Cost: £13 for 1 litre bought with my own hard earned money.
Date of Review: 3rd February 2019. Dry day, a little chilly, no wind but with some sun.
The Sales Pitch from AutoFinesse:
Auto Finesse® Avalanche snow foam, infused with Citrus Power to make this foaming pre-wash solution the ultimate in pre wash cleaners.
Avalanche snow foam loosens and removes road grime prior to contact washing, doing most of the work for you and removing contaminants that may otherwise be moved around the vehicle during contact washing – thus inflicting those all so often seen and irritating swirl marks.
Source: https://shop.autofinesse.co.uk/wash/avalanche-1litre
What You Get:
One litre of product that you dilute to make the usable product.
Product Description:
This is a product designed to release, soften and remove grime before the contact wash of shampoo. It does smell of a mixture of citrus fruits.
Instructions:
Application:
Words from Auto finesse:
“Use the Auto Finesse® Avalanche Snow Foam in conjunction with a pressure washer foam lance for best results, or a pump spray bottle or garden hose foam lance, to loosen and remove traffic film and built-up road grime, prior to contact washing.
Cover the vehicle from top to bottom. Leave to sit for approximately 5 minutes, allowing the product to attack any surface contaminates. After 5 minutes, jet-wash the product from the vehicle thoroughly working top to bottom.
Despite Avalanches high cleaning abilities, the solution is wax and sealant friendly, meaning it wont remove or breakdown any protection you have previously applied to your vehicles paintwork.”
My method.
I have used this a number times now on all different types of paints. The results have been pretty much the same. I thought I would clean a dirty car from the winter grime and salt on the roads to see how good it is. This is the wife’s town run around car, easy to park and great on fuel. As you can see, it’s pretty dirty and that is an understatement.
I followed the instructions and filled with 2″ in the bottom of the snow foam lance bottle. I sprayed thickly and from the bottom up as directed. The foam comes out thickly and stays for a while on the car until it starts to thin out and run down the car paint to a thick sludge on the floor.
The difficult bit is to leave the product on for five minutes without it drying out. So I was going around the car keeping it topped up when it started to look like it was going to dry out.
By the time I got to take a picture the thick foam had started thin out and start it’s gravity compliant slide down. You can clearly see, I didn’t go easy on the application, in fact I used the full one litre mix on a tiny Smart car.
It looks pretty cool on the car I must say when it’s applied. You can see the suds and product on the floor, it wasn’t dirty, it was quite a clean white.
Removing:
After the good five minutes required was up I jet washed it off, thoroughly I might add.
Looks pretty good so far while the car was wet. I guess you are supposed to clean the car with shampoo at this point for the proper contact washing.
Results:
I know that the snow foam is supposed to ‘soften’ or even “remove” the dirt before a full contact wash. I have been here in this situation a number of times before and washed the car straight after rinsing the snow foam off. However, washing the car after the snow foam with the correct two bucket method and a lambs wool wash mitt does not prove it was the snow foam that pre washed the car effectively.
Letting the car dry after the snow foam has been rinsed off seems counter productive, as I am in effect allowing the dirt and grime to dry out again. For this part of the review I waited to see what the car looked like just after it started to dry out in order to see if any of the dirt had been removed.
The rear wheels didn’t look too bad and some of the very light dust had washed off as they are drum anyway. Or was it just the power of the jet wash? The fronts didn’t look much different, not that I expected them too, as they are disc braked wheels at the end of the day and need a different product to clean them. The bottom of the sills were still dirty, considering the foam always ran of this lowest part of the car. A lump of bird lime on the boot was still there, but I managed to aggressively jet wash it off.
As the car started to dry out things started to get worse on closer inspection.
To prove the point, I wet my finger and ran it down the paint before the car was fully dried. The dirt was not softened and was still quite stuck on the paintwork, and that wasn’t even on the most caked on areas. You can see next to the left of my finger a still wet part of the paint so it wasn’t fully dried out by any means.
Remember the claim from above; “to loosen and ‘remove’ traffic film and built-up road grime, prior to contact washing.”
The car didn’t look much different as to when I started out. I was expecting to see clear run lines where the product ran off the paint taking all sorts of dirt and rubbish with it, but no. I went on to wash the car with the two bucket method and quality shampoo. The car came up much better and clean this time. The car is still wet after the jet wash rinse, but it was now much cleaner and the buckets of shampoo now pretty dirty instead.
Rating: 2 out 10
I gave it a more than generous 1 mark due to the fact the rear wheels looked a bit cleaner. But, I suspect that was down to the fact my jet wash blasted it away to be honest. The other mark was the fact you get a lot of product for your money. If you want to try this yourself, get it in a bargain sale at least.
Ease of use – Very easy to use, spray on and leave it for five minutes.
Finish – Rubbish, no difference has been noted.
Conclusion:
I have seen videos with “watch the dirt slide off” or “we do the work for you” scenarios etc.
It didn’t work, and it has never worked at all for me on previous washes. No dirt run of the paint, it didn’t loosen the bird lime either. In fact doing the work for me only created an extra step to mix the product up before rinsing the car as I normally would before a contact wash. I mentioned above that I have used this on my daily car my Toyota Avensis and the Smart, I even used it on the Mustang a couple of times. The results have been the same, not much difference. The Mustang never gets anywhere near dirty so it’s a glorified bubble bath in that instance. I have tried weak mixtures for the lance, I have tried super thick as well. I have mixed it strong, weak and middle of the road. I have pre wet the car, used it dry like today’s review, no difference. I have even used it twice before a wash. I’m pleased to say that now I only have a few more uses before the bottle is empty. I have really tried with this product and given this product more than a fair crack of the whip. Disappointment beyond words as I write this review. I genuinely like Auto Finesse products, but not this one!
Have I done something wrong? I would love to know. However when you follow the instructions, (pretty simple ones at that) to the letter, you should and expect to see results. The fact you are wetting the car before contact washing will loosen any dirt anyway with a jet wash.
This extra step wasn’t around a couple of years ago and all of a sudden it’s now a must have process. I will use Avalanche up as a pre wash just to dampen the car before a wash, not because it’s good. But just to use it up that’s all.
Avalanche, more like a damp sleet! This certainly not one of Auto Finesse top products that for sure.
There will be people saying that the review and testing is flawed, I don’t believe it is as I wanted to see what had indeed been removed. Remember in the days prior to Snow Foam, we rinsed the car first to soften the grime before we washed it. Just wetting the car does the same thing as this snow foam does here. Type in Google “Is Snow Foam a gimmick?” Many people will agree with me that I think it is, some obviously wont.
This was my findings from my own hard-earned cash that bought this product and almost used it all up before I reviewed it.
Would I recommend it? No.
Would I buy it again? Never.
