The TRUTH About Snow Foam...Is It Useless?

So I hear it all the time, or I read it all the time,

rather, in the YouTube comments that, you know,

foam is stupid, you don't need a foam cannon,

it's a waste of soap, it's a waste of money,

it's just theatrics, it doesn't even do anything.

And what's interesting about that to me

is that so many brands focus on, you know,

we've even, on the foam, we've seen so many products,

mega foam, super foam, super mega foam, we, you know,

there's so much emphasis on foam

when it comes to a car wash soap,

but yet there's so many people that say foam is useless.

And so, and for a long time,

I've kind of wrestled with this idea of like,

well, is foam useless, like what is the purpose of foam?

And a lot of people say it's just theatrics,

which if it is, I'm totally fine with,

because sometimes that's needed.

So whether you're trying to grow a detailing business

and you're out in real life getting real clients

and you're trying to draw attention,

I think foam can be a big attention getter.

And then also I think foam is just fun.

And so I think it's fun to foam your car.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine

the other day who runs a little car wash company

and but has kind of worked his way out of the industry.

And then recently got a building,

so he put a pressure washer up on the wall and all that.

And he started foaming cars and he called me,

he's like, this is so much fun.

Like I don't mind washing cars when I'm doing this.

And I'm like, well, yeah, it could be fun.

And then through the dry foam method,

we've talked about how you can eliminate buckets

and kind of make your car washing more efficient.

But I think there's another F that needs to be talked about

and doesn't get talked about enough.

And I've kind of just been thinking around this

and it's interesting because I have a product that does it.

And I just didn't know how to quite articulate it

until more recently is that we need foam to be functional.

So functional foam, I think is actually where it's at.

And so I know people say, oh, foam in a car is useless

and all that, but I really don't think that's true.

I think that when you have functional foam

or foam that is functional, you can take advantage

of having the opportunity to get a lot of attention,

whether that's in real life or on social media

for how well your soap can foam.

But ultimately we're trying to clean the car, right?

And so we need that foam to actually clean.

And this actually stemmed, this whole idea again,

re-stemmed from a comment that I got on YouTube

from a really old Adam's video that I did

probably six years ago and I was comparing their car shampoo

to their a new at the time mega foam, I think it's called.

And the mega foam is red and a little bit runnier.

The car shampoo of course is blue and much thicker,

kind of like a traditional soap.

And the comment that had been kind of a through line

throughout that whole video was like, yeah,

but which one cleans better?

And I think that is such an important question

because for a consumer or someone who's kind of just looking

for a car wash soap, they want something that cleans.

Us as the detailer, we're obsessed with foam

and how much it foams.

I've seen new versions of products

and it says, well, even more foam.

It's like, okay, even if you have foam,

if that foam isn't doing anything, then what is the point?

And that is the problem.

And I think why we got to this theatrical foam

is that most pH neutral soaps,

they're designed to be like lubricious or slick

for when your mitt slides across the surface

for creating a lot of foam out of a foam cannon,

like I said, but other than that,

they're not really designed to do anything.

And that's kind of what I realized

when I was trying to develop a soap is like,

well, I wanted to release a soap,

but like what does soap actually do, right?

And so I realized that while pH neutral soap

doesn't really do anything, yes, it does do something.

It looks cool and it makes the surface slicker

for your mitt to glide across the surface

when you're cleaning the car, right?

But again, I started thinking about this whole dry foam

car wash method that I've done a bunch of videos on

where you foam a dry car, you don't do a pre-rinse

or you do a pre-soak before you pre-rinse.

And that kind of came from the idea of like,

does the pre-rinse even do anything?

And I did a video a long, long time ago

on a Wash Kim's soap and I tested it 50-50

and I started to find out that like pre-rinsing with water

doesn't really do anything, right?

And so a pH neutral foam kind of sits there, slides off

and then doesn't really do much, right?

And so the problem is that somehow we've equated

like thick foam to a high quality product,

which I guess that could be true,

but another thing that I'm learning that people do

is they take half truce and then act like it's the full truth.

And so, you know, oh, thicker foam or thicker soap,

oh, you know, it's such thick soap,

that means it's so good, which is just not true, right?

You can add thickener, in fact, you have to add thickener

into the other raw materials that make a soap

because it's kind of water-like consistency.

So when a brand or a company is touting

that their thick soap is better,

that does not mean anything.

Thick soap does not mean anything.

Thin soap does not mean anything.

It's just an attribute of the formula.

It really, you know, end result means nothing.

So that's why I laugh sometimes when people are like,

oh, we, you know, new version, it's thinner.

It's like, okay, so you added less thickener.

It's not really doing anything, right?

What's really hard is to get that soap

in a controlled environment

to clean the surface of the car, right?

So I think that's the big difference

that I've really been wrestling with

and really been thinking of.

And so I think when we talk about like functional foam,

it's foam that's just not sitting there,

but it's actively doing something on the car.

It's breaking down the dirt grime in the road film

and it serves a purpose.

And that's why with the super-soaper,

what I've talked about is like letting it really dwell

on the surface for three to five minutes.

That's why I talk about the dry foam method

where you're foaming a dry carb, not pre-rinsing it

so you're not diluting down that foam

that is hitting the car because that foam is functional.

That foam is serving a purpose.

So when you just foam and rinse,

immediately you're losing all the potential

of what that foam is supposed to do, right?

And so think about the dwell time as the cleaning time.

And this goes into kind of a thesis

or an idea that I have just in general

of being very efficient with the products that you use,

but also not being so taxing on our own body.

I've been detailing for 18 years.

I think I'm actually coming up on my 18th year.

Yeah, in May here.

And so it's a taxing sport.

It's a full contact sport.

And so if we can do things,

if we could let the chemicals do the work for us

and then we physically have to do less, that is much better.

This is a major reason why I am not a huge fan

of rinseless washes.

Do they work?

Yes, can they work?

Yes, I did strictly mobile rinseless washes for five years.

I've done thousands and thousands and thousands of cars

in a rinseless wash method.

O&R, I was a big believer in it, right?

Still am, still like it.

Still use it occasionally.

I think it serves a purpose,

but I just feel like you have to work so hard

for that car wash, like so hard.

And you're not letting,

you're not taking advantage of the technology

in the liquids when you're doing a rinseless wash

because you're having to touch so much,

especially when it comes to rims and tires and wheel wells,

which always seems to get glossed over, right?

And so if you think about it from an energy X,

how much energy you're exerting to get a result,

if you can just foam a car, let the foam do the work.

Again, the dwell time is the cleaning time, right?

Helping you break down that dirt and grime, rinse it away,

and then you have a much cleaner surface

in five minutes compared to rinseless washing

and a bucket and all that,

touching every single part of the car,

that's why I'm not a huge fan of rinseless washes, right?

It's just, you have to exert a ton of energy

to get a result.

Now, of course, there is caveats to everything.

If it's a garage queen, if the car's not that dirty,

if it's maybe the second wash of the week,

or the third wash of the week

and the car's relatively clean,

I'm still saying there is a place for rinseless washes.

I'm just saying for the general consumer,

the person who is washing their car once a month,

you are definitely going to use a lot more energy

and a lot more work for rinseless wash, right?

But again, when you're looking at,

when you're not comparing a functional foam

and a rinseless wash, you're comparing a pH neutral soap

that isn't really doing anything

but making the surface slick

compared to a rinseless wash.

For sure a rinseless wash would be

maybe a little bit more efficient

because that soap really isn't doing much, right?

And so I think this traditional sense

of where we get this of like, well, foam is dumb,

comes from the old school way of washing cars

of like, you rinse, you foam, you have your buckets,

you do a contact wash, whatever, right?

And it's like, well, yeah, what is the foam doing here?

Why is it not clean?

What are we doing?

And so when I think, when we look at kind of the modern take

of how to wash a car, which seems really crazy to me

that we're like reinventing how to wash a car

because it seems so simple.

But what I realized is like that pre-rins

isn't doing anything.

So going straight to a dry foam or foaming a dry car

is much better.

You get no dilution from the rinse water,

you're getting maximal chemical strength.

And again, you're allowing that foam and chemical

to bond to the surface and the more you can let it dwell,

the better it's gonna clean, right?

So the foam starts gripping that contamination instantly

and doing its best to separate it from the surface

of the car because actually that tension of dirt

on the car is actually a really, really hard bond to do.

So, and again, this is kind of a peek into my mindset

of like what I started to think about

when I wanted to develop my own soap.

So I think we really need to start up asking

and looking at like is the soap thick,

how thick is the foam and judging a product

on how thick the foam is or,

and I'm totally guilty of this too, right?

So swiping my hand, oh my gosh, look how thick this foam is.

But if the foam is not cleaning,

if the foam is not functional, who cares, right?

Who cares?

I made the Super Soap Runny

because it's easier to get into a foam cannon, right?

A bucket doesn't really matter if the soap is thick or thin,

but I think the best way and the most fun way

and the most efficient way to wash your car

is with a foam cannon.

And so I made the Super Soap Runny

so that it's easier to get into a foam cannon.

That just made a lot of sense to me.

I made the Super Soap Clean.

That made a lot of sense to me.

I made it foam really well.

That made a lot of sense to me,

but it also served a purpose as well.

So every product is totally surface built, right?

So in my opinion, I don't think foam is just for lubrication.

I don't think foam is just for theatrics.

I think that's an added bonus.

If you could have fun while you're washing your car,

that seems like a smart thing to do, right?

And so I personally do not hold the standpoint

that foam is stupid.

I love foam.

My kids love foam.

They love washing the car with me.

I have to get to use the foam cannon.

So now it becomes a family event

and you're kind of multitasking or habit stacking,

which I'm a huge, huge fan of.

And so I even did that with this video.

We got B-roll playing as I record a podcast.

It's hitting multiple points all at the same time,

which I love.

And so that's what I view foam as the same thing.

I'm recording a podcast and a video at the same time,

using footage.

I am really juicing the lemon, right?

And so when you're using a functional foam

or a car wash soap that serves an actual purpose,

you can hit multiple boxes, check multiple boxes at once,

and not be so exhausted.

You could also use it in Direct Sun.

This old school method too,

I could do a whole another podcast on,

you know, not washing or detailing your car in Direct Sun

is completely just an old thought.

You can, you know, the vast majority of brands,

not just mine, mine for sure,

but the vast majority of brands

you could actually use in Direct Sun, right?

It's just how the industry has evolved, right?

And so the vast majority of products

can be used in Direct Sun.

That was important to me.

It continues to be important to me as a mobile detailer

or background as a mobile detailer.

And so, but yeah, this idea that I'm really starting

to develop over this functional foam,

I think is a very important one

because you get a better result, you get a better,

you get what you're after,

and the foam is serving a purpose.

So it no longer becomes just theatrics and stupid,

it actually serves a real purpose.

So, I don't know.

Let me know, do you like foam?

Do you hate foam?

Do you think foam is the stupidest thing ever?

Do you think it's great?

Let me know your take in the comments below.

I will link all my products below.

Thank you so, thank you for supporting

the Jimbo's Detailing brand.

We're two years strong, into our third year,

rocking and rolling,

and I'm just super stoked to have you guys along

for the ride.

Everyone that tries the products seems to love them,

and so the feedback has been amazing.

So, I will link everything below for my product line

and my functional foam.

So, with that, I'll catch you guys on the next one.

See ya.

The TRUTH About Snow Foam...Is It Useless?

About this episode

foam cannon

car wash soap

dry foam method

dry foam car wash method

pre-rinse

functional foam

dwell time

rinseless wash

garage queen

pH neutral soap

contact wash

surface tension

habit stacking

Direct Sun

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