Cleaning your piece

[Dr Dog]

It does not take long to dirty up a new piece of glass. Straight pipes, hash pipes, chillums, and even bongs get encrusted with tar in no time flat.

In a perfect world, both your dishes and your smoking devices would be cleaned daily, but we all know that does not happen often

So after a few days of hitting my bong. ( which I do use a screen in) I have sticky tar and resin coating the shaft and water lines. Since it is just me using it, not that big of a deal, but it will ruin the taste, and lets face it, stinks too!!

Here is how I clean my gear.

I remove ( disassemble) what I can, removed rubber grommets, the bowl and shaft, anything I can and place in a shallow saucer

I will then get out two important things, rubbing alcohol and salt. Ordinary iodized salt works just fine, but I have used popcorn kernels, uncooked rice, and the larger sea salt.

Pour a teaspoon of salt in your bong, the follow it with a couple cm of alcohol, then shake.
Let stand for like 5 mins and do it again. This should effectively get rid of most of tar.

I then do the same thing with the accessories in the saucer.

Rinse well with hot water, and let cool before you fill with cold water, and that is it. You are done


... for the small nooks and crannys I will also use a baby bottle brush, and or pipe cleaners to really get in there, for those special occasions, that a clean bong is a must!!

[JessE]

Good advise, rubbing alcohol and salt basically = 420 Cleaner for me atleast.

[Tank]

I like soaking mine in Iso. then a mild orange detergent.. works great..

[PharmaPharmer]

I do the same with rice but I use HOT ISO as when heated the ISO is a way more agressive solvent. I typically microwave about 16oz for about 1 and a half min. to get to about 160-170*F.

I also like to do a clean ISO rinse before the water. For maintence I use hot water and clean it daily. When smoking a lot I change the water a lot. i use no screen.

[JRace]

Same thing over here for my bongs and herbal aire.

One thing, do not clean any rubber pieces as the alcohol will cause them to dry up and become brittle (over time).

[Diskrete]

once I use the alcohol sometimes there is an odor, it happens when you use drinking alcohol...I then use Coca-cola for a final rinse. It is the only thing I have found gets the taste and smell out and it also helps keep your bong clean because water will not stick to the walls. Give it a shot.

[benwire]

I use Mean Green degreaser (sold at Giant tiger and many others too) and hot water. Works very well, i like the salt and iso idea.

[talwin]

i usually use that Bong cleaner. its called Orange Chronic. i think it must be made of the same stuff your talking about. you just put it in your (glass only) bong or pipe and swish it around for like 5 mins and then pour it back into the bottle. apparently you can get a couple uses out of it but its damn expensive. i paid 10$ for something thats probably less the capacity then a can of coke. i wanted to try the method above with the alchohol and salt but i'm just nervous i won't clean the alcohol out properly and i'll end up hurting my lungs.

just thought id let everyone know what i use. but maybe i will try using the alcohol method next time.

[rev.clone]

for store bought stuff i like Resinate. now for homemade cleaner i like nail polish remover with a little dish soap and salt.

[Diskrete]

420 cleaner has always worked great for store bought stuff. nail polish remover does wonders!

[JRace]

...i wanted to try the method above with the alchohol and salt but i'm just nervous i won't clean the alcohol out properly and i'll end up hurting my lungs.

just thought id let everyone know what i use. but maybe i will try using the alcohol method next time.
The alcohol evaporates quickly.
After you use the alcohol/salt just rinse your pipe with water. Let air dry for a couple of minutes and your done.

[Dr Dog]

The alcohol evaporates quickly.
After you use the alcohol/salt just rinse your pipe with water. Let air dry for a couple of minutes and your done.

before i smoke it, I rinse it out with some hot water too

Be careful if you have hot water in there and then fill it up with cold, dont want any cracks

[Diskrete]

Alright guys...Now what about a triple chamber bong, no chambers are accesible to "tools" however water can pass through with the first two chambers holding water. All air passages are "diffuser" style. I have been able to get most of the gunk out but I would like to get the top portion of all the chambers clean. I have removed most of the resin but a thick coat remains. How do I clean a triple chamber bong?

[Harvey W]

Alright guys...Now what about a triple chamber bong, no chambers are accesible to "tools" however water can pass through with the first two chambers holding water. All air passages are "diffuser" style. I have been able to get most of the gunk out but I would like to get the top portion of all the chambers clean. I have removed most of the resin but a thick coat remains. How do I clean a triple chamber bong?

90% isopropyl alcohol (drug store), fine grained sea salt (this tuff is almost talc, but has cyrstalized edges), and lots of patience. Take your time and swirl the mixture everywhere inside of the chambers. Rinse thouroghly, and dry off. Reload and refilth at will...

[Diskrete]

Yeah I figured...It is such a pain in the ass cleaning it, I guess persistance pays off!

[Dr Dog]

that is why you do it more frequently, dont let it build up.

I tend to keep the bigger pieces for special occasions, so they are normally clean. I have my daily smoking pieces that are pretty simple and easy to clean

[talwin]

thanks for the advice i'm going to give it a go sometime this week.

i have one more question though? im not exactly sure what its called but i think its part of the bowl, anyways i have a glass bowl and the glass part that goes into the bong is covered with gunk inside. how do i clean it out? also is this thc resin that builds up and can be smoked again, someone told me that once but I wasn't sure, especially since all the bong water goes up and down the glass part.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks again!

[groo]

i usually use that Bong cleaner. its called Orange Chronic. i think it must be made of the same stuff your talking about. you just put it in your (glass only) bong or pipe and swish it around for like 5 mins and then pour it back into the bottle. apparently you can get a couple uses out of it but its damn expensive. i paid 10$ for something thats probably less the capacity then a can of coke. i wanted to try the method above with the alchohol and salt but i'm just nervous i won't clean the alcohol out properly and i'll end up hurting my lungs.

just thought id let everyone know what i use. but maybe i will try using the alcohol method next time.

No need to worry about alcohol "residue", as 99% ISO will just evaporate.

I use ISO and a chop stick to clean my pyrex steamroller -- works great. Except for the circle of gunk left on the finger that's plugging one end of the steamroller!

I use a Q-tip soaked in ISO to clean the bowl and the short "stem" at the bottom of it.

[talwin]

whats a pyrex steam roller? i know pyrex is that type of glass wear.

[Dr Dog]

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My new piece

[JRace]

i have one more question though? im not exactly sure what its called but i think its part of the bowl, anyways i have a glass bowl and the glass part that goes into the bong is covered with gunk inside. how do i clean it out? also is this thc resin that builds up and can be smoked again, someone told me that once but I wasn't sure, especially since all the bong water goes up and down the glass part.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks again!
Use ISO and course salt - ie: pickling salt.

DO NOT smoke the resin!
You can, its just that this is all the nasty stuff that you do not want.
It will get you smashed though....

[Diskrete]

Resin is used in a stress situation for me. It gets you messed up. if you do smoke it, you will first notice the nasty ass taste, then the head rush and soon to follow the crazy ass couch lock. I use resin when I am out and my bong is clogged.

[talwin]

dr dog damn that bong looks nice. something straight out of a dream.

as for the resin thanks for the advice. i've never smoked resin before but a lot of people i know do (or atleast they advise me to). i have enough bud so i don't really see the need to smoke it.

oh by the way i figured out the glass tube attached to the bowl going into the bong is called the stack. apparently the dark colored film in the stack is unsmokable, just thought id share. but my last question is how should i go about cleaning the stack? it looks too small to fit a q-tip in it. i was thinking about putting some salt and alchohol into a plastic cup or glass jar and then putting the bowl and stack in there and swirling it around, would this work?

thanks again!

[Diskrete]

Yeah it will work! Try doing it at night or a time when you know you are not going to use it. drop it in your solution and go back to it after a few hours/overnight. it will remove alot of resin, but you will have to get something small in there to clean the inside portion of the bowl(i.e. pipe cleaners). the downtube/stack is always hard to clean. You may be able to scrape it clean, but it will leave fine scratches...I have come to terms with the way this looks in a really clean bong.

I am going to take pictures of my bong, it is dirty, but maybe you can get a feel for it!

[talwin]

sounds good. i'd like to see some pics of other peoples bongs too. ill take one of mine, its pretty small but i did spend like 60$ on it. its called a "dragon" bong i think. just curious in bongs with perculators what exactly does a perculator do? also what is an ash catcher?

[pyncone]

good tips!

[Diskrete]

I will line up the arsenal tomorrow, my girls are with their bio-dad and I can line them all up. I have them to use on loan i guess you could say. 18 inch OG Zong, 24 inch PHX double diffused percolators and an air to air chamber leading to ice catchers and then the lip, that has been gifted to me and a huge 3.5 foot gravity bong. My buddy just got married and cannot have them laying around with his wife. he brought them over and said hold em' for me...so yeah!

As you can tell all of these are pretty detailed pieces of work, no simple designs for me! OKAY, Okay...I had a pipe that was my trooper, been everywhere with me. I loved it's simple design. I am a fan of straight tubed bongs. And I really really like simplistic designs. I would have spent 80-150 on a glass on glass 18-28 inch straight ube bong. I can say as a married man I would not have bought these...the wife would kill me!

[Dr Dog]

I have a straight pipe bong also

Has LED lights built into bottom

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[NeBr8D]

I use a very similar method but I use slightly different stuff, but its all basically identical.

I use Methyl Hydrate (Canadian Tire) which is almost identical to Iso, and I use Kosher salt (health food store).

It works great. I got the idea from a docu I watched and thats what Marc Emery said he used. What can I say, the guy knows his stuff.

To clean my bong bowl and stem I use pipe cleaners (Chenille stems) from the Dollar Store craft section. I pull out the bowl and stem and hold up 1 pipe cleaner and cut it with scissor so its a tad bit longer than the stem on both ends and then quickly dip the pipe cleaner into the Methyl Hydrate. Then I push it down the stem until it comes out the other end and I push/pull it back and forth a bit and I rub my finger and thumb together so it rotates the pipe cleaner in the stem. After doing that quickly the stem is dislodged of all the crap that gets pulled through the bowl and gets stuck in the stem.