Alright, so I decided to try out one of those foam cannons you can just stick on the end of a regular garden hose. Saw them around, figured maybe it’d make washing the car a bit less of a drag than the old bucket routine. Wasn't expecting miracles, just thought I'd give it a go and see what happened.

Getting Started

The thing showed up, felt pretty much like plastic, which I guess is standard these days. Looked simple enough. Unscrewed the bottle part, poured in some car wash soap. Probably put in way more than needed the first time, but oh well. Then just screwed the whole contraption onto the end of my garden hose. It had a little knob on top, supposed to adjust how much soap comes out versus water. I just guessed and set it somewhere in the middle.

The Actual Experience

Turned on the spigot. Took a second, then water started spraying out, mixed with soap. Now, they call it a 'foam cannon', but let's be honest. It wasn't that thick, shaving-cream type foam you see from the pressure washer setups. Not even close. It was more like really, really bubbly, watery soap suds.

Anyway, I sprayed the whole car down with the stuff. It covered the car quickly, I'll give it that. Felt kinda fun for a minute, spraying suds everywhere. Let it sit for a bit, hoping it would magically dissolve all the dirt like you see in ads.

Here’s what I found:

• Soap Usage: Man, this thing goes through soap fast. The little bottle seemed to empty out pretty quick. Way faster than using a bucket.
• Foam Quality: Like I said, watery. It runs off pretty fast, doesn't cling much.
• Cleaning Power: This was the main thing. Did it clean the car just by spraying? No. Not really. It might have loosened some very light dust, but any real grime, bird droppings, bug splatters? Still needed to grab the wash mitt and put in the elbow grease. No getting around the scrubbing part.

My Thoughts After Using It

So, after messing with it a few times, what's the real story? It's basically a soap sprayer for your hose. It makes applying soap maybe a tiny bit faster than dipping a mitt in a bucket over and over. It's definitely not a replacement for a proper pressure washer foam cannon if you're looking for that super thick foam.

Is it useful? I guess it depends. If you just want to quickly soap down something like lawn furniture or maybe a muddy ATV before you actually scrub it, it might be okay. It adds a little bit of 'fun' factor, maybe gets kids interested in helping wash the car for five minutes.

But for me, doing a proper car wash? It didn't save much effort because I still had to do the hand wash anyway. And considering how much soap it used, I'm not sure it's worth it. It’s one of those gadgets that seems like a good idea, but in practice, it's just... okay. It hasn't really changed my car washing routine much. The buckets are still getting used.