A pressure washer is one of the single most important purchases you can make when it comes to vehicle detailing. Many people might be hesitant to use a pressure washer to clean the exterior of their car, but with proper practices, they are a safe way to remove heavy dirt and road grime more effectively. Pressure washers remove significant amounts of dirt, before you even touch the surface with soap and a wash mitt, so that you do less scrubbing and have less potential for scratching the finish. Adam explains the benefits of cleaning your car with a pressure washer and why they are so crucial in the video above.

When used properly, a pressure washer and foam cannon combo will add another level of safety to your wash process. Removing dirt from your car with less abrasion is the goal - the less you physically touch the paint with a wash pad, mitt, or other wash accessory during your washing routine, the less chance you will have of causing swirl marks and light scratches. Pressure washers use a motor and pump to send pressurized water through a degreed sprayer tip to clean surfaces. These tips can regulate pressure, as well as change the fan pattern of the water coming out of the pressure washer.

Pressure is determined by water flow rate. The sprayer tips can have different orifice (or opening) sizes. A small orifice will increase pressure and decrease flow rate, and a larger opening will decrease pressure but increase flow rate. This gives you the ability to remove stains out of concrete, strip paint off of wood, or clean your vehicle, depending on which sprayer tip you have installed into your pressure washer wand or Snub Nose Handle. We’ll explain the different sprayer tips more in-depth later in this article.

The second part of the pressure washing equation is a foam cannon. A foam cannon is a wash accessory tool that connects to a pressure washer to dispense a thick soapy foam solution onto your vehicle, adding another layer of safety when washing. High-Pressure water moves through the handle and wand of the pressure washer and then pulls a soap and water mixture from the canister through the barrel of the foam cannon. The soap mixture is agitated by the strainer to spray an unbelievably thick foam. The air intake valve at the top of the foam cannon controls how much soap mixture is drawn from the canister. Opening the valve (+) creates thick foam, while closing the valve (-) can make thin foam or spray water only. The adjustable nozzle on the barrel changes the spray pattern from a jet stream to a wide fan pattern.

The benefit of using a foam cannon is that the thick foam solution covers the entire vehicle surface, clinging to the surface longer to help loosen, encapsulate and lift heavier dirt particles. The thick foam also allows your wash mitt or wash pad to glide over the surface more easily - the more slippery surface means less chance for scratches while washing.

We currently offer two electric pressure washer options - the Pressure Washer 2.0 and the Pro-Series Pressure Washer. At Adam’s Polishes, we strive to offer premium products for detailing every aspect of your vehicle, including accessories, to make the job better, easier, and more enjoyable. We released our first pressure washer in Summer 2019, and it was a quick, eye-opening lesson for us. There were a few issues that most customers pointed out. Reviews of this first pressure washer were very honest, but usually not in a good way. With 20 years of washing experience, we knew we had to do better, so one year later in Summer 2020 we released our Pressure Washer 2.0 to address the shortcomings of the first model. Now we’ll provide an in-depth overview of each model below.

The Adam’s Pressure Washer 2.0 is an excellent option for washing your vehicle, as well as cleaning all around your home and yard, due to its more mobile-friendly design. It has a very solid feel and construction, with large wheels and a retractable handle to easily move it around your vehicle, home, garage, or yard. Weighing less than 35 pounds for the machine only, this pressure washer is great for mobile detailers that may need to move it in and out of their detailing setup to move it closer to a water source. The Pressure Washer 2.0 isn’t just for serious detailers - it is a great choice for those just getting into being more serious about car care and washing vehicles safely and more effectively. Our customers expect quality and performance in our products, and the Pressure Washer 2.0 is no exception. It is a step up from less expensive, entry-level electric pressure washers found online or at home improvement stores, while still at an affordable price given all of the features.

Our R&D team used years of testing experience, as well as customer feedback, to work with the manufacturer to provide the Pressure Washer 2.0 with several benefits to vehicle cleaning, while addressing issues and making improvements from our previous version. There are several design benefits to the machine itself:

• 1700PSI operating pressure and 1.4GPM provide plenty of output for large amounts of foam when using a foam cannon
• Brass fitting for the water hose connection on the bottom front
• 3/8" male quick disconnect fitting on the back side for the high pressure line
• 35-foot power cord with GFCI and cord management system on the side of the machine for no strain when storing the power cord
• Durable 40-foot braided stainless hose with 3/8" quick disconnect fittings at each end to connect to the back side of the pressure washer and the included Snub Nose Handle
• Quiet motor, operating at approx. 68dB running and 82dB when spraying
• Large wheels and a retractable handle for easy maneuvering
• Secure holster for the optional Swivel Extension Pressure Washer Wand
• Storage for sprayer tips, built into the retractable handle

Like the name implies, our Pro-Series Pressure Washer is a professional-level machine for those looking for one of the best pressure washers on the market for a detail shop, a mobile detail setup, or your home garage. The Pro-Series Pressure Washer is heavy-duty for those who demand more out of their pressure washer. It’s intended to be stationary, or put into one convenient place in your garage or shop. You won’t want to move it around too much anyway - it’s heavy! It weighs in at just over 80 pounds for the machine only, or just under 100 pounds with the included 60-foot braided stainless hose and Snub Nose Handle, so you will want some help when moving it into place to avoid injury. This pressure washer is perfect to set up inside of your garage door and still have plenty of length in the high-pressure line to reach all around your vehicle when washing. It has rubber feet to keep the machine planted and vibrations at a minimum during use. You could mount it into a steel cart if you need it to be mobile, as long as the cart is rated to handle that much weight.

With the Pro-Series Pressure Washer, your wash process will be more effective and enjoyable, and much easier on your ears. It has an ultra-quiet electric motor at around 63 decibels when the motor is running five feet away from you, so you’ll be able to have a conversation without shouting, or use the machine day or night without disturbing the neighbors. When spraying, the noise from the water coming out of the Snub Nose Spray Handle is louder than the machine itself. This pressure washer brings professional performance to the household or shop by operating on a 120 Volt power supply, producing over 1500PSI and 2GPM with the sprayer tips included with the machine. Pressure can increase up to 2500PSI by using sprayer tips with a smaller orifice, sold separately; however the included tips provide safe, usable pressure to effectively blast dirt and debris from your vehicle. These pressure and flow rates are typically only found in much louder gas-powered pressure washers that require more maintenance, or with electric pressure washers that require 220V power.

The Pro-Series Pressure Washer has many other safety and convenience features that you won’t find in most store-bought electric pressure washers. It includes an inline water filter that is removable for easy cleaning, plus a pressure gauge and a pressure adjustment handle to increase or decrease pressure on the fly. It features two operation modes: Auto-Start, where the motor and pump turn on and off with each trigger pull; or Constant-On, where the machine will continue to run until you turn the unit off. A built-in overload protection switch is included as well. The 60-foot braided stainless high-pressure hose is very durable, rated for 4000PSI with 3/8" quick-disconnect fittings at each end for easier storage. The included Snub Nose Handle is small and easy to hold and maneuver with one hand even with a foam cannon attached, rather than a big and bulky wand that becomes heavy and awkward when connecting a foam cannon at the end of the long wand.

Much like pressure washers, there are many foam cannon options available to consumers, with a wide price range. Some are very inexpensive, and their build quality and performance reflect that price - often with soft plastic canisters that suck inward during use and barrels that clog easily or under-perform. Both of our foam cannons are quality choices that offer reliable performance when properly maintained. We’ll take a look at our Standard Foam Cannon and our Premium Foam Cannon below, to help determine which is right for you.

Standard Foam Cannon

The Adam's Standard Foam Cannon is our entry-level foam cannon. The Standard Foam Cannon creates a thick foaming soap that clings onto your vehicle longer than soap from a wash pad and bucket. The longer cling time lets the soap break down contamination, to loosen and encapsulate dirt more easily, which then allows the wash pad or wash mitt to pull the dirt from the surface with less scrubbing and abrasion. For an extra safety step, after rinsing the vehicle with the pressure washer, some detailers will foam a vehicle, let it dwell for a few minutes to loosen dirt, then rinse with the pressure washer again and foam the vehicle a second time, before finally wiping the foamed surface with a wash pad and two bucket wash method. The Standard Foam Cannons pairs with any of our soaps including Mega Foam, Car Shampoo, Strip Wash, Ultra Foam Shampoo, Wash & Wax, and Wash + Coat, though some like Mega Foam and Ultra Foam will perform better in a foam cannon, because they will create thicker foam than the others. The Standard Foam Cannon requires a minimum/maximum of 1.3-5.3 GPM flow and 870-3190 PSI for proper operation, and it works best with warm (not hot) water in the canister. This helps to mix the soap better for the maximum amount of foam.

Premium Foam Cannon

With the Adam’s Premium Foam Cannon, several upgrades are in place when compared to our Standard Foam Cannon. Our Premium Foam Cannon is on the higher end of the price spectrum, for those wanting a customized high-quality unit. In addition to the adjustable fan angle, the barrel has the ability to change the position of the spray pattern from the standard vertical spray for smaller vehicles to a horizontal spray pattern for taller objects like big rigs or even siding on your home or garage, or anything in between. The barrel has a pull-pin for easy disassembly and cleaning of the internals when necessary. The barrel is also stainless steel to prevent corrosion, with a 1/4" male quick connect fitting that works perfectly with the Snub Nose Handle of either of our pressure washers. The 35oz canister is a durable plastic, with a wide opening and an even wider base. The wide top makes pouring in your preferred shampoo, like Adam’s Mega Foam, much easier, while the wider base has less chance of tipping over when setting it on the ground. The lid has the ability to thread on the wide-mouth canister or one of our 16oz bottles directly. For example, if you only had 2oz left in your Mega Foam bottle, you could simply add water to the 16oz bottle, thread it onto the Premium Foam Cannon barrel, shake up the mixture, and foam away. The specification requirements are the same as the Standard Foam Cannon: 870 to 3190PSI, 1.3 to 5.3GPM, and a maximum water temperature of 140°F in the canister. Like the Standard Foam Cannon, we recommend using warm (not hot) water in the foam cannon canister with the shampoo solution for best performance.

Now that we’ve covered the two main topics of this writeup, we’ll quickly go over a few accessories that we offer for our pressure washer setups.

Pressure Washer Tips
Pressure Washer Tips most often come in four main degree settings with standardized color coding. Starting from the highest and safest, the 40° White Tip has the widest fan pattern and is used for pre-rinsing dirt and mud from the exterior of the vehicle, as well as for rinsing off soap residue after washing. The 25° Green Tip is for more aggressive surface cleaning with a slightly tighter spray pattern, but it is still suitable for use on vehicles at a safe distance of 18-24 inches away from the surface. The Green Tip can also be used to clean siding, decks, and other areas around the outside of your home or garage. The 15° Yellow Tip is even more aggressive with a tight spray pattern, mainly used on metal and concrete surfaces, or to strip sealants and paint from wood surfaces - it can damage some types of wood. Always test this tip first, and use it from a far distance if you are going to use it on a vehicle. The 0° Red Tip delivers an extremely powerful pinpoint stream mainly used for cleaning concrete or removing weeds from sidewalks. It can cut through wood and remove paint from your vehicle, so it should NOT be used for cleaning your vehicle - not even to attempt to remove road paint.

Swivel Extension Pressure Washer Wand
Our Snub Nose Handle is great for how compact and easy it is to hold and use, but in some instances you may need more length on the Snub Nose Handle, such as reaching up into an engine bay, roof, wheel well, or connecting to our Undercarriage Cleaner. This is where the Swivel Extension Pressure Washer Wand comes into play as a great addition to your pressure washing setup. Manufactured by MTM Hydro Parts, this 20-inch pressure washer attachment has a secure grip area, slight 15° bend, and 1/4" stainless steel quick connect fittings at each end for no risk of rust or corrosion for the life of the tool. The Swivel Extension has maximum ratings of 4100PSI, 10.5GPM, and 300°F water temperature, so it will more than handle both of our pressure washer options with ease.

Undercarriage Cleaner
When combining our Undercarriage Cleaner with the Swivel Extension Pressure Washer Wand and your pressure washer, you have the perfect setup to blast away dirt, mud, and debris from the underside of your vehicle. The Undercarriage Cleaner uses four 45° jets along with wheels, a stainless extension tube, and a rolling swivel to let you pressure rinse underneath your vehicle. The four jets distribute the pressure evenly, so for example, if your pressure washer is outputting 1600PSI, each jet will output 400psi of water pressure. By rolling the tool back and forth under the vehicle, you can reach and clean hard to access areas like frame rails, exhaust, suspension components, and anywhere else that dirt, grease, salt, and other contamination may build up - even on most lowered vehicles with low ground clearance.

Here are a few recommendations on operating notes, maintenance, and compatible products with your pressure washer and foam cannon:

• When operating a pressure washer to clean or rinse your vehicle, or using a foam cannon to clean the vehicle, always do a test spray first - facing away from the vehicle, people, pets, etc.
• If the sprayer tip is not fully seated and locked into the Snub Nose Handle, the water pressure could fire the tip from the Snub Nose, causing damage or injury. If the foam cannon is not locked in, it may fall onto the ground and become damaged.
• Avoid using a pressure washer near any visible rust or large rock chips on a vehicle, as it may cause additional paint to flake off of the surface.
• Also be very careful when spraying near vinyl graphics, stickers, stripes, etc, since the pressure could lift or remove vinyl.
• When you are done using the pressure washer for the day, always follow this process to reduce the risk of electrical shock or damage to the machine:
• Turn the pressure washer motor off first by turning the power switch to the OFF position, unplug the unit from the wall outlet, turn off the water supply, and then squeeze the Snub Nose Handle trigger to depressurize the system.
• Fill the foam cannon canister approximately 4/5 of the way full with warm water first, then pour in your preferred soap second. Secure the lid/barrel and then shake the mixture.
• If you pour in the soap first and then fill the rest of the canister with water, the water can make the soap foam up inside - and outside - of the canister.
• Always rinse your Premium Foam Cannon or Standard Foam Cannon after every use.
• Fill the canister with clean water, then spray water only through the foam cannon for 30-60 seconds to ensure that all soap residue is removed from the canister and cannon internals.
• Failure to rinse out the cannon can result in soap drying up inside of the barrel of the cannon which can reduce performance and/or clog the cannon.
• Our foam cannons are compatible with all of our car wash shampoos: Car Shampoo, Mega Foam, Strip Wash, Ultra Foam Shampoo, Wash & Wax, and Wash + Coat.
• Mega Foam will provide the thickest foam with the least amount of product at about 1-2oz per canister. Our other shampoos may need up to 3-4oz in the canister for best results, but you can test them out using less to see if they provide enough foam for your specific task.