Review: AutoFinesse Avalanche Snow Foam

[swanicyouth]

This is a review of AutoFinesse Avalanche Snow Foam. First off, this stuff ain't cheap. For 2 bills you get 32oz - I believe a gallon is somewhere around $50. Looking at it purely at a financial standpoint, you could get a gallon of Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II for a little over twenty dollars. But, this isn't MS II.



Something interesting that made me purchase this product is that it mentions on the bottle that Avalanche is meant to be used to clean up the snowy salt sludge the clings to our cars in the Northeast after each storm. One whisper from the weather man that "snow may be coming", and what seems like hundreds of thousands of plow trucks start dumping what seems like millions of tons of salt all over our PA roads. I guess salt is cheap and nobody in office wants to be blamed for accidents. But, it does seem like they overdo it. Come spring - all our roads have big pot holes in them. It looks like we were bombed.

Anyway, here are the claims and directions:



As you can see, it says to add 1-2 inches of product to your foam cannon. I was able to figure out how to do that:



I'm guessing I added about 3.5 oz or so. First impression? This stuff isn't soap. It doesn't look like soap, it doesn't act like soap, and it doesn't smell like soap. I looks, acts, and smells like some type of APC. I was expecting it to smell "citrusy" - but not so much, maybe a little. More "APCusy". When you fill the rest of the foam cannon reservoir with water, it does start to foam - but not nearly as much as a soap:





As you can see, no fancy colors and no fancy smells. The liquid looks dull as dishwater. It reminds me of diluted D103. Well, I didn't buy it to look at it and I didn't buy it to smell it. I bought it to see how well it works getting the salt cakes off my car.

This is what we are starting with - It's pretty bad:











Time to see how it works. My pressure washer is the anemic Karcher K 2.360. It only delivers a minuscule 1.25 GPM @ 1600 psi. Here is the product in action:







Like I said, this ain't soap. Don't think I saw a single bubble. It's not a foam party show either. Here it is after 5 minutes or so of dwell:



Then, you pressure rinse it off per the directions. I only foam a dry car, I don't rinse it first. Here I tried to get a 50/50 dirt shot. The dirt line is what looks to be about an inch left of the shadow squares in the image. I stopped pressure washing at that point. If you look close, you can see it:



Here is the same area after pressure washing completely:



Here are so e other areas after pressure washing, before hand washing. Car hasn't been "touched" by anything yet:









Remember how bad the back window was? Again, vehicle hasn't been "touched":



The above areas, it did amazingly well. These areas, noticeable residue was left:





Overall, it did really well. Better than any soap I've used just in a foam cannon. After, I washed the vehicle using a 2BM using Poor Boys Super Slick Suds & Sonax Brilliant Shine Detailer to dry.

[swanicyouth]

After:



















I've you live where there is a lot of snow or filth - this product is likely worth picking up. One thing I noticed, Is that beading didn't seem to be affected much, if at all. So, it seems pretty mild on your LSP. Considering AutoFinesse makes primarily waxes, I figured they aren't going to make a soap aimed at destroying them on your paint. I think that turned out to be fairly accurate.

My wheel bucket:

[Just02896]

Excellent write up! Thank you for taking the time! I may just get myself a bottle to try in my cannon! :-)

I did however expect a mountain of foam with it being called avalanche snow foam!

[swanicyouth]

Best of all, hand made in the UK:



if yr into that sorta thing.

[Bunky]

Great review! Very interesting product. It has been on buy list for a while. It is supposed to be a stronger cleaner yet wax safe.

[rjd598]

Right in line with my results

[swanicyouth]

Great review! Very interesting product. It has been on buy list for a while. It is supposed to be a stronger cleaner yet wax safe.

It seemed to affect beading less than rinseless products. Go figure.

[Radarryan]

Thanks for the review; great job as always. In your opinion, would the product be good in a foam gun, or would it be too thin and just run off the paint? I usually use CG Honeydew but I've always wanted to try Avalanche. Look forward to your next review!

[swanicyouth]

Thanks for the review; great job as always. In your opinion, would the product be good in a foam gun, or would it be too thin and just run off the paint? I usually use CG Honeydew but I've always wanted to try Avalanche. Look forward to your next review!

I dunno. It seems to cling pretty good. The directions say "pressure wash off". I think it would be pretty good. You could always add an ounce of Honeydew to make it "foamier".

[willtothewong]

Just bought some of this!

I will be using it pretty soon. Thanks for the review.