# Snow foam lance



## Shanusascarabus (May 1, 2014)

Hi... as I'm on a phone the search function isn't working and I can't find much on lance recommendations at all.
Could you lovely people please help me out and recommend a good lance as I'm guessing this is as important as the actual snow foam.

Thankyou


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## fatdazza (Dec 29, 2010)

Shanusascarabus said:


> Hi... as I'm on a phone the search function isn't working and I can't find much on lance recommendations at all.
> Could you lovely people please help me out and recommend a good lance as I'm guessing this is as important as the actual snow foam.
> 
> Thankyou


Pretty much all the same. Cheap ones from the bay work perfectly well. The lance is not as important as the foam.


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## sMiLEy sLOth (Jun 12, 2018)

I'd personally avoid the cheaper karcher one. It's a bit flimsy and doesn't really foam up very well.

The brass ones are really good and pretty much all the same. If I didn't already own one I'd probably get this one:

https://www.in2detailing.co.uk/snow...th-full-brass-internals-various-fittings.html

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk


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## sMiLEy sLOth (Jun 12, 2018)

fatdazza said:


> Pretty much all the same. Cheap ones from the bay work perfectly well. The lance is not as important as the foam.


I half agree with this. As long as the fittings are metal you'll be fine

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk


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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

Search facility in the site isn't great you're better using Google. The site search facility will work on a phone but you need to go into advanced search.

Here's a search on Google for pages on here I searched via my phone :thumb:

If I remember correctly the in2detailing one that smiley posted a link to was positively reviewed.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bes...os1kKHV_8CXIQrQIoBDAAegQIBhAK&biw=360&bih=560


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## OvEr_KiLL (Mar 2, 2015)

in2detailing lance is cheap and great, make sure to put ptfe tape around the adapter joint


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## Shanusascarabus (May 1, 2014)

Ah amazing... thanks for the replies guys.... so any will do, but preferably a brass fitting lance, in particular the in2detailing one.... I'll go take a look on Amazon


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## Shanusascarabus (May 1, 2014)

Ok, just to update I went with a ICOCO lance from Amazon... it was only £14... I paid more for the actual foam ( Bilt Hamber Autofoam ) at £17 for 5L
Once it arrives its experiment time....i'm a Snowfoam virgin


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## garycha (Mar 29, 2012)

Most important thing is to actually maintain the lance. 

This means flushing thru with clean water after use, and then occasionally stripping it down, checking filter and cleaning internals from build up.


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## Shanusascarabus (May 1, 2014)

garycha said:


> Most important thing is to actually maintain the lance.
> 
> This means flushing thru with clean water after use, and then occasionally stripping it down, checking filter and cleaning internals from build up.


Ah great, thanks for the tip matey


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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

garycha said:


> Most important thing is to actually maintain the lance.
> 
> This means flushing thru with clean water after use, and then occasionally stripping it down, checking filter and cleaning internals from build up.


This is potentially one of the negatives of the cheaper lances.

I bought mine from polished bliss a number of years ago (too many to actually remember) it gets used on average 3 to 4 times a month and I've never had any issues with it. I don't flush it after use as generally I've still got snowfoam left in my bottle and I've never stripped it or changed the filter.

Maybe I'm just lucky but I'm onto my second power washer but still on my first lance :thumb: only thing I've changed or renewed was the connection as I went from karcher to nilfisk.

I do agree with your comment though it's a good idea to flush it regularly and clean the filter.


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## robj20 (Jan 20, 2009)

Having just got a pressure washer i thought i would give foam a go seeing as everyone raves about it. I'm hoping i can use it in between proper washes to get the majority of muck off, i do a lot of miles so it soon gets dirty.

Went with the cleanyourcar lance and BH Auto Foam, hope its a decent foam.


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## Croques (Jan 25, 2017)

There are some lances, in part anodized aluminium and gold coloured to fool you, that corrode quite quickly. Sam's Detailing - i'm talking about yours.

Mixed metals in contact with a fluid leads to corrosion.

Plastic bodied lances are a good bet if the water passage is through stainless steel. 

(Why is this site's spell checker using US English???!!!! it wants me to spell aluminium aluminum and coloured colored FFS)


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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

Croques said:


> (Why is this site's spell checker using US English???!!!! it wants me to spell aluminium aluminum and coloured colored FFS)


Ive never had that problem surely it's your device rather than the site?

Aluminium and coloured :thumb:


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## hardyd44 (Mar 31, 2014)

garycha said:


> Most important thing is to actually maintain the lance.
> 
> This means flushing thru with clean water after use, and then occasionally stripping it down, checking filter and cleaning internals from build up.


+1 - very important


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## Croques (Jan 25, 2017)

macca666 said:


> Ive never had that problem surely it's your device rather than the site?
> 
> Aluminium and coloured :thumb:


 Using FireFox; it reports spell checking as English GB.

Using Linux as OS; it reports English (United Kingdom) as the current language and English UK as the region.


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## Shanusascarabus (May 1, 2014)

So I got my stuff through and gave it a quick test yesterday..... it wasnt as "sticky foamy" as I thought though so I was wondering if I was doing something wrong....
I used Bilt hamber snowfoam neat... and to do two cars I used about half Litre of the foam... does that sound about right ??
Also I think I have read of people diluting this with hot water from a tap... is this correct ??
I'll have a good look around but hoping for a direct reply here.
Just to add... I found it cleaned the cars quite well even though it was runny..... but i was rinsing it off forever... everytime i went back over a section there were suds ?

Told you I was a snow foam virgin


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## danwel (Feb 18, 2007)

Shanusascarabus said:


> Ok, just to update I went with a ICOCO lance from Amazon... it was only £14... I paid more for the actual foam ( Bilt Hamber Autofoam ) at £17 for 5L
> Once it arrives its experiment time....i'm a Snowfoam virgin


Just had a look at that and it looks the same as the in2detalling one


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## Atkinson91 (Oct 3, 2016)

Shanusascarabus said:


> So I got my stuff through and gave it a quick test yesterday..... it wasnt as "sticky foamy" as I thought though so I was wondering if I was doing something wrong....
> I used Bilt hamber snowfoam neat... and to do two cars I used about half Litre of the foam... does that sound about right ??
> Also I think I have read of people diluting this with hot water from a tap... is this correct ??
> I'll have a good look around but hoping for a direct reply here.
> ...


Bilt hamber isn't a thick foam, in fact contrary to belief, the thicker the foam the worse it cleans - some foams are just that, foam, they don't provide any cleaning action at all. Bilt hamber uses some clever stuff in their chems and it's probably the best foam on the market, or at the very least it's in the top 3.

Sounds like you used way too much if you used it neat in the bottle.... The manufacture reccomend a panel impact concentration of 4%.

You'll need to know the flow rate of your pressure washer then (correct me if I'm wrong) divide that flow rate figure by 0.04, that will give you the amount of snow foam to put in the 1litre bottle, then fill it with water, I normally put around 350ml of auto foam in my bottle and that's good for 4-5 cars at 4% roughly

No need to use hot water in a lance, it immediently gets cooled when mains water from the pressure washer mixes with it. You can certainly used warm water in a pump sprayer though, and that's my preferred method of using auto foam, makes less of a mess and I use less product.:thumb:

As for the ever lasting suds - did any dry on the panel before you got back round to rinsing it off? I've never had a problem with rinsing it off unless it's been a bit to warm and it's caught me out. Give everything a good thorough rinse after using it


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## archjuh (Jun 2, 2018)

Shanusascarabus said:


> So I got my stuff through and gave it a quick test yesterday..... it wasnt as "sticky foamy" as I thought though so I was wondering if I was doing something wrong....
> I used Bilt hamber snowfoam neat... and to do two cars I used about half Litre of the foam... does that sound about right ??
> Also I think I have read of people diluting this with hot water from a tap... is this correct ??
> I'll have a good look around but hoping for a direct reply here.
> ...


BH auto foam is supposed to be diluted at 4% with water and hot water activates a bit more suds but can be mixed with cold instead and still works well. I don't think auto foam goes very "sticky" in any case, it's supposed to flow off the surface taking the dirt off with it. I find car shampoos that are sticky work better as lubrication for hand washing after pre wash has taken most of the loose dirt off the surface.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk


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## Shanusascarabus (May 1, 2014)

Thanks again for the replies... so sounds like it acted pretty much as it should have but I used way too much as I put it neat in the bottle ?


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## olliewills (Feb 10, 2017)

As said, BHAF is not that foamy but is one of the best in terms of cleaning power. You almost certainly used way too much if you put it in the lance neat. BHAF is safe on LSP up to about 10% if i recall correctly and it's a good bet you went over that so I'd advise working out the PIR properly before you do it again. 

the most economical (and least messy) way of applying BHAF is with a hand pump sprayer. 40ml per litre of warm water and a 2 litre sprayer should cover most hatchbacks and estates with ease.


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## danwel (Feb 18, 2007)

Don’t get too worried about the dilution. Just put about an inch in btttom and top up with water or half that and half of bottle and you’ll be fine


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