How much soap for 5 gallon bucket?

[Spilchy]

I wash with a 5 gallon home depot heavy duty plastic paint bucket. Great pickup for $3.50.



How much soap do you guys use for 5 gallons. With the GC I use 5 - 6 ounces.



However, I bought P21s and Pinncale to try. Their instructions are fuzzy for 5 gallons.



The stuff is expensive so how much would I use for the 5 gallons?

[loancoach]

Well I use a 5 gallon bucket and put about 3-4 gallons of water in it. I use Pinnacle Shampoo and put in a "good squirt" maybe two-three ounces.

[2wheelsx2]

Depends on how dirty your car is. When I am washing weekly, I use 2 ozs for 5 gallons. If the car is really dirty, or I am prepping to polish and am not worried about preserving the wax, I`ll use 5 or 6 oz in a 5 gallon bucket. BTW, this is with Mother`s wash, so I don`t know how the other washes sud up.

[loancoach]

One more note to my post...Pinnacle suds like you wouldnt believe, its great stuff.

[Patrick]

Just make sure you still have suds when your finished, that way you know you have enough lubricant....I would say 2-3 oz should be enough...

[Mindflux]

Originally posted by crashman2600

One more note to my post...Pinnacle suds like you wouldnt believe, its great stuff.

I agree it suds like you wont believe, but the suds go away quick.



Also sudsing does not equal "enough lubrication" in all cases.

[forrest@mothers]

Check the soap bottle. Most manufacturers recomend 1 ounce per gallon of water.



Assuming you use 4 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket, that`d be 4 ounces of car wash soap.

[CharlesW]

Will using more soap than recommended be more difficult to rinse, leaving some residue or soap film?

If would seem that if you use lots of rinse water, all the soap should be removed. It`s not like a washing machine where you have a limited amount of rinse water available.



Charles

[Patrick]

Whatever makes it nice and sudsy!!.......Too much will leave a film if you cant get it rinsed promptly......

[Rowani]

I use about 2 capfuls of P21S/4 gallons. It feels slick and has good suds with this amount.

[HellrotCi]

Who actually measures shampoo anyway? :nixweiss



The first time you squirt in too much, the second time you don`t squirt in enough, after that your eyeballs have become calibrated and experience takes over.

[Patrick]

your eyeballs have become calibrated and experience takes over.

Couldnt have said it any better.............

[panapower]

about 3-4 gallons. also depends on how filthy the ride is.

[Nick T.]

For normal washing about half of what the label recommends works well. Think about this: First, the more you use, the more they sell; and two, they want you to be satisfied with how well their product works. But, the more shampoo concentrate you use, the more film there is to be rinsed off after the wash.



Another myth about soaps is that sudsing equates to cleaning power. Not true! Many years ago dish and laundry soap makers realized that housewives related suds to power and started adding sudsing agents to their products. We’ll all agree that dish washing machine soap does an excellent job of washing dishes (without scrubbing). Put an ounce of Cascade (or whatever brand) dishwasher detergent in your blender along with some water, run it on high for a minute or two and see the sudsing, or lack of it. They don’t put sudsing agents in dishwasher detergents because you can’t see if they make suds or not!



For more than you ever wanted to know about soap click here.

[shaf]

Good post Nick. :up Detergents and soaps have the job of emulsifying dirt and oil and they don`t have to be sudsy or slick to do either - just look at a product like QEW.



I still follow the directions for the amount of soap though, especially since I have way too much for my consumption anyway! :p As said, the average amount (I checked ) is usually suggested at 1 oz per gallon, although a few washes, especially the "wash & wax" type, prescribe more.