Okay, let's talk about this soap dispenser thing for my pressure washer. I'd been meaning to figure this out for a while.

Getting Started

So, washing the car, or even the patio, with just the pressure washer gets the loose stuff off, right? But for actual grime, you need soap. My pressure washer has this little onboard tank, but honestly, it felt kinda useless. It barely siphoned any soap, and what came out was watery. Not impressed.

I'd seen those videos online, you know, where people cover their cars in super thick foam. Looked way better. Did some digging, and found out about these separate soap dispenser attachments, sometimes called foam cannons or foamers. Decided I needed to try one.

Trying it Out

Picked one up – wasn't too expensive. It basically looks like a bottle that screws onto a special nozzle, which then clicks onto the end of the pressure washer wand where the normal tips go. Seemed simple enough.

First step was figuring out the soap. The instructions mumbled something about specific car wash soap and dilution ratios. I just grabbed my regular car wash liquid. Poured some into the bottle, maybe like an inch or two, then filled the rest up with water, gave it a gentle swirl. Didn't want to make a bubble bath inside the bottle before even starting.

Hooking it up was easy. Just clipped off the regular nozzle tip from the pressure washer wand and clicked the whole foam cannon assembly on. Felt secure.

The Moment of Truth

Alright, fired up the pressure washer. Stood back, aimed at the car (a safe distance!), and pulled the trigger.

Wow. Okay, way different from the onboard tank. It actually sprayed foam! It wasn't that super thick shaving cream foam like in some ads, not at first anyway. More like... a decent lather. Way better than the watery dribble I got before.

My cannon thingy had a couple of adjustments:

• A knob on top, seemed to control how much soap mixed in. I cranked it up a bit more.
• The nozzle at the very front could twist. Twisting it changed the spray pattern from a wide fan to a more focused stream. I set it to a wide fan to cover the car panels.

After fiddling with the top knob, turning it towards the '+' sign, the foam definitely got thicker. It clung to the car pretty well, not just running straight off. Let it sit for a few minutes to do its thing, soak into the dirt.

Observations and What I Learned

Switching back to the regular rinse nozzle was easy too. Just unclipped the cannon, clipped the rinse tip back on, and washed the soap off. The car definitely looked cleaner than when I just used water pressure alone.

Getting the soap mix right seems key. Too little soap, watery foam. Too much, maybe wastes soap? I'll have to experiment more with the dilution. Also read somewhere that the pressure washer's own power (PSI and GPM) affects the foam quality, makes sense.

It's a bit messy, filling the bottle and handling the concentrated soap. And the cannon itself adds a bit of weight to the end of the wand. Not a big deal, but you notice it.

Overall, yeah, much better than relying on the built-in soap tank. It actually feels like you're properly soaping the surface before blasting it clean. Makes the whole pressure washing process feel more effective. Definitely keeping this gadget handy for wash days.