Best snow foam lances 2024
We reveal the biggest hits, plus the ones bubbling under
Most pressure washers come with a snow foam attachment these days. These allow you to cover your dirty car in a layer of soapy suds, which will gently soften and loosen the grime before you blast it away with a jet of water. This makes cleaning your car easier and will be less damaging to your paintwork than rubbing the dirt around with a sponge.
But even the attachments on high-end washers are likely to be small and basic, with limited adjustments. Using a dedicated snow foam lance could come as a revelation after these. The professional-quality cannons will allow you to get the foam consistency you want, and choose between a wide fan or a narrow jet of suds. With bigger bottles, they will also mean you’re making fewer trips to the tap for top-ups of water and fluid.
We tested seven snow foam lances to see which covered our needs best.
How we tested them
All of our lances were tested with a Kärcher K4 pressure washer, using the appropriate attachment supplied. We were looking for a lance with good adjustment for the foam-mix ratio and the application fan.
We preferred a wide opening on the reservoir bottle to make filling easier, especially because the diluted fluid has a tendency to foam up. We also liked a stable base to prevent the bottles toppling over when stored, and clear measurement marks to help get the correct mix rates. Finally, we looked for good value and quality.
AVA Premium Foam Cannon Kit
- Price: Around £50
- Capacity: 1 litre (x3)
- Rating: 5 stars
- Website: avastore.co.uk
There’s some clever thinking behind the AVA Cannon Kit. It’s the only product here to have three containers, which allows you to mix snow foam, shampoo and wash-wax treatments without having to clean out the bottle each time. There are clear measurement markings, including a stepped base, which makes diluting smaller amounts of chemicals easy.
The lids can also be used as bases to prevent the kit from falling over, or they can lock together in a stack for storage. Plus the nozzle locked easily to the Kärcher’s lance and there is plenty of adjustment for both flow and fan.
VERTOOL Hydro 360
- Price: Around £35 (plus £7.99 for adapter)
- Capacity: 1 litre
- Rating: 4.5 stars
- Website: linntec.com
It might not be much to look at compared with some of the flashier products here, but the Hydro does a great job.
It’s compact, yet the wide-necked container holds a full litre of liquid. There are helpful measurements on the side, which give the usual millilitre markings, plus handy dilution ratio points. The adjuster gives a good range between jet and fan, and it can make the flow vertical or horizontal. The price looks reasonable too, but you’ll need to add an extra £7.99 for an adapter to fit your pressure washer.
MJJC Pro V2.0
- Price: Around £72
- Capacity: 1 litre
- Rating: 4 stars
- Website: mjjc.com
The Best Buy from our last test is still great, but has slipped down our rankings almost entirely due to a massive price rise.
If you buy from the official site, the Pro will cost £72, but it’s worth checking on eBay or Amazon, where it can usually be found for up to £20 less. At that price it makes more sense, with high-quality attachments and easy-to-use adjusters for flow and spread. The wider bottle makes it more stable than the V3.0, but we’d have liked better markings.
Autoglym Polar Blaster Snow Foamer
- Price: Around £42
- Capacity: 800ml
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Contact: autoglym.com
The Blaster lance is designed specifically to be used with Autoglym’s own range of Polar cleaning products, but it worked well with our rival spray, offering plenty of adjustment to give a choice of foam densities and fan widths. It’s a shame the fan can only be vertical, though.
The brass fittings feel as though they are built to last, with a quick-release connection that will allow a rinsing nozzle to be attached in seconds. This is helpful, because the twist connection on the Kärcher is fiddly to manage, especially with wet hands. The Autoglym bottle is the smallest in the test, but the opening is wide, which makes filling easy.
MJJC S V3.0
- Price: Around £72
- Capacity: 1 litre
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Website: mjjc.com
The V2.0 from MJJC came top of our last test, so we were keen to try the company’s new V3.0. The bottle has a special twist mechanism, which makes it quick to attach, and the clear plastic helps you check the fluid levels. But the measurement markings are very basic, and the opening is on the narrow side.
Inside, the pick-up tube is weighted so it is always dangling in the fluid, making sure you slurp up the last of the liquid. Unlike the V2.0, we couldn’t find any cheaper deals online and this V3.0 costs more than some basic pressure washers – which makes it difficult to justify.
Halfords Advanced Premium Snow Foam Bottle Kit
- Price: Around £35
- Capacity: 1 litre
- Rating: 3.5 stars
- Website: halfords.com
The great-value Halfords bottle kit can be attached to both own-brand and Kärcher-branded pressure washers with the included adapters. Pull back a brass toggle and the foam attachment will pop off and can be replaced with the 25-degree rinsing nozzle, which is also included.
The wide-bottomed bottle is stable, but the top is narrow and difficult to fill, while the measurement markings are hard to see and read. We also knocked off points because the fan spray is fixed in the vertical position and the dilution-control knob is difficult to operate with wet hands.
Car Gods Snow Foam Cannon
- Price: Around £42
- Capacity: 1 litre
- Rating: 3 stars
- Contact: halfords.com
The Car Gods’ price is at the lower end of our range in this test, yet the quality of the solid brass mechanism is top notch, so it feels built to last. Fixing it to the Kärcher was less fiddly than with some of its rivals, and it does a good job of foaming. But there’s not much variation in the dilution rate – it seemed to be either thick foam or clear water, with not much in between.
The narrow opening makes the bottle tricky to refill and there’s only a vertical option for the fan spray, too.
Verdict
The AVA Premium Foam Cannon Kit had almost all the features we liked in addition to some clever design elements, which really move the game on and lift it above rivals. Factor in the keen price and it takes an easy win here.
The products on the other podium places are more difficult to separate. Our previous Best Buy from MJJC still scores high marks, but has had a massive price rise. We can only recommend it if you are able to find it online for less than the officially published price. This means the Hydro 360 sneaks into second place, thanks to a combination of value and features.
- AVA Premium Foam Cannon Kit
- VERTOOL Hydro 360
- MJJC Pro V2.0
Now you've chosen the snow foam lance, click here to discover which is the best snow foam...
