Best snow foams 2024
We see who cleans up with this latest car care must-have
It’s no exaggeration to say that snow foam has revolutionised the way we care for our cars. It has grown from being a professional-only product into something that most keen DIY car cleaners will use. These products should make life easier by providing a pre-wash. But a good snow foam will also help prevent damage to your car’s precious paint finish by removing dirt before it has a chance to get swirled around the car when you touch it with a sponge or washing mitt.
The growth in this market means that we now have our biggest test ever, with 19 snow foams being put through their paces. Most of them are designed to be applied by an attachment on a pressure washer, but some foams can also be applied by hand or with a pump spray.
How we tested them:
For this test, the points were weighted heavily in favour of overall cleaning power. This was assessed by squirting 50ml of the solutions at the dilution rate suggested in each maker’s instructions onto grimy panels, and then removing the snow foam with a jet washer. Products with simple instructions for dilution rates picked up extra points.
We then also applied each snow foam using a pressure washer to see how they foamed and clung to the panels. While we preferred a strong foam and clinging action that helped us to see where we had treated the car, it was considered less important than the ability to remove dirt.
Finally, we put the figures into a spreadsheet to work out the cost of an average 250ml wash, and used the results to calculate a value-for-money score.
Reviews:
Halfords Advanced Snow Foam
- Price: Around £11
- Size: 2.5 litres
- Website: halfords.com
- Rating: 5 stars
Halfords’ new Advanced range might not be the bargain basement price that you’d expect from an own-brand product, but the cost per wash is still only 18p, making it the third cheapest snow foam in this test.
The instructions suggest an easy-to-gauge 1:5 dilution ratio. This produced a slightly watery layer of foam when fed through the pressure washer, but it did cling to the surface of the paint. However, what surprised us was the foam’s cleaning ability. After rinsing, the Halfords patch was noticeably better than those of its rivals’.
Bilt-Hamber Touch-Less
- Price: Around £10
- Size: 1 litre
- Website: bilthamber.com
- Rating: 4.5 stars
Bilt-Hamber did well based on its cleaning ability in our last test, but it failed to get on the podium because rivals looked better value for money.
Bilt-Hamber now has a concentrated version that is more than twice the strength and works out far cheaper per wash. But it takes a while to figure out the instructions to get the right mix. Despite the extra dilution, the healthy foam and cleaning ability are the same as they were before.
Duel Assault
- Price: Around £10
- Size: 500ml
- Website: duelautocare.co.uk
- Rating: 4 stars
If you want to take pictures of your car covered in foam for Instagram or have ever wondered what it would look like painted white, then get yourself a bottle of Assault.
It is a small container but is concentrated, so it only needs to be diluted at a suggested ratio of 50:450ml, and still produces a thick, clinging foam that melts off dirt. It missed a higher placing based on price: the cost per wash is triple that of Halfords’ foam.
Angelwax Fast Foam
- Price: Around £12.50
- Size: 1 litre
- Website: angelwax.co.uk
- Rating: 4 stars
It’s not the cheapest product, but Angelwax’s Fast Foam has a suggested dilution rate of 1:9, which means it costs a reasonable 31p per wash.
The soap blanket is easily visible and has a decent cling, but it’s suggested you leave it to dwell for 10 minutes. That could be frustrating if you’re in a hurry, but the result is an exceptional cleaning ability that matched Halfords’ foam. It would be on the podium if it was faster acting and cheaper.
Sonax Actifoam
- Price: Around £14.50
- Size: 1 litre
- Website: sonax.co.uk
- Rating: 4 stars
The winner of the last snow- foam test has slipped down the charts this year, despite falling in price by £1.70, making the cost of a wash 35p. Sonax says you could cut that cost in half by doubling the dilution if your car isn’t too dirty, but we used the higher 1:10 ratio in our tests.
It makes a decent foam that smells strongly of a popular energy drink. While it cleaned well, it couldn’t quite match the Halfords or Angelwax.
Autoglym Polar Blast
- Price: Around £24
- Size: 2.5 litres
- Website: autoglym.com
- Rating: 3.5 stars
Polar Blast is one of an innovative collection of three products that are meant to take you from the snow foam pre-wash to shampoo and finally a wash/wax treatment.
We tried Polar Blast at the suggested 1:5 concentration, which makes the cost per wash a reasonable 39p. The snow foam is satisfyingly lively, but it quickly dies away, although the cleaning performance was still strong.
Gyeon Q2M Foam
- Price: Around £15.50
- Size: 1 litre
- Website: cleanandshiny.co.uk
- Rating: 3.5 stars
Gyeon’s classy-looking bottle goes some way to making its steep price more palatable. It costs 65p a wash when mixed at the suggested 1:5 ratio, which makes it the most expensive in the top 10 and the third priciest on test.
It clawed back points with a strong cleaning performance and the healthy amount of foam produced when used with a lance. The pH-neutral formula means any existing coatings will be safe too.
Dodo Juice iFoam Max
- Price: Around £17
- Size: 1 litre
- Website: dodojuice.com
- Rating: 3 stars
It might look pricey, at £17 for a one-litre bottle, but you can make Dodo Juice’s iFoam go far. The suggested dilution rates are between 1:9 and 1:19, and at the weaker end it will challenge the best-value rivals here for cost per wash.
We were impressed by the thick foam’s cleaning ability, but were wary of leaving iFoam to dwell for too long, because it’s not pH neutral and will strip off waxes and coatings, and could damage trim.
Alchemy Whitewash
- Price: Around £13
- Size: 1 litre
- Contact: alchemycarcare.co.uk
- Rating: 3 stars
Instead of giving an exact mix ratio, Alchemy simply tells you to add an inch of the liquid to the water in your pressure washer’s snow foam bottle, which will result in all sorts of different mixes. In our case, it worked out at about 1:10, which makes it reasonable value.
While the resulting foam didn’t seem to cling, Alchemy Whitewash was actually near the top of the chart when it came to cleaning power.
Squid Ink Alkafroth
- Price: Around £10
- Size: 500ml
- Website: squidinkdetailing.co.uk
- Rating: 3.5 stars
We expected Alkafroth to pack a cleaning punch, because it’s alkaline-based and should dissolve dirt. It will also remove oily coatings, which is good for getting rid of grime, but not so desirable if you’ve got a protective layer of wax.
Even at Squid Ink’s weakest suggested dilution of 1:20, it created a thick clingy foam, but the cleaning performance in our tests was below that of pH-neutral products, which won’t harm any coatings.
Also tested:
|
Car Gods Arctic Storm |
Diamondbrite Ceramic Blast |
|
CarPlan Demon Foam |
Gliptone Foam Blizzard |
|
Liquid Tech Premium |
Mothers Triple Action Foam Wash |
|
Pure Definition Ultra Wash |
Simoniz Snow Foam |
|
ValetPro Snow Foam Combo 2 |
Now read our list of the best snow foam lances...
