With the many options available in the marketplace it can be confusing trying to decide which portable foamer is best for you. We have below suggested some key points to look for to enable you to make the correct decision and get the right foamer for your situation.
The questions below should also help explain the difference in price for these units, as they are not all created equal.
What is the tank capacity?
- This is very important as you want to make sure the tank capacity is big enough, so you don’t have to keep stopping to re fill the unit. This can add a serious amount of time to the task.
- How long is the foam hose?
- You need to make sure that the length of the hose is a good fit for the machine. A hose too long for the design of foamer will give poor foam quality and foam throw and a hose too short can cause inconsistent foam and ‘hose bucking’. You may think you could buy a cheaper machine with a short hose and just add a longer hose – you could be caught out here as the hose supplied with the machine could be its capacity.
- What is the material of the foam hose?
- Having the wrong material will definitely affect performance and could make it harder to store and use (too heavy to handle for the operator). The best hose to use is an EPDM rubber hose with a smooth outer cover – antimicrobial covers are another option on some hoses which can help with cross contamination. Cheaper PVC hoses or nitrile rubber liners will degrade too fast and can cause small particles caused by hose breakdown to be deposited on surfaces.
- Is it easy to get parts or get the foamer repaired here in New Zealand?
- You need to make sure that whatever machine you have, you can access parts here in New Zealand, and also there is an ability to have it serviced here as well. Having these on a regular maintenance/service schedule will increase the life of your machine
- Quality of parts
- Carrying on from above and assuming parts are readily available in New Zealand, you need to make sure these parts are robust enough to handle the New Zealand environment. We tend to work our equipment hard so the parts need to be very hard wearing.
- Can you see the liquid volume in the tank?
- Having a translucent tank means the user can see the volume available and not get caught out needing to refill at the wrong time.
- Are there a full range of accessories available?
- Does the portable foamer have a full range of accessories available, E.g. nozzles, lances
Once you know the answers to all of the above, you should be able to make an informed decision on what foamer will work best for you. Another really good tip is if the portable foamer is a critical piece of equipment for your factory cleaning/sanitising then it would pay to have a spare. Some brands have a back plate that can be removed from the foamer, so you could potentially just have a spare one of those. This would enable you to keep using the unit while the other back plate was sent back for repair or maintenance.
If you would like some information about our portable foamer please fill in the form below and one of our team will be back in touch with more details for you.