2025 test11 productsCar Care & Detailing
Which Foaming Car Wash Soap Brand Wins?
We compared 11 foaming car wash soap options head to head. Slick came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Winner
Slick
Price shown in test: $25 for 32 oz (78 cents per oz)
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Runner-up
Swift
Price shown in test: $40 for a gallon (31 cents per oz)
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | P H | Dilution Ratio | Lubricity Slide Test | Dwell Time Garden Hose | Dirt Removal Colorimeter | Dust Resistance Colorimeter | Tire Shine Removal | Dwell Time Pressure Washer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Slick$25 for 32 oz (78 cents per oz) | 11.06 out of the bottle; narrator notes once diluted through the sprayer it should be around 10 or less | 2 to 4 oz, then fill remaining space with water | 1.3 lb, second place behind Griot's | eliminated by the Swift in the bracket ('small advantage going to the Swift'), but still received the best possible rating of one along with Swift and Griot's in the final subjective scoring | samples 4.63, 5.02, 4.7, 4.68, 4.93; average 4.79, finished third behind Swift (4.35) and Chemical Guys (4.63) | started at 4.79 pre-dust, average 9.15 after dust exposure; finished second place behind Swift (7.86) | removed just about all the tire shine, described as definitely the best yet; came out on top with a rating of 1.5 | eliminated by MJJC in the bracket; not called out individually in the final rating beyond 'several other brands received a very good rating of 1.5' |
| 2Swift Swift Auto$40 for a gallon (31 cents per oz) | 13.48 straight out of the bottle (used at full strength, no dilution); 12.71 after being sprayed through the foam cannon, still a very strong base | none, used at full strength unlike the other diluted brands | 1.6 lb, tied with Hybrid Solutions | won the entire bracket, defeating Adam's, Hybrid Solutions, Griot's, MJJC, Chemical Guys, Slick, and Koch-Chemie in sequence; best possible rating of one | samples 4.3, 4.27, 4.33, 4.32, 4.52; average 4.35, came out on top with the least amount of dirt | removed the most dirt after the wash at 4.35 average, then averaged 7.86 after dust exposure; came out on top | thin, even layer of flour with no thick pockets, described as definitely the best yet at that point; finished second place with a rating of two | beat Meguiar's in the bracket but was then eliminated by Hybrid Solutions |
| 3Chemical Guys Tough Mudder Truck Wash$12 for 16 oz (75 cents per oz) | 8.42 | 1 to 3 oz of product to 32 oz of water | 1.5 lb, third place behind Griot's and Slick | eliminated by Swift in the bracket ('a little bit more staying power compared to the Chemical Guys') | samples 4.53, 4.83, 4.99, 4.43, 4.34; average 4.63, finished a very close second place behind Swift | started at 4.63 pre-dust, average 9.71 after dust exposure; described as still quite a bit cleaner than most other brands | performed better than average at removing dirt but did not perform quite as well as some other brands at removing tire shine | eliminated by MJJC in the bracket, described as an easy win for MJJC |
| 4Griot's Brilliant Finish snow foam$20 for 48 oz (42 cents per oz) | 7.13, described as the most pH balanced yet at that point | 8 parts water to 1 part soap | 1 lb, the slickest of all 11 products tested | eliminated by Swift in the bracket ('the Griot's is really putting the Swift to the challenge... towards the bottom of the doors the Swift is a little bit more foamy'); still received the best possible rating of one along with Swift and Slick | samples 6.94, 7, 6.68, 6.24, 6.46; average 6.66 | trailed Hybrid Solutions by more than a point pre-dust; average 10.69 after dust exposure, still trailing Hybrid Solutions | trailed Hybrid Solutions on this test as well | eliminated by Hybrid Solutions in the bracket |
| 5MJJC$35 for 64 oz (55 cents per oz) | 6.89, described as very pH balanced | 9 parts water to 1 part MJJC | 2.5 lb, performed about the same as Malco | eliminated by Swift in the bracket ('the Swift is demonstrating better dwell time properties') | samples 7.59, 7.41, 7.3, 7.71, 7.51; average 7.5 | started at 7.75 pre-dust (slightly different from the 7.5 average reported in the dirt-removal test for the same brand, likely rounding or a minor transcript inconsistency rather than a new measurement); average 10.75 after dust exposure, mostly scoring in the 10s | performed about the same as Meguiar's on dirt removal; for tire shine specifically, showed less intense but more spread out flour pockets | won the entire remainder of the bracket after entering, defeating Hybrid Solutions, Chemical Guys, Slick, and Koch-Chemie; best possible rating of one |
| 6Hybrid Solutions$20 for 64 oz (31 cents per oz) | 9.3 | 2 oz to approximately 14 oz of warm water | 1.6 lb, tied with Swift | eliminated by Swift in the bracket | samples 5.76, 5.53, 5.78, 5.4, 5.36; average 5.57 | started at 5.57 pre-dust, average 10.09 after dust exposure, mostly scoring in the 10s | did not perform quite as well as Swift, but performed well compared to several other brands | beat Meguiar's and Griot's in the bracket, described as 'the car wash to beat' at that point, before being eliminated by MJJC |
| 7Adam's$35 for a gallon (27 cents per oz) | 7.55, described as the most pH neutral yet at that point | 3 to 4 oz per canister, roughly 8 parts water to 1 part soap | 2.3 lb, tied with Meguiar's for first place at that point in testing | tied Meguiar's and was allowed to advance, then narrowly beat Malco, then was eliminated by Swift | samples 5.41, 5.02, 5.26, 5.62, 5.71; average 5.4, moved into the lead at that point in testing | trailed P&S Professional by a small amount both before and after dust exposure; average 9.79 | described as looking the best yet at that point, with just a small amount of flour sticking to the paint | survived the full 4 minute test but was eliminated in a close match against Meguiar's ('there's definitely more foamy car wash with the Meguiar's') |
| 8P&S Professional$29 for a gallon (23 cents per oz) | 9.23, described as a relatively strong base | 80 parts water to 1 part shampoo | 2.8 lb, described as not nearly as slick as the Meguiar's | lost decisively to Meguiar's in the first bracket match ('not even close') | samples 5.83, 5.8, 5.58, 5.71, 5.54; average 5.69, described as a much better job of cleaning than Meguiar's | started at 5.69 pre-dust, average 9.29 after dust exposure; finished third place overall in this test | some flour sticking, but performed a little better than Meguiar's | lost to Meguiar's, lasting only 3 minutes 20 seconds versus Meguiar's full 4 minutes |
| 9Malco$38 for a gallon (30 cents per oz) | 8.16 | manufacturer instructions did not specify a foam cannon ratio; narrator used 1 oz per quart based on the listed wash-bucket ratio of 1 oz per 3 gallons | 2.5 lb, trailed Meguiar's and Adam's | lost a close match to Adam's ('extremely close, the Adam's seems to have a slight advantage') | samples 6.41, 6.16, 6.11, 6.52, 6.18; average 6.28, moved into third place at that point in testing | trailed Adam's after the wash, but all five test areas stayed in the 9s for an average of 9.47, moving into second place behind P&S Professional | did a decent job, performed about the same as Adam's | looked quite a bit better with the pressure washer than with the garden hose, but lost to Meguiar's ('definitely an easy win for the Meguiar's') |
| 10Koch-Chemie$32 for 34 oz (95 cents per oz) | 7.21, described as pH balanced; narrator notes the product's own label claims both pH neutral and corrosive, which he flags as an apparent contradiction on the packaging itself | 2 oz of soap to 1 quart of water | 2.6 lb, not nearly as slick as some of the other brands | eliminated by Swift in the bracket ('the Swift easily outlasted the Koch-Chemie') | samples 5.97, 5.91, 6.22, 5.81, 5.91; average 5.96, described as performing about average | started a little below average at 5.96 pre-dust, average 12.6 after dust exposure, the worst dust-resistance result of any product tested | did not perform quite as well as Slick, leaving behind quite a bit of tire shine | looked much better with the pressure washer than the garden hose, but lost to MJJC |
| 11Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash$10 for 64 oz (16 cents per oz) | 8.4 | 5 parts water to 1 part gold class shampoo | 2.3 lb, versus 3.3 lb for the plain-water control; tied with Adam's for first place at that point in testing | beat P&S Professional decisively, then tied Adam's and was eliminated on the tiebreak | samples 7.87, 7.88, 7.47, 7.5, 7.99; average 7.74, the weakest dirt-removal result of any product tested | started at 7.74 pre-dust, average 10.8 after dust exposure | looked a lot better than the plain-water control | won its first four bracket matches (against P&S, Adam's, Malco, and Swift) before being eliminated by Hybrid Solutions |
How it was tested
- pH measurement of each product straight from the bottle (and after foam cannon dilution for Swift)
- lubricity/slickness test: force in lb to slide a 5 lb weighted, water-saturated sponge across a waxed-off hood section, versus a plain-water control of 3.3 lb
- single-elimination dwell time bracket using a garden hose foam cannon attachment, winner advances to face the next brand
- dirt removal test on an unwashed black SUV using a colorimeter (darkness value, lower is cleaner; clean baseline 2.18, dirty baseline 18.76), 5 samples averaged per brand after two 2 minute dwell/rinse cycles
- dust resistance test: same colorimeter scale after driving the washed SUV down a dusty road
- tire shine removal test using flour to visualize residual oily tire shine on a test panel, qualitative assessment plus a subjective rating
- single-elimination dwell time bracket using a high-pressure washer foam cannon attachment, each brand given up to 4 minutes
“Slick came out on top with the best average finish of 1.8. It finished in the top three in every category of testing.”
Data notes and caveats
11 products tested total, not the 10 named in the description's prose 'Brands:' sentence; Meguiar's Gold Class is extensively tested throughout the transcript (introduced first, used in every test) and appears in the description's amzn.to Products Tested link list even though the prose sentence omits it. Overall scorecard only gives explicit average-finish numbers for the top 3 (Slick 1.8, Swift 2.5, Chemical Guys 3.2); the remaining 8 products' overall placement is not individually stated, only their per-category results, which are captured in full above. Two of the seven graded/timed tests end in single-elimination brackets (garden hose dwell time and pressure washer dwell time) where the winner of each match advances to face the next brand in price order; note that Griot's and Slick both lost their garden-hose bracket matches to Swift yet still received the same best-possible numeric rating of one as Swift in the final subjective scoring for that category, an apparent inconsistency between the bracket narrative and the stated final ratings that is preserved here rather than resolved. No meta chapters exist for this video. This transcript is unusually clean with essentially no brand-name caption mangling, in contrast to many other videos in this corpus.