Top 7 Best Car Soap For Pressure Washers in 2024

From preserving the car’s paint and finishes to simply looking classy in your sweet ride, there are plenty of reasons of keeping your car clean.

A lot of people prefer to take their car to a car wash, which is a perfectly fine idea, as long as you are doing it only a couple of times a YEAR. But for most people, that’s not an option.

What if you live in an area with a lot of pollen and dust particles in the air? Or perhaps you like to go off-roading every other weekend? Well, going to the car wash isn’t such a great idea now, is it?

You want a solution that doesn’t put too much of a burden on your wallet, doesn’t get you tiring yourself out and gives you control over what car-friendly chemicals touch your car’s surface.

That’s where pressure washing with car soap comes in. It is effortless and fast and lets you wash your car more frequently without costing you nearly as much. And the best part is, you can even have quality servicing instead of just an average servicing at a regular car wash.

Top 7 Best Car Soap For Pressure Washers

To get all that and more with your pressure washing, you need to know what soap to use in a pressure washer for your car. So, here’s our list of the top 7 best car soaps for pressure washer.

We will discuss some car soaps that give you the best bang for your buck, so you get the perfect combination of quality and quantity. We will also see a few high-quality soaps which might cost you more, but you also get what you pay for. And finally, we will discuss a quick-and-easy soap that cleans your car faster than anything. So, without any further ado, here’s our list of the best car soap for pressure washer.

Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo – [Beginner-Friendly]

The first car wash soap on this list is Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo. It has just the right amount of suds and produces decent enough lather, so you can have the perfect slippery texture to remove dust easily without scratching your car’s surface.

It is a beginner-friendly product, which means you will have a safe and efficient pressure washing without trying to get the perfect accurate concentrations down to the milliliters.

Be it a simple hand wash, a foam gun, or a foam lance, Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo can be used via different applications, making life easier for any novice looking to avoid the overwhelming brain teasers before selecting a car wash soap for a pressure washer.

Not only that but Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo has a nice berry-like smell. And you don’t have to worry about the smell affecting your car’s body, as the shampoo is manufactured with a PH-neutral formula.

However, as you go up the level of premium-ship, or in the case of Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo – the ease of usability – you usually have to pay higher. The same is also true for this car wash soap as it is more on the expensive side of this list.

Chemical Guys Mr. Pink Foaming Car Wash Soap – [Best Value]

Chemical Guys are one of the best in the industry when it comes to producing the best car soap for pressure washers. They have been selling their products worldwide and on Amazon since 2012 and Mr. Pink Foaming Car Wash Soap, has racked up a whopping 42,532 ratings so far (Oct/22).

There’s a reason that Chemical Guys put “foaming” in this product’s title, and it is rightly so. The Mr. Pink Foaming Car Wash Soap produces foaming in such a quantity, especially with a foam lance, to give you the cleaning of an automatic car wash (if not better!).

It is the ideal option for your weekly car maintenance, as it provides bang for the buck cleaning. The PH-neutral formula along with sudsy concentration removes filth and grime from your car in a matter of minutes.

A few car wash soaps in the market offer the versatility of cleaning and waxing, and in the effort to do multiple things at once, they drop the ball. Instead of doing just one thing pretty good, they do a lot of things poorly.

But Mr. Pink Foaming Car Wash Soap promises cleanliness and they deliver on it too. Not only that but you will also have a new shine on your car post-wash.

However, if you don’t have the patience or extra time for waxing, sealing, or coating, it is sometimes the better choice to go with 2-in-1 car soaps.

The other shortcomings of this soap aren’t exactly shortcomings but it’s how you use and store the soap. As the soap is very sudsy, it tends to dry faster, so don’t let the soap sit for too long.

Also, be careful when storing the soap for longer periods such as during the winter season or for 3-4 months. The soap can eat through the plastic bottle and will end up leaking everywhere.

Meguiar’s Gold Class – [Best 2-in-1]

The previous entry on the list was an excellent value for money but only serves the purpose of cleaning the car without waxing it. Now, it is usually preferred to keep both of those processes separate but unfortunately, very few of us have the luxury of plenty of free time on our hands.

So, for those who need a multi-purpose and suitable solution to have their car cleaned and waxed in a single go, Meguiar’s Gold Class is the perfect option for them.

The solid mixture of this car soap suds well to produce a lather that serves not one, not two, but three valuable purposes.

It produces a lather that breaks down the hard filth on the car’s surface. Then, it provides lubrication that makes it easier to remove the dirt without scratching the paintwork. Finally, after rinsing and drying the soap off, the Meguiar’s Gold Class leaves behind a premium coating that makes your neighbors wonder that you just had your car detailed.

And as an extra benefit of this soap, your car will have a nice fragrance that most people love.

Well, the perfume might be a double-edged sword as some people don’t like its smell very much. And speaking of a double-edged sword, the 2-in-1 feature of cleaning and waxing this soap doesn’t come cheap.

So, if you are getting your vehicle dirty – requiring a pressure wash with soap every week – it’s not recommended to use Meguiar’s Gold Class. Perhaps, the previous entry on this list might be more suitable for you then.

And of course, if you need a car wash every week, you won’t be able to dedicate this task enough time. This is where the next entry on this list will come in, but first, let’s summarize the pros and cons of Meguiar’s Gold Class.

 

Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine – [No Rinse And No Pressure Washing Needed]

Technically, the Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine shouldn’t be on this list as you don’t need a pressure washer for this soap for a super-easy wash. However, it is one of the products you should always have on hand to use multiple times a week when you just don’t have the time for pressure washing.

With Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine, you will have your car cleaned within 10 minutes! You can use it daily, if you need to, without the risk of stripping your car off of waxes.

You’re done by applying the car wash soap with a bucket of water and a sponge. Now, we get that it’s hard to understand whether it really cleans the car or not. After all, there isn’t any foam, or the foam getting blasted away with high-pressure water.

But you have seen how soap gets the dirt off your hands, right? It works exactly like that! It removes the dirt from the car to the sponge, and from the sponge to the bucket.

If you don’t have enough time or space for using your pressure washer, or you live in a society where pressure washing isn’t allowed, the Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine is the best choice for you. And it isn’t too expensive as well, so you can use it as many times in a week as you like.

Now, this soap will clean your car. However, it shouldn’t be considered an alternative to pressure washing. You still need that once every 4-6 weeks to rinse off hard deposits and caked mud.

Regardless, the Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine is the best car wash soap you should regularly use between your pressure washer cleaning.

Rain-X Spot Free Car Wash – [A Guaranteed Amount Of Cleaning]

The Rain-X Spot Free Car Wash is another beginner-friendly car wash soap on this list. However, if you aren’t a beginner, can you use Rainx car wash in a pressure washer? Definitely!

Sometimes, in car washing (or generally in life), it doesn’t hurt to go with the safest bet, and that’s what Rain-X offers. It has an easy cleaning factor, thanks to its high foaming action that can cut through contaminants. So, you can clean the dirt off with a simple wipe.

And, as the name suggests, the spot-free cleaning doesn’t need drying off. However, in our experience, it’s always recommended to dry off with a microfiber or soft cloth. Regardless, the Rain-X requires very little to no scrubbing.

With Rain-X, you can be sure to receive a certain amount of cleaning, and that too at a meager price. It uses a PH-neutral formula and leaves a water-repellent coating that protects your car against water spots, streaks, and dirt.

However, if you have a recently applied coating or waxing, it might not sit well with the protective coating from Rain-X. Your car wouldn’t remain spot-free, but the protective coating wouldn’t be harmed. You can always scrub to remove these spots, but at that point, you would lose the advantage of keeping the car scrub-free or at minimal scrubs.

Sun Joe SPX-APC1G Pressure Washer Cleaner + Degreaser – [One Of The Most Reputable Brands In The Industry]

Snow Joe is one of our favorite brands regarding pressure washers and related products. They have taken the industry by storm and have a fan base of car fanatics and lovers. We have reviewed one of Snow Joe’s pressure washers earlier, and you can read more on it here [insert link to Best Pressure Washers For Foam Cannon], but for now, let’s get back to the Snow Joe’s car wash soap.

The Sun Joe SPX-APC1G is a versatile car wash soap for a pressure washer that you can also use on different surfaces including sidings, brick walls, driveways, wooden decking, and more. It produces a lot of soap in even the diluted concentration of one capful in two liters of water.

Not only that, but the foam it produces is light and can last long enough to loosen the contaminants off the surface of your car. So, with a simple rinsing afterward, you get a guaranteed and effortless wash.

It has a nice pineapple-like scent, making your pressure washing a pleasant experience. Notice how we used “pressure washing” in general? This is because once you wash your car with one of the best car soap for pressure washer, you can wash different surfaces in your house with the leftover soap. You will have nice and clean surfaces with a nice fragrance around the house.

While the soap is biodegradable, you will have to be careful not to throw it in your garden. It will kill your grass and all of the beautiful plants and might even stunt the growth of any more plantations in the same area. So, be careful when disposing the Sun Joe SPX-APC1G.

Chemical Guys CWS-110 Honeydew Snow Foam Car Wash Soap – [Our Favorite]

We have saved our favorite on this list for last and this is a second entry from Chemical Guys on what soap to use in a pressure washer for cars.

The Chemical Guys CWS-110 is our best overall pick because it creates plentiful cleaning suds that stick to your car like glue – attacking all the contaminants on the surface – and then slowly slide off. A simple rinse from a pressure washer afterward gives you a smooth, shiny, and perfectly clean surface.

Even better, all this happens at a price point that doesn’t break your budget. Couple this with the fact that a single capful of this soap is enough for around 5 gallons of water!

Many customers worldwide know this, as it is evident from 22,854 purchases, 4.7/5 stars, and the #1 Best Seller on Amazon.

The Chemical Guys Honeydew Foam is designed to work on various car surfaces including vinyl, plastic, glass, paint, rubber, etc. The thick lather, made from PH-neutral and biodegradable formula, sticks to the car surface, creating the perfect lubricant for scrubbing. You can skip the scrubbing to go straight for the rinse and still get decent to a pretty good amount of cleaning.

While you can clean your car with this soap in sunlight, it is recommended that you carry out the process quickly. This is because the chemicals on your car might get sunbaked, which would then require an extra bit of scrubbing to clean. And we don’t want that as the whole purpose of this highly effective soap is to reduce our effort.

FAQs

What soap do you use in a pressure washer for car?

Plenty of options to use as soap to pressure wash a car. Generally, you need a soap that produces enough foam and lather to provide plenty of lubrication if you decide to scrub. The soap should also be concentrated enough to dissolve contaminants. The nice-to-have features of soap leave behind shine, wax, protective coating, and perfume on your car.

Can you put regular car soap in a pressure washer?

You should always use car soaps explicitly designed for pressure washers. Otherwise, regular car soaps can produce lather or deposit hard suds, blocking the nozzles of the pressure washer and damaging them. Instead of using regular car soap with a pressure washer, you can make homemade detergent to wash cars with your pressure washer.

Can you use Rainx car wash in pressure washer?

Yes, the Rain-X Spot Free Car Wash soap is one of the beginner-friendly soaps for pressure washers. It is a PH-neutral soap that will give you a guaranteed cleaning (the level of cleaning is debatable). Rain-X is also marketed as “no drying needed,” which can help you speed things up. However, it’s recommended that you wipe your car dry post-wash anyway.

Conclusion

Using car soap for pressure washers makes our car cleaning tasks a cool breeze. There are plenty of car soaps to choose from and we have tried to make choices for you more accessible with our list of the top 7 best car soaps for pressure washer.

Our favorite on this list is Chemical Guys CWS-110 Honeydew Snow Foam because the level of cleaning that this concentrated soap provides is almost unrivaled. Chemical guys are one of the most popular in the industry and they have secured two entries on this list.

Our runner-up is the Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine, simply because it is fast and easy and doesn’t require washing with a pressure washer. This car wash soap will hold you up for days until you finally have enough time to have your car thoroughly washed.

Finally, if you are a beginner and need a car wash soap that gets the job done, you are looking for Adam’s Car Wash Shampoo. If you need another beginner-friendly alternative that markets itself as “no drying needed”, you can check out the Rain-X Spot Free Car Wash.