Review: McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula Shampoo

[Marc08EX]

Review: McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula Shampoo
McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula High Yield Foaming Auto Shampoo- Foamaster gun car wash




Description: (Taken from AG's website)

Does more foam create a cleaner vehicle? It does if it comes from McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula Auto Shampoo.

This high yield foaming auto shampoo bursts into mounds of suds when introduced to water and agitated. The bubbles work to encapsulate oily residue and dirt even before your mitt touches the paint. This rich foam - combined with our own advanced cleaning agent- leaves your vehicle looking and feeling fantastically clean and bright.

When blasted through a foam gun, McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula is at its best because it’s the only car shampoo formulated for foam guns. The high soap to water ratio produced by a foam gun allows this intense shampoo to produce FROTHY FOAM unlike any shampoo you’ve used before. The high viscosity of McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula allows the suds to cling to the vehicle in order to begin grabbing dirt and oil on contact. With the help of a soft, clean sponge or mitt, you’ll achieve an Xtreme clean with this super-sudsing car wash.

A lot of soaps can clean, but they can’t leave the kind of shiny, smooth finish created by McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula. McKee's 37 proprietary cleaning agent builds thick, multi-tiered bubbles that work to lift dirt and grime off the surface of the vehicle. Though it contains effective cleaning agents, McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula is pH-balanced to retain the existing paint protection. McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula leaves waxes and sealants intact while removing the dirt and debris that hide your vehicle’s shine.

Water softeners in McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula help offset the effects of hard water so your vehicle dries with fewer water spots. These softening agents also allow the shampoo to achieve its full foaming potential.

Since most swirls are introduced during the wash process, our rich, foam formula contains an xtreme amount of lubricants and beneficial oils. These lubricants wrap around dirt and suspend it just above the paint surface, where it cannot scratch the paint. The oils nourish the paint to deepen the color and enhance the shine.

McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula has a clean, fresh mint fragrance plus a bright green color to compliment its fluffy, white suds. CLEAN looks and smells like this.

Enjoy the rich, fragrant lather of McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula in your foam gun or wash bucket.


Price:

$12.99 for 16oz (on sale for $10.99)
$42.99 for 128oz


Introduction:

Do you like washing your car often? Do you have a foam gun and want to know what's the best foaming car shampoo out there? Do you want to use a car shampoo that produces very thick lather and suds? If you are wondering about these then you came to the right place! These are common questions one may ask because majority of people like to wash our cars especially us detail geeks (or Autogeeks!).

Review:

I'd like to start this review by showing you the before condition of the subject vehicle.







































As you can see, the car I'm about to use and test this shampoo on is extremely filthy. It has water spots, dirt, and bird poop everywhere. This is a good candidate to see how well this product works.

Here's a picture of the product description and directions:



The directions say to use 2-3 oz of shampoo for every 5 gallons of water. I was planning to only use approximately 3 gallons of water so I decided to use 2 oz of the car shampoo.



Here's a closer look to show the color of the shampoo:



When I create my soapy wash solution, I like to pre-fill my wash bucket with about 1 gallon of water. I would then add the car shampoo into the bucket as shown:



To activate the suds, I then blast the bucket with water.



Now your wash bucket solution is ready for use.

Next, I wanted to test out how well it works in the foam gun using their recommended dilution. The directions state to use 2 oz of shampoo for every 6-8 oz of water in the foam gun.

First, fill up your foam gun container with the proper amount of water. This is a very important step. You must always put water first. If you add the soap first, adding the water later will suds up the solution and make the container overflow with lather very quickly. You don't want that.



Next, add the proper amount of soap. I was in a rush so I just tried to eyeball the proper dilution ratio.



Once you put in the right amount of shampoo, put the cover in and make sure to give your foam gun a good shake:



Connect the foam gun to your hose sprayer attachment and set the siphoning ratio in the foam gun. In my case, I set it to "E" or the most concentrated setting.



The foam gun has multiple uses. It can be used to pre-soak your car to loosen up all the dirt particles before washing. You can also use the foam gun to wash your car. This is not only for paint but also for the wheels, tires and wheel wells.

Here are a few action shots of the McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Shampoo used to pre-soak the vehicle:





Thick suds on the ground:



Close up view of the suds on the hood:





More action shots:











Just for the heck of it, I wanted to test out what the foam would look like if I used the shampoo straight in the foam gun. Will it really produce XTREME FOAM?!

















The answer to that question is an UNMISTAKABLE YYYEEEESSSSSS!!!!! As you can see in the action shots above, it produces VERY THICK foam, almost like shaving cream. Of course, it's not as thick as soaps produced by a foam cannon. That's in a different league and you need a pressure washer to use that. But for a foam gun, this soap produces amazing amounts of suds.

[Marc08EX]

Here's how you wash the car using the foam gun. So you have your car wash solution in your foam gun and you hold this on one hand. Then you have your wash media on your other hand. What you do is you spray the soapy solution on the panel as you're washing it. It would be better if you can direct the soapy solution underneath the wash mitt as you're washing the panel you're working on. That way, you have the maximum amount of lubrication in between your wash mitt and the paint consequently reducing the chances of swirls.







Before you ask, the car wash sponge I'm using is brand new. I was just breaking it in for it's main task - I use it to clean the wheels.

Don't forget to rinse your wash media in a bucket of water with a grit guard at the bottom. In this case, I'm using the wash solution I made earlier in the bucket as my rinse bucket. You can never be too careful.



You can also use the same technique to wash your wheels:



The tires (with a tire brush of course):



And the wheel wells:



After you're done washing all the surfaces of the car, rinse all the soapy solution off the car. Once you're done rinsing, time to dry the vehicle using your favorite microfiber drying towel.



Don't forget to dry the wheels, plastic trim, jambs, etc as well. Here, I'm using the Microfiber All Purpose & Wheel Detailing Towel.



In order to give the exterior that "just detailed" look, you can't forget to dress the tires. To achieve this, I'm using the McKee's 37 Gloss Tire Gel. (If you're interested to read my review on that, please check this out: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...-products.html)



Apply a few drops of the tire gel on a foam applicator pad or a tire applicator pad.



Then apply on the tire's sidewall:



Then you're done! Sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor:


After Shots:




































Opinions and Observations:

This is a very nice car soap that produces lots of foam, suds and lather as you can see from the action shots above. This applies to both the bucket or the foam gun method.

It provides a very slick solution that reduces the chances of swirls and scratches from washing.

The soap has a minty type of smell. I would say it's the same smell as the DP Xtreme Foam Shampoo.

I would say their recommended dilution is good for the bucket. I might even use slightly less and I think it would still be OK. But as for the foam gun, I think I would use more than their recommended dilution. I bought the foam gun to have fun using it. And when I mean fun, I mean LOTS OF FOAM!!! I'm sure their recommended dilution is fine but I just want to produce more foam. The only downside to adding more soap that recommended is that you'll go through the soap pretty quickly.

This soap leaves behind a nice shine. The car I washed doesn't have any sort of protection whatsoever. So there's no LSP on the paint at all. So the shine was mainly from the shampoo.


Conclusion:

If you're looking for a car shampoo that produces thick foam, look no further. Consider buying the McKee's 37 Xtreme Foam Formula High Yield Foaming Auto Shampoo and you will not be disappointed. As the product name suggests, it indeed produces XTREME FOAM! And on top of that, it's very slick and produces a very nice shine.


Hope you enjoyed this review. Comments are appreciated.

[GearHead_1]

This is a very good shampoo used in all typical applications. It's a great 2 bucket shampoo and works well in a foam gun but I honestly feel you can't fully appreciate it until you use it in a cannon. Waves of sloppy foam slurry are produced. Not the kind of foam that stands tall while bubbles pop but so thick you almost can't tell the color of the vehicle. It certainly does it's job as a pre-soak. I like this product a lot.

[fly07sti]

Very nice review. Especially for all those that want to know what soap works well in a foam gun/cannon. I still have over a gallon of the older DP Extreme foam and it does work better in the guns/cannons then most other soaps. I'm sure that since McKee's is all updated that this new version is that much better.

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

A1 write up Marc, excellent job.

[FrankS]

Excellent review Mark!

[haris300]

Very thorough review buddy. I just finished my bottle last week. It's great in the bucket but I found myself using it a lot for touchless washes with my foam cannon. I don't care if all that foam makes a difference or not. It's fun to use

[DetailTrail]

THANKS for the review, just got some be trying it in a foam gun soon.

[Marc08EX]

This is a very good shampoo used in all typical applications. It's a great 2 bucket shampoo and works well in a foam gun but I honestly feel you can't fully appreciate it until you use it in a cannon. Waves of sloppy foam slurry are produced. Not the kind of foam that stands tall while bubbles pop but so thick you almost can't tell the color of the vehicle. It certainly does it's job as a pre-soak. I like this product a lot.

I totally agree GearHead! It's a great product indeed.

Very nice review. Especially for all those that want to know what soap works well in a foam gun/cannon. I still have over a gallon of the older DP Extreme foam and it does work better in the guns/cannons then most other soaps. I'm sure that since McKee's is all updated that this new version is that much better.

Thanks a lot Don!!! I also have a gallon of the older DP Xtreme Foam.

A1 write up Marc, excellent job.

Thank you so much Joe!

Excellent review Mark!

Thanks a lot Frank! I appreciate your kind words.

Very thorough review buddy. I just finished my bottle last week. It's great in the bucket but I found myself using it a lot for touchless washes with my foam cannon. I don't care if all that foam makes a difference or not. It's fun to use

Thank you so much Haris!! I appreciate it buddy!

I totally agree - it's a lot of fun using this product and that's why I would use more than their recommended dilution for the foam gun.. Heck, I want to use it straight. The foam it produces is just ridiculous!

THANKS for the review, just got some be trying it in a foam gun soon.

My pleasure DetailTrail. Glad to hear you liked it!

[Mike Phillips]

Awesome write-up Marc!

I don't think I've ever seen a dirty car so well documented!


Excellent pictures and how-to info.