Anyone have a decent one for a reasonable i.e. cheap price that they can recommend? I have the basic Karcher one but that seems to add too much water. Obviously it will also need to be connected to a Karcher pressure washer.
Personally I can only speak of the karcher lance and prokleen lance https://www.hygienesuppliesdirect.c...patible-with-a-wide-range-of-pressure-washers Foam comes out much thicker with the prokleen, and it should! on max product to water ratio it runs at 1:10!. haven't measured the karcher but I think at max its 1.5-2 times the ratio ie 1:15 - 1:20. At 1:10 it really easy to work out the amount of product to achieve the required dilution. I have spare bottles to keep different products in. In hind sight I would have bought the wide neck version as it allows easier pouring of product into bottle and less tendency to fall over
If you haven't already get an upgraded hose too, I've got a 15m rubber hose with a swivel adaptor now I dont have to continuously drag the unit around and it self unkinks. 20m is better but unwieldy to unwind.
I've just recently got the Pro / wide neck version as above. I dont know what im doing when it comes to setting it up etc but it creates a fairly decent foam considering I'm only using a karcher k2.
As above, the Pro Kleen Lance is grat (compared to the stock Karcher one). I use a standard Karcher K2 with the Pro Kleen foam lance above. I can never seem to get that super thick foam which stays on the bike for ages though. If I recall correctly, The Pamphlet which comes with the lance suggests 1/10th Snow Foam diluted with 9/10's hot water. I tried this and though it was better than the Karcher Lance, I found it still ran off very quickly. I typically use around 1/2 - 2/3rd's snow foam to 1/2 -1/3 Hot water. There is no exact science and I don't measure, just pour by sight. Still not the super thick stuff but thick enough for me to go around the whole bike with a set of brushes. I had 2 litres of the Pro Kleen Foam included with mine and it was ok. I now use Carplan Snow Foam, Halfords sell it in store in 5 litre bottles but I got a 20L trade size bottle for £22 from Euro Car Parts on Ebay. I don't think I'm even half way through and I've had it over a year. I wash a bike on average every 2-3 weeks and a car every 3 months ish. Happy with it and would happily buy again when the time comes.
I tried mixing with hot water at 50 50 but it wasnt great. As an experiment I tried it without diluting and had the dial open only a fraction and it was loads better. Still not creamy thick but thick enough to sit on the car for a good 5 mins. This is using bilt hamber green gloop.
I've not used many snow foams but Autoglym Snow blast and Gtecniq W1 are dilluted to about 200ml in the bottle and both produce really thick foam, easily hang on the bike for several minutes and literally hours on the driveway, get loads of comments from neighbours!. Normally I have to dial down the foam. Bilt Hamber Autofoam is used at twice that concentration! 440ml in the bottle, the foam is really weak but the cleaning power is second to none!
BH should be used at around 4% PIR, in the prokleen that between 400-500ml in the litre bottle( but in mine at 1:10 its 440ml), BH sadly isn't as impressive as others in the thickness scores but it does clean very well. I've been experimenting as the usage is quite high/wasteful. So recently I been applying BH with a pressure sprayer at 4% letting dwell for a minute then covering in AG snow blast - results seem to be quite good. Have to add Gtechniq snow foam is not effective at all, I guess it is designed for Ceramic coats which do not require such a strong cleaning foam
Thanks for the info. Sadly it may have to wait a while as the pressure washer seems to have developed an oil leak. I did notice it the other day but put it down to me not noticing some spilt oil after changing the filter etc on the bike, but just went to check the exact model number and there was more oil there again. It's about 10 years old and had a pretty easy life so hoping I can get it apart and see what has failed, I would guess a seal/o-ring
Well I have had it apart and despite what the doom sayers of the internet proclaim you can actually get parts for Karcher washers. Ordered myself some new piston seals, o-ring and a spare capacitor as I know they can decay with age so thought I may as replace it whilst I have everything apart. Also emailed Karcher to see what oil I need, google would tend to suggest 10-30 but a useful youtube I found said to be careful as they used different types in different models/years.
Well I only managed to go and fix the blooming thing Have ordered the Pro-Kleen lance, thanks for the recommendation. Got the 1st one as it definitely works with my washer. @Slick where did you get the replacement hose from, my google-foo must be depleted as I can't find one with a swivel?
it was one of these but they now seem to be sold out. https://www.directhoses.net/collect...-longlife-hose-quick-fit-anti-kink-connection I bought the blue version of the hose at 15m but 20m will allow you to easily walk around the car
Thanks, will see what happens after lockdown. Don't need one particularly long as I never wash the car
