Foam cannons, ceramic coating, and PPF

[schad]

I've heard such good things about foam cannons that I decided to give it a shot. One thing I noticed: I have PPF on the front end and the doors, and the whole car is ceramic coated. The foam will "stick" on the parts that have PPF, but slides right off the ceramic-only parts. This seems weird to me. Shouldn't the foam behave the same regardless, since it's only ever touching the microscopically-thin layer of ceramic coating and not the PPF or paint?

Also, since the foam literally just slides completely off the panel as fast as gravity can move it, how exactly is this supposed to get a ceramic-coated car clean? The actual cleaning solution just ends up on my driveway! Have I got the mixing ratios wrong?

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[Mr.Smith]

What type of foam are you using? Does the foam come out like thick shaving cream?

The point of foam is to lubricate, run off and remove some dirt with it before your wash.

Ceramic coating is hydrophobic so liquids are not suppose stay on.
If your PPF ceramic coated too?

 

[schad]

I'm using Koch Chemie Gentle Snow Foam. It comes out like thin shaving cream. I watched a few videos and that seems to be the way this stuff works. I guess some people put double or triple the recommended amount to get a thicker foam. I might try that to see if that sticks better.

The PPF is supposed to be ceramic coated. Water does bead up and run off very well on the PPF parts, and a few seconds at 45mph will dry the car completely with no water spots. So I think it actually is. I just can't think of why foam would react differently on coated paint than on coated film.

 

[Mr.Smith]

I'm using Koch Chemie Gentle Snow Foam. It comes out like thin shaving cream. I watched a few videos and that seems to be the way this stuff works. I guess some people put double or triple the recommended amount to get a thicker foam. I might try that to see if that sticks better.

The PPF is supposed to be ceramic coated. Water does bead up and run off very well on the PPF parts, and a few seconds at 45mph will dry the car completely with no water spots. So I think it actually is. I just can't think of why foam would react differently on coated paint than on coated film.

On my PPF with ceramic coating, the foam doesn't stick either. It evaporates

For your foam, try adding more solution and adjusting the valve that adds more water flow.

 

[XLR82XS]

Also, make sure you're not using soap/shampoo that has wax additives in it. That will degrade the ceramic coating.

 

[schad]

Yeah, I watched some more videos, and everyone is using 150mL soap to 750mL water (1:5 ratio). The bottle says to use 20mL soap to 1L water (1:50 ratio).

I'm not sure I can call it user error because I did follow the instructions, but I'll try again with a higher concentration.

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