Koch-Chemie Active Foam Berry Boost "Afb" Intensivschaum mit Cranberry Duft 20000ml

Contactless pre-wash with Berry Boost Snow Foam

What is Koch-Chemie Active Foam Berry Boost? A highly concentrated snow foam with a berry scent for contactless pre-washing. Mildly alkaline, making it a touch more active than a neutral foam, and thus more effective against road film and insects. Not the right foam if you are caring for a natural wax sealant.

Koch-Chemie Active Foam Berry Boost is a Snow Foam concentrate from Unna for commercial automatic car washes, self-service bays, and ambitious detailers using a foam cannon. Phosphate and nitrilotriacetate-free, meaning it does not contain the problematic complexing agents found in older foams. The berry scent comes from geraniol and sweet orange extract, a sensory copy of the berry note that enhances the perceived value in modern car washes. The application pH is just under 10. Practical: active enough to dissolve grease without attacking modern clear coats.

• Mildly alkaline with a bite. Dissolves greasy road grime and insect residue, but leaves modern clear coats untouched. This fills the gap between a pH-neutral snow foam (gentle, but barely cleans) and a highly alkaline pre-cleaner (cleans everything, but eats bare aluminum wheels). For you, this means a foam that truly replaces the pre-wash without needing subsequent polishing.
• Tested on OEM materials. German car manufacturers have approved the formula for use on paints, plastics, chrome, and rubber seals. This provides the legal basis for detailers to wash premium vehicles, such as those with wraps or paint protection films, without liability risks.
• 21-kilo canister, 5 ml per car. Professional consumption in self-service facilities ranges from 3 to 8 ml per car. With the 21-kilo canister, depending on your setup, you can clean between 2,500 and 6,500 cars. This is the scale of a detailing business that handles five to ten vehicles a day and wouldn't need to reorder for two years.

Detailing1's practical tip: We always see the same mistake in inquiries. A customer fills their 1-liter pump sprayer for the first time with Active Foam, 20 milliliters of concentrate to 1 liter of water, densest filter nozzle, pull the lever. Out comes a thick shaving foam carpet. Looks spectacular on Instagram, but doesn't clean. Dense foam sticks to the paint instead of flowing off with the dirt. The Detailing1 rule: 5 ml to 1 liter, medium filter nozzle, the goal is a wet foam that slowly drains and carries the dirt down to the bottom trim.

Properly dosing Berry Boost in your foam cannon workflow

The Berry Boost requires a setup that matches its concentration: a pressure washer with at least 110 bar plus a foam cannon with a stainless steel filter screen, not a garden pump sprayer with 0.5 bar maximum pressure.

In the foam cannon container, mix 1:5 to 1:30, depending on the degree of soiling and the water hardness in your region. Hard water (over 14 German degrees of hardness) binds surfactants and neutralizes some of their cleaning power. You will then need a higher concentration. With soft water, 1:30 is sufficient for a weekly maintenance wash. Start generously, finish sparingly, and never work from the paint down to the door, but foam from bottom to top so that runoff marks do not dry prematurely.

The cleaning logic is based on simple surfactant chemistry. The concentrate contains anionic surfactants, which are water-soluble/fat-soluble molecules that act like tiny magnets: one side attaches to dirt particles, the other stays in the water. For you, this means the dirt is encapsulated and carried away with the draining foam, not massaged into the paint as with mechanical friction.

The maximum dwell time on the paint is 5 minutes. If the surfactant mixture dries, alkaline residues will burn into the clear coat, creating so-called alkaline stains that can only be removed with machine polishing. In summer, park the vehicle in the shade beforehand, briefly cool it down with clear water in an open self-service bay, then apply foam.

In cold weather, the concentrate becomes viscous. Before filling a foam cannon for the first time in winter, briefly take the bottle indoors, otherwise the pumping pressure will stall and you will get inhomogeneous mixing ratios. A foam cannon with a constant 110 bar mechanically solves this problem.

Consumption in the foam cannon workflow is 50 to 100 ml of diluted solution per vehicle, which is about 5 to 10 ml of concentrate per car. With the 21-kilo canister, you can wash between 2,000 and 4,000 vehicles on this basis. For a self-service bay with a dosing pump, it's 3 to 8 ml pure per car, which doubles the range. Both values apply to moderate soiling. During pollen season in spring or after salty weather in winter, use the upper limit, otherwise the dirt will stick in the foam instead of draining with it.

Mildly alkaline strips carnauba. If you love wax, read on here.

The honest limitation of Berry Boost is its greatest advantage: its mildly alkaline nature. This reliably dissolves grease from insect residue, road film, and old quick detailer residue, but it also dissolves your last natural wax.

Carnauba waxes and light polymer sealants react to alkaline surfactants over time. Carnauba is chemically a plant wax that is gradually broken down by repeated saponification. Imagine wiping a candle repeatedly with dish soap; eventually, it will be gone. After several washes on a weekly basis, the beading becomes flatter, and water crawls instead of rolling. Those who lovingly care for their vehicle on weekends with a hand wax or spray wax treatment should not use Active Foam for weekly maintenance. For this niche, the pH-neutral Gentle Snow Foam "Gsf" is the better choice; same manufacturer, different task.

With modern ceramic coatings, the situation is different. A ceramic layer is a cross-linked glass structure, permanently bonded to the paint, much more stable than a wax film. Mildly alkaline foams cannot harm it.

What's more: the alkaline foam extracts oily traffic film residues from the micropores of the ceramic. If your 18-month coating suddenly isn't beading but crawling, this is often not material damage, but a clogged surface. A concentrated Active Foam wash frees up this contamination, and the beading returns. This is the off-label use that professionals know about, but which is not found in any manufacturer's brochure.

The second specific limitation: the foam must not dry. At ambient temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius or in direct sunlight, the water in the foam evaporates within seconds. The surfactant concentration locally increases extremely and burns into the clear coat as an etch mark. If washing in summer: park the vehicle in the shade, cool it down with clear water, then apply foam. If working without shade: meticulously observe the maximum dwell time of 5 minutes and rinse immediately before moving to the next section.

What Berry Boost can't do: dissolve burnt-in brake dust on rims. For that, you need the acid-based workflow with Magic Wheel Cleaner "Mwc". The foam keeps rims clean if they are already clean; it's maintenance, not a reset.

For commercial detailers, not for Sunday washes

The 21-kilo canister with SKU D1-KCX-695-20L-01 targets professionals: automatic car wash operators, detailing businesses, commercial detailers who foam multiple vehicles per day.

With 5 ml consumption per car in hand washing, the canister is sufficient for around 4,000 vehicles. This is the scale of a detailing business that handles five to ten vehicles a day and wouldn't need to reorder for two years. For a hobbyist with one wash per week, this container size is simply oversized. Those who privately want the berry scent should wait for 1- or 5-liter fillings or stick with Active Foam "Af" with a sandalwood scent, which is available in smaller containers in the product range.

In a B2B context, OEM approval is the actual reason for purchase. German car manufacturers have tested and approved the formula on original materials. This is more than just a marketing seal; it's a material guarantee in black and white.

When the maximum concentration of one percent on the paint and a 5-minute dwell time are observed, the foam demonstrably does not attack paints, plastics, chrome parts, or rubber seals. For a detailer who washes premium vehicles with wraps or clear coat protection films, this is the legal basis against claims for damages. A US import product without this approval may be chemically similar, but it is worthless in court in the event of damage.

The off-label application we see most frequently in inquiries is the wheel-bucket hack: a shot of Berry Boost in the separate wheel bucket of the two-bucket method. For regularly maintained wheels without burnt-in brake dust, the mildly alkaline foam completely replaces the need for aggressive acidic wheel cleaner. The rim becomes clean, and the rim's clear coat remains untouched.

The OEM approval was conceived precisely for this workflow: not just for the main wash, but for every part of the car where a cleaner touches the paint. The trick that no manufacturer prints in their brochure because it undermines the sale of a separate wheel cleaner: a concentrate that keeps clean wheels clean saves you the aggressive acidic product for the really tough cases.

Application of Koch-Chemie Active Foam Berry Boost

Preparation and Correct Dosage

Before each use, cool down the paintwork with clear water, especially at outside temperatures above 25 degrees. Dry or warm body parts allow the surfactants to dry, which can leave alkaline stains.

Mix 1:5 to 1:30 in the foam cannon container, depending on the degree of soiling. With hard water (over 14 degrees German hardness), use the higher concentration, as the minerals dissolved in the water absorb some of the surfactant effect. For commercial dosing pumps, 3 to 8 ml pure per vehicle; for hand washing, 1:300 (about 3 ml per 1 liter of water).

Foam the vehicle from bottom to top so that runoff marks do not dry prematurely. Work from the sill area upwards, then over the doors and bonnet. The maximum dwell time is 5 minutes — binding for the material guarantee according to the manufacturer's approval.

Notes: Active Foam Berry Boost will, in the long term, attack carnauba waxes and light polymer sealants because mildly alkaline surfactants saponify organic wax esters. If you maintain natural waxes, you should switch to the pH-neutral Gentle Snow Foam for weekly maintenance. Ceramic sealants are compatible and even benefit from off-label use as a traffic film reset. In cold weather, the concentrate becomes viscous — briefly pre-warm the bottle indoors. Store frost-free between 5 and 30 degrees; shelf life is two years after opening.