text for my ease of upload, please note 'post Autowash rinse' close up on the lower quarter should be 'post Autofoam rinse'. Apologies I'm uploading from mobile so will be some terrible English. A couple of images are out of place but the text on each image should help with this.

Hope this of use to people.

So today I did a 50/50 test Autofoam vs Touch-Less on my filthy Range Rover. Both at 4% PIR and ten minute dwell time.

For ease I have edited pictures with info.

The swabs show the results, taken from the boot. Visually I couldn't tell a difference on the car and muck in the foam on the floor looked similar. One thing I would say is that there were specs of grit on lower panels which I don't normally experience to the degree I did today when I Surfex and then Autofoam also noticeable difference of brake dust and crap left on wheels / arches compared to when I Surfex and then AF. 
This was present on both sides so maybe Touch-Less works well with Surfex also. The car has around 800 motorway miles of grit and grime considering that the cleaning power of both impressed me. I imagine certain types of soilage touch-less and Autofoam have their strengths but without testing other scenarios I don't know, Autofoam appears to show a little less grime on the swab however as I have 5 litre of both I'll use them both happily but alongside Surfex on lower panels, wheels and arch liners for best results for me personally.


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## noorth (Jul 10, 2019)

Are you pre-rinsing before foam? 

Looks great! I might take a few pictures when i do mine!


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

noorth said:


> Are you pre-rinsing before foam?
> 
> Looks great! I might take a few pictures when i do mine!


No straight on to dry car as I wanted to ensure PIR remained at 4% for both products. That's why there was the delay the car was wet until today but by 1pm it was as dry as a bone.


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

Thanks for doing this.

Interesting results, appear to be very similar products in terms of performance so far. 

In my experience 10 mins is completely unnecessary for Auto Foam, 5-6 mins max otherwise it and the dirt starts to dry out and it's diminishing returns from that point on. BH recommend 5


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

atbalfour said:


> Thanks for doing this.
> 
> Interesting results, appear to be very similar products in terms of performance so far.
> 
> In my experience 10 mins is completely unnecessary for Auto Foam, 5-6 mins max otherwise it and the dirt starts to dry out and it's diminishing returns from that point on. BH recommend 5


I usually do 5 as the first post as I like to follow manufacturer recommendations especially BH.

Increased dwell time was requested, I think it was useful to see the difference in dwells over the two products for the longer period hence the requests.


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## grunty-motor (Aug 11, 2016)

not seeing much of a difference - if anything, the Autofoam swab is a tad cleaner?


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

grunty-motor said:


> not seeing much of a difference - if anything, the Autofoam swab is a tad cleaner?


Yep! Not sure if soilage types / seasonal muck may change that but a combination of Surfex at 10% to lower panels, wheels and arch liners with AUtofoam through foam lance is still the best pre wash for me in these winter months. I did miss the Surfex during this wash especially on wheel arch liners etc as they are a carpet type material and they were still grubby which they aren't usually after Surfex.

I'll be using the Touch-Less and Touch-On solely on an u protected car with lots of algae on it next weekend, see how that does.

I'm sure Autofoam / Touch-Less will have their own strengths given the right scenarios but in this comparison there wasn't a deal in it and Autofoam pipped it based on the swab.


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## Rappy (Oct 2, 2020)

Evolution380 said:


> I usually do 5 as the first post as I like to follow manufacturer recommendations especially BH.
> 
> Increased dwell time was requested, I think it was useful to see the difference in dwells over the two products for the longer period hence the requests.


As we are in winter, chances of drying are slim.

Thanks for doing this :thumb:


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

Rappy said:


> As we are in winter, chances of drying are slim.
> 
> Thanks for doing this :thumb:


Certainly, It was 2 degrees. You can tell on the ten minute dwell it's still not drying in these conditions certainly didn't create any issues for me. Good to show the dwell as it looks like Autofoam works a little longer in these conditions. 10 min dwell was a good call for this comparison.

Glad it was ten mins also as I had to then empty the Autofoam into another vessel, clean out the lance and replace with Touch-Less. The extra time was a godsend, especially against the clock to get photo's etc.


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## atbalfour (Aug 11, 2019)

Evolution380 said:


> Certainly, It was 2 degrees. You can tell on the ten minute dwell it's still not drying in these conditions certainly didn't create any issues for me. Good to show the dwell as it looks like Autofoam works a little longer in these conditions. 10 min dwell was a good call for this comparison.
> 
> Glad it was ten mins also as I had to then empty the Autofoam into another vessel, clean out the lance and replace with Touch-Less. The extra time was a godsend, especially against the clock to get photo's etc.


The point is being missed.. great for the purposes of this test because now we know that the manufacturers guidance of up to 5 mins (for both product) is plenty based on your photo. :lol:


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## Evolution380 (Dec 21, 2020)

atbalfour said:


> The point is being missed.. great for the purposes of this test because now we know that the manufacturers guidance of up to 5 mins (for both product) is plenty based on your photo. :lol:


I know where you're coming from, 5 mins seems to have worked fine for me but it's a learning curve for me also to know It's not overly detrimental in these conditions to give it a few more mins so I can get around all the wheels etc as I'm still working on efficiencies.

Kind of dreading summer when I need to be a lot more efficient with pre wash and contact wash to prevent it drying, plenty of practice before I have warmth to worry about I suppose!


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