BETTER Thickness Alkaline Snow Foam

There are plenty of snow foams that look impressive when you cover a car in them, but the real test is how much contamination they remove before you begin washing by hand. That's always been our priority when choosing a pre-wash, and it's what makes BETTER Thickness such an interesting addition to the range.

BETTER Thickness is a concentrated alkaline snow foam designed to tackle traffic film, road grime, insect deposits and the general contamination that accumulates between washes. Applied through a suitable foam lance, it produces a thick, clinging blanket that holds the cleaning solution against the bodywork while the active ingredients get to work.

What particularly caught our attention was the formulation. According to the available safety information, Thickness has a concentrate pH of approximately 12.5, placing it firmly in the strongly alkaline category. This is a product intended for more intensive cleaning than a conventional pH-neutral maintenance foam.

However, there's more to effective cleaning than simply having a high pH. The surfactants, wetting agents and other ingredients all influence how a product behaves. A strongly alkaline solution might be capable of tackling stubborn contamination, but that doesn't automatically mean it will outperform a carefully formulated cleaner with a lower pH.

One interesting aspect of Thickness is its reported amphoteric polymer surfactant system. Surfactants help a cleaning solution spread across a surface, interact with contamination and assist its removal. Amphoteric surfactants can offer useful formulation characteristics, although their specific effect on cleaning strength and foam behaviour depends on the complete chemistry.

The formulation information also identifies a polymer-based chelating agent. Chelating agents bind certain dissolved metal ions, including those associated with water hardness. Their inclusion can be useful in detergent formulations, although we wouldn't claim that Thickness has exceptional hard-water performance without comparative testing.

It's an interesting combination of ingredients, and certainly gives us more to discuss than simply saying the product produces thick foam. Nevertheless, the SDS tells us about its composition and hazards, not how many grams of road grime it removes or how it compares with every other snow foam on the market.

What we do know is the intended application. Thickness is designed to cling to vehicle surfaces, allowing its cleaning solution time to work on accumulated contamination before pressure rinsing. That makes it particularly appealing for vehicles carrying winter road grime, heavy traffic film or dirt that a gentler maintenance pre-wash might struggle to shift.

It's also worth considering the effect on existing protection. Stronger alkaline cleaners can help remove contamination that masks the water-repellent behaviour of ceramic coatings. If the coating underneath is still performing properly, removing that build-up may reveal its original water behaviour. However, frequent intensive cleaning can also affect some traditional waxes and sealants, so we'd choose the product according to the condition of the vehicle.

Another attraction is value. The manufacturer's stated dilution gives up to 20 litres of prepared solution from a 1-litre bottle, or up to 100 litres from the 5-litre container. At BETTER's published prices of £15 and £40 respectively, that's approximately 75p or 40p per litre of prepared solution. Remember that your pressure washer introduces additional water, so this isn't the same as the volume of foam ultimately sprayed onto the vehicle.

We'd use Thickness as the main foaming stage of a thorough pre-wash, allowing it to work for a few minutes before rinsing away the loosened contamination. On particularly dirty vehicles, a targeted citrus pre-wash on the lower panels beforehand may be useful, while a pH-neutral shampoo remains the sensible choice for the subsequent contact wash.

For us, Thickness has the makings of a very appealing snow foam. Strong alkaline chemistry, a distinctive surfactant system, thick clinging coverage and excellent economy are all worthwhile characteristics. The final judgement on cleaning performance will always come down to how it behaves on real vehicles, but there's certainly plenty here to make it worth trying.