Foam Cannon?

I use a foam cannon and can do my car (Lincoln MKS) in under an hour, so you guys spending twice that on a Mustang, dang...

My process:
-Spray the car using high pressure to knock off excess dirt
-Soap the car with the foam cannon and let it soak
-Two bucket method to clean one panel at a time
-Spray rims with rim cleaner and agitate them
-Resoap the car with the remaining soap in the foam cannon
-Rinse it off with high pressure
-Dry with towel and leaf blower

I don't see all the debate about a foam cannon being a wast of time. How much time does it take to wheel out the pw, hook up the hose to it and fill up the foam cannon with soap and water, spray the vehicle and then rinse. Maybe 10 mins?

This post from the autogeek link posted here sums it up for me.........

"Despite the huge debate regarding is a foam cannon worth it, I still think they are, IF you are serious about trying everything you can to minimize swirls.

To my mind getting as much dirt off the car as possible PRIOR to making contact with the paint has to reduce the potential for swirls... and so a thorough rinsing with the HP washer is definite must.... it really does remove a lot of dirt that would otherwise be sandwhiched between your wash mitt and paint.

Now, if you already have the HP washer out for the pre-wash rinse, then simply plugging in the foam cannon at this point is really no extra work.

Shooting some decent quality snowfoam onto the paint, letting it dwell and HP rinsing again isn't gonna take you more than 5 to 10 minutes and even if it pulls off another 5% of the dirt on your car, that's 5% less dirt that could scratch your paint during washing....

Will simply foaming the car get it 100% clean - NO.... but it is an additional step that will help to mitigate inflicting swirls onto the paint. By how much - who knows and is the cost of the foam cannon and the snowfoam acceptable to YOU - who knows...? It is a personal decision that YOU will have to make.

It is also quite nice to shoot a layer of foam onto the car just prior to washing to add another layer of lubricity....

And, with everything already out (HP washer and foam cannon) I find it very handy when using a iron decontaminating product to spray some over the car after the iron remover has been dwelling on the paint for a few minutes to help keep things from drying out."

RPProductions on youtube did a comparison wash on his hellcat. The car was decently dirty. He washed half the car using the touchless method (pressure washer, foam cannon, wash it off) then the other half actually touching the car (same method, just using a microfiber mit to scrub the foam). The touchless method obviously did not work as well, still some dirt left over. That method is for a quick wash on a car with minimal dirt. If you want the best results, the second method is better, just make sure the mits are clean when touching the car.

To answer the OP, I think a foam cannon is good so you do not accidentally miss a spot when using a mit, you can see all the places the mit has touched the car.

I have one, and use it about maybe half the time. It's fun to use, and it was 20 bucks on amazon so it was worth it to me. If you already have a pressure washer it's not a bad deal. i like it because it will show you if you've missed a spot with the mitt, but it adds another step and something to drag out and hook up vs just hose and buckets.