A Foam Cannon that I had been using for several years recently broke and unfortunately was no longer usable. I knew I had to find myself a replacement, as I really do like to incorporate the snow foaming process in my cleaning regime.

If you have read my blog post on “Everything you need to know about snow foam”, you are aware of the many benefits of snow foaming your car before you complete a hand wash.

Rip Off!

I immediately went to a couple of local retailers as I wanted to pick one up fairly quickly, and I could not believe my eyes when I saw the price they were charging for these foam cannons ( I wanted one I could use with my pressure washer ).

The prices of these Foam guns were STARTING at about €50 and ranging all the way up to €75!

I know the detailing scene here in Ireland has grown a bit in recent years, and there is definitely more of an interest in these types of products, but I cannot believe that some of these retailers are charging this much for what is essentially a plastic bottle with an attachment for a pressure washer? The materials alone must cost only a very very tiny fraction, and in my opinion, there is no reason to be charging that much for such a simple product.

To See Some of my recommended Foam Cannons for detailing – you can check them out HERE

Cheap Foam Cannon

This got me thinking. I know there are many Chinese retail sites selling these types of products for incredibly cheap prices, so I decided to go have a look for myself at what they had on offer. I must say I was very impressed with what I found.

The range of foam cannons they had on offer was pretty large, and the prices were unbelievably cheap, even compared to foam cannons you can buy on Amazon. ( Some of them looked pretty much the same as the ones for sale elsewhere except for having a different label on the bottle )

I thought to myself that this is surely worth a try, for the price it was pretty much unbeatable and if it turned out to be of a half-decent quality it would have been a worthwhile experiment, and I would have myself a new foam cannon.

I decided to go for it! The only thing putting me off was the long delivery time of up to 6 weeks ( I could pay extra for quicker shipping but decided I would go with the free option and make do without a foam cannon for a couple of washes )

The one I decided to buy was this one here. My main reason for going for this particular one is that it comes ready to use with the entire range of Karcher Pressure Washers. ( I have a Karcher so didn’t want to be messing around with adapters etc, so I was looking for something plug and play ).

Cheap Foam Cannon Price

The cost of this Foam Gun was about €15 ( Roughly $17 ), so it was exceptionally cheap compared to anything I could find local to me. I must say I was slightly worried about the quality since it was so cheap, but decided that at that price it was worth the risk.

So I waited patiently for a couple of weeks for my foam cannon to arrive ( One thing I did notice was that I was not able to track it on the website, once it left China it seemed to go into Limbo and didn’t hear any more about it until it arrived at the door )

The order took about 5 weeks to arrive which wasn’t too bad in my opinion – especially for something that was shipped for free out of China.

On First Inspection the package looked in pretty good shape and didn’t look like it had taken too much of a beating in transport. ( I’m glad because trying to get a replacement would have taken another 5 weeks I would imagine )

The contents of the package were the bare minimum, there was a Snow Foam Lance, A Bottle, Some Tape and an instruction leaflet which were not that clear ( or maybe it was just me! )

After a quick 5 minute assembly, it was ready to go!

Initial Impressions

Initial impressions were actually pretty damn good if I’m honest, the quality was way better than I expected for such a cheap product. If I gave this to any of my friends and asked them how much it costs, I can bet not one of them would have said €15.

I think anyone would have a hard time distinguishing this from any other foam cannon you can buy in a shop at a much higher price. ( I’m guessing a lot of these companies just buy these products in Bulk from China and Re-Label and Brand them.

Obviously, appearances alone are not enough to go on, so it was time to put it to the test and see how this cheap foam cannon performs in the real world

Cheap Foam Cannon Test

So the weekend quickly rolled around and it was time to test out my new foam cannon. I was intrigued to see how it would perform. Luckily we got a dry day in Ireland ( for once ), so it was time to break it out.

 

To test out the foam cannon I decided to pair it up with Gtechniq Citrus Foam for its first use. I filled the bottle up to the Marker Provided on the bottle with the snow foam solution, and the rest with water.

A couple of quick shakes and it was mixed and ready to use.

Connecting the Snow Foam Cannon to the Karcher Pressure Washer was an absolute breeze with no fiddling or adjusting required. ( Pretty much what I was expecting from what I read, but I’m glad that was the case)

Cheap Foam – Is it Worth it?

I have to say I was massively surprised at how well this Foam Cannon Performed when testing it out. It was a breeze to use. When I first switched it on, the stream of foam was going in all directions and I thought to myself “Oh here we go….”, but it turned out I just didn’t have to nozzle adjusted correctly. ( My own fault )

After a bit of playing around with the settings, it seemed to work great. Seemed to cover the car nicely with very little effort.

The Foam was not the thickest but I put that down to a very small amount of the Citrus Foam Solution I used, and also my pressure washer isn’t the most powerful. However, it did the job fine and I was happy with the result. 

As you can see it covered the car in a nice layer of foam, and actually did quite a good job. Very little agitation was required when using this product, and I was left with a clean car with very little effort at all.

Do Cheap Foam Cannons Work?

In this case, it seems they certainly do! Much to my surprise, the quality is pretty good and it does as it says on the tin. I don’t know how long it will last but for the price, it cost me I’m sure I will be able to buy a few more if needs be, it would still work out cheaper than if I had to pay some of those crazy prices that I saw here. I think it was a worthwhile experiment and I will definitely be telling my friends and fellow car cleaning enthusiasts about this great deal.

Do any of my readers have foam cannons? If so, I would like to hear from you in the comments on how much you paid for yours, and if you think it was worth the price.

Until Next Time,

Happy Detailing

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About the Author – Darren O Hara

Darren is the founder of the DriveDetailed blog and is a keen detailing enthusiast living in the rainy south of Ireland. When he is not cleaning his car he is always researching ways he can improve his techniques and enjoys testing out out new products.

Darren currently drives an Audi TTRS and is a big fan of performance cars.

You can follow Darren on Instagram @darrenoharacork