If you decide to clean your water pipe with alcohol and your bowl has rubber washers, be sure to remove them before cleaning; alcohol dries out and cracks rubber and will ruin the seals.
I went on vacation, leaving a clean pipe behind. When I returned three months later, my grandson, who was living with us and taking care of the homestead, used my pipe repeatedly and put it back wet and full of sludge and gunk. What was a clear glass pipe with blue and orange spots was so black and full of plugs and sludge that I could not use it. I tried dish washer soap, 409, laundry soap and a couple of other cleaners to no avail. As I was planning how many ways I was going to wring his neck, it occurred to me to check online for cleaning methods. I tried the alcohol and salt method and the remaining sludge that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in my pipe was GONE in one cleaning; you saved my rascally grandson from a whip lash. And my pipe looks brand new! Thank you so much.
Just tried the Epsom salt and iso. alcohol method. Works like a charm; I’ve never seen something so dirty clean up so quickly and easily. Only use about a tablespoon of salt and a few tablespoons of alcohol and shake it. Pour it out and rinse it out with water. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold – I don’t know why people are tripping out about it; the only reason you need to rinse is to get the residual salts, alcohol and resin out. Works like a charm; I’ll never clean my bong any other way.
You don’t need a lot. Swish it around for about 15-20 seconds; repeat this process until the resin is all gone.
Rinse it with water REALLY well.
TIPS: Extreme Goo Gone works the best. Don’t dump fluids directly in the sink bowl; pour it in the toilet or directly down your sink drain.
This is really messy way to clean your tool, but it’s the most effective.
GOOD LUCK! 😀
Two things. Isopropyl alcohol and rice grain. Add up to 10 ml of alcohol and rice grains up to 15 pcs. Shake it as hard as you can and it won’t take a minute to shine your bong.
Empty the water-pipe, pour in a little Epsom salts and rubbing alcohol and just swirl it around, up and over all the resin. The Epsom salts don’t dissolve in the alcohol very quickly, but help break apart the resin while the alcohol dissolves it. Epsom salt is wicked cheap and can be found at CVS or Walgreens in the foot care section (it’s used to soak your feet). Quickest and cheapest way EVER!
Cleaning your piece is very easy. Trust a long time toker:
Rinse out the piece with hot water to loosen up the resin. Then, pour in some regular table salt and isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. Shake the piece, closing up any openings with your hands. Rinse itout a couple times with water.
The alcohol dissolves the resin and the salt acts as an abrasive to help take off the stubborn stuff.
MYTHS:
-It is not necessary to buy special cleaners, they’re just isopropyl alcohol and salt with scent and coloring added.
-There is no need for water to be especially hot. Super hot water can crack your glass or cause you to burn yourself and drop your piece.
-There is no need to use 90% isopropyl alcohol, the 70% works just as well and costs half as much.
HELPFUL HINTS:
-For a small piece, you can shake it up in a Ziploc bag.
-For really dirty pieces, you may have to repeat the process a couple of times because the alcohol dissolves all of the resin it can contain.
-You will probably have some resin stick to the sink or tub. Just use some rubbing alcohol on a paper towel or tissue to clean it off.
I want to know the answer to CLUELESS’ problem!!! (A few comments up!) I have some chunks of unburnt ash stuck floating around between two percs as well! Help would be appreciated!
For a stem, I just wet with alcohol and pour salt into it. Wet again a little bit, and use a screw driver to clean the whole stem. If the screw driver is dirty, clean it with the alcohol and salt.
If your piece is tasting like nail polish remover then you need to use salt and alcohol or industrial acetone use for paint thinning. You can buy industrial acetone at Home Depot or Lowes; it doesn’t have the stuff that is meant to stick to your nails and strengthen them, etc.
So I can clean mine well enough to be happy, but between a barrel percolator an a honeycomb percolator, there are chunks of unburnt substance that won’t rinse out through the perc holes…is there a chemical that will disintegrate it or how do I create enough pressure to remove the chunks through the tiny perc holes????? Please help!!!!
I tried acetone + salt (probably don’t need salt). Taped up the holes (small glass piece) and swirled it around (somewhat daintily) about 5 times or until grime disappeared. The water will instantly go a dark sort of color (like a reaction). So good!
I cleaned my water pipe using the alcohol and salt method. For whatever reason, not all the salt has come out. I’ve never had this problem before. Also, I have had no success removing the salt. I tried alcohol, hot water, and even Ajax. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Bweemanpatchjob,
That sounds like salt creep, like found on a saltwater aquarium. Fill the pipe with white vinegar or a vinegar/water mix and allow it to soak overnight. Repeat nightly until the salt deposits have dissolved. If the problem is in the pipe stem, either lay the pipe on its side in a plugged sink filled with the vinegar/water mix, or cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Alcohol is not polar, so the salt will not dissolve easily in it. Water and vinegar are both polar, but it takes time to dissolve the salt. You could try using seltzer or club soda to jar the salt particles loose and speed up the cleaning; just make sure that one hole of the pipe is uncovered so the gas can escape. Dish soap could also work.
Source: About.com – Getting Salt Creep Off Your Aquarium
Source: Middle School Chemistry – Why Does Water Dissolve Salt?
Source: trinalin’s Science Blog – “Like Dissolves Like” because “Opposites Attract”
All these work very well! But those who have expensive percy’s and hard to reach places that are covered in resin, don’t worry; just fill it with shaving cream! Leave it in over night and then rinse with hot water, alcohol, etc.
First Pass: Good for caked limescale/hard water/calcium buildups on *glass* bongs… Standard resin cleanings.
1 x PINCH Laundry Detergent.. (1/per perc/chamber)
1 x Pure Lemon Juice (Optional – First Pass/Heavy [~51% LEMON JUICE IF POSSIBLE]) *Slightly lower pH than vinegar.
1 X 25-40% Isopropyl Alcohol (99% proof)
1 X 60-75% Vinegar (Jug for value.)
1 X Coarse Salt (40%) If Applicable.
1 X Table Salt/Epsom Salt (40%) If Applicable.
I ditch a lot of resin fluid that separated… Loose liquid First Pass? Replace with alcohol 50%/vinegar 50%.
Ensure all bad areas are covered – use corks/stoppers if necessary. Soak for a minimum of four hours for lightly caked bongs, eight for medium caked, 16+ for heavily caked bongs and 24 hours for badly caked bongs. Vigorous shaking throughout cycles. Once in awhile, when you take a hit, etc., you will notice after about 6-8 hours that the limescale/calcium/hard water deposits begin to come off with heavy shaking. Long soaks help.
Second Pass: Minimum 24-36 Hours for heavy caked bongs. Always shake for a minimum of 10-15 minutes before dumping the fluids.
If the bong is close to 100%, move back to alcohol/coarse salt/table salt for remaining passes.
Second Pass, Stage 1A:
Sticky resin?
1 x 100% Lemon Juice Wash (12 Hours)
Vigourous Shaking
Salt
Second Pass, Stage 1B:
1 x 100% Alcohol Wash (12 Hours)
Vigourous Shaking
Salt
Daily Use 420 cleaner is the fastest, best way to clean a glass pipe of any kind…water or dry….perks or no perks….and it does great job on the corners and tight stem spots!!!
These suggestions invariably involve throwing the oil away, whilst I prefer to keep it. I have a large collection of oil at the bottom of my bong that has built up over time as I’ve been clearing the down-pipe (usually with a lighter flame to loosen it sufficiently) and I want to keep it.
Occasionally it’ll go in a cold oven and be brought up to 100-150 degrees. This collects all the oil in the bottom from the other parts. I’m now going to put it in the oven again, but this time I’ll pour out all the oil whilst it’s nice and runny. Once I’ve done that, then I’ll follow the salt\alcohol method and this’ll hopefully keep the oil loss down to a minimum.
Obviously, this is only recommend for glass bongs!
Although you probably won’t see it in their advertising, Oxy-Clean is a perfect bong cleaner. It won’t hurt plastic. It dissolves all the tar, and washes clean with no smell or residue left behind. Use a bottle brush with it for best results.
I tip a little cooking oil into my bong so it covers the resin, leave it overnight, then in the morning, tip it out and poor dish washing powder in with some water and shake it around till all the oil is gone. Once the washing solution has been rinsed out with either hot or cold water (I prefer hot), I roll up a towel and slide it down the shaft and twist it till all the water residue is gone. This gets my glass bong looking like the day I bought it. Also, this method eliminates the need for harsh cleaning chemicals that may damage your bong.
After much experimenting, I definitely recommend using acetone, rinsing, followed by a Listerine rinse, finishing up with a lot of water. Acetone cleans the best and the Listerine will leave your bong crescent fresh.
White vinegar and dry white rice. Add about 2/3 of the bubble worth of rice and then pour vinegar. Shake it and soon you will be ready to “bake” it. You may need to add new rice if the pipe is so dirty that the rice begins to soften before you are done.
Alcohol and kosher salt worked like a charm. My bong wasn’t filthy, but it had a nasty resin taste to it and now that’s gone. It cleaned the perc. just fine too, which I didn’t expect.
Don’t put water in your bong! Fill it with Coke or Pepsi Cola: cool smoke and no goo! Try it; you’ll be surprised. For a thorough cleaning, simply rise with hot water and dish washing liquid. My 20-year-old Toker II was crystal clear the day it broke!
I’ve been cleaning my bongs and pipes for years, though without alcohol and salts.
I just use lukewarm water with some soap, shake the piece a few times, empty it and then repeat a few times before I bring out my bottle brush (or pipe cleaners) and start to actually clean it.
Oh and not to forget, rinse with cold water when done to get the last of the soap out.
Bad smell and taste are now history, else rinse and repeat one more time.
I don’t know what kind of shitty stuff most people seem to smoke to actually need all those chemicals they use, maybe it’s just me who cares about my stuff and tries my best to keep it fresh by cleaning it the same day it’s been used to avoid bad smells and disgusting stains. It’s a smoking tool after all; you’d not want to smoke from a used toilet now, would you?.
I have one of the pipes with multi-chambers and such, and it gums up pretty quickly. I’m a mechanic so I just shoot some carburetor cleaner into all the chambers and it dissolves that stuff right off. And it’s kinda fun to take the cleaner “straw” and bend it and twist it so it hits everywhere.
It is highly flammable and toxic, so I wouldn’t suggest it for the casual user. Make sure you rinse it out well.
I just rinse out the piece with warm water, then fill it with alcohol and salt, stick it in a plastic bag, and shake it like crazy. After doing this about twice, I use a random attachment for the water pipe that we never use and get the last of the dirt out with that.
I had an ash catcher that I have wanted to clean for about three years. Now, I regularly clean this piece about twice a week with coarse sea salt and 70% iso. alcohol, which would remove the resin and caked up crap from recent smoking, but not the stuff caked to the bottom. I had also tried paint thinner and acetone before today.
I finally got her 100% clean, looking like new. I purchased CLR Bath and Kitchen, and washed the piece about four times. For my abrasive, I used chopped up pieces of weed whacker cord, which may seem crazy, but salt and rice did not do the trick and it was time for something drastic. I also had success using a piece of long, bent, copper wire to scrape some resin out of the down pipe. At the end of the fifth time soaking and then shaking in CLR, the last few crunchy chunks of baked resin came out.
Now I just have to clean it a few more times with alcohol and rinse it so there aren’t traces of CLR. Use this method when all others fail.
I used regular alcohol, table salt, and 15-20 BB’s. Put the bb’s in the bong with salt and alcohol. Swirl around until you have brown liquid and then pour it out and replace the alcohol, salt, and BB’s. Repeat until clean – ETA: 15-20 mins. Rinse with hot water for glass only.
I just bought a pretty large glass bong with lots of twists and turns in it. I read a few of the comments and I’ve tried all except nail polish remover. I just tried it five minutes ago and it is hands down the best way. First of all, your mom or girlfriend are going to have some lying around and it’s cheap. You add about two shots of the nail polish remover and about half a shot of salt depending on the size of the bong, swirl it around – knocking off all the big chunks of resin, then if needed, replace or simply add more nail polish and get the rest. I rinsed it out a couple of times with hot water then grabbed my girlfriends strawberry shower gel and dumped as much as I thought was needed into the bong. Fill it with hot water and swirl it all around and repeat the process until it smells like the soap you used.
There are things you can buy to flavor your tokes, which would probably help out with the smell, but good luck finding some worth the price.
Fark! Last night, I used Ajax and window cleaner with a toothbrush. I spent about an hour trying get all the resin off and there were still stains this morning. So I got an alcohol wipe, which has 70% isopropyl, and all the stains just wiped away. There was no need for salt – probably because I loosened it last night.
Using tap water or bottled water in my bong resulted in a smelly and difficult to clean residue building up on the inside of my bong just above the water level. I replaced it with normal saline solution, available at any pharmacy, and now get no nasty residue building up on the inside at all. Hardly any cleaning necessary. Does not seem to have any effect on the taste or the buzz.
My glass on glass stem is stuck inside of my bong. This happened before (probably from tapping bowls out) and I broke my last one. My choices at this point are leave it be or try and get it out whilst breaking it most likely. Any advice out there?
This is by far the easiest, cheapest way to clean your bong or glass pieces:
Buy the strongest isopropyl alcohol (93%) and coarse Kosher salt (about $3 total). Pour salt in the bottom and some alcohol, swirl vigorously. The salt is the abrasive and the alcohol is the cleaner. Resin, tar and everything else on the inside glass will be perfectly cleaned. The salt does not dissolve in the alcohol, so just a little salt is all you need. Use a Q-tip or similar on the narrow neck the bowl. Rinse well with clean cold water.
The smoke of quality ganja in a perfectly clean bong is world-class. Highly recommended as a weekly cleaner for connoisseurs and medical patients.
I let the bong soak in hydrogen peroxide and dish soap. After like 15 minutes, you put a little bit of rice inside the bong with some of the soap and HP solution. Shake the bong and the rice helps to clean the gunky stuff inside.
I tried the salt and alcohol and it worked great! I used Kosher salt, and 70% rubbing alcohol. On the bowl, I had to do a little manual labor and scrape out the resin where the neck gets small, but it wasn’t any problem at all!
Use Oxyclean or something similar; it’s used for laundry and stains. Put a couple teaspoons inside the pipe or bong, put it in a container and fill it with hot water, then wait for the bubbles to stop and rinse it. 😉
Nearly anywhere you’d go to buy iso., you can find fingernail polish remover. Ya’ll should really try acetone (or just regular fingernail polish, the kind with acetone in it). I’ve been using isopropyl alcohol for a few years now. I ran out today and needed to clean my piece; knowing a little about chemistry, I grabbed my girlfriend’s polish remover and bam! – clean bong. 99% of the sticky stuff came off in one or two swirls, the rest was just getting the little Klingons. 😉 Anyway, the acetone works 10X better than alcohol; try it and see for yourself… Oh, and acetone is extremely cheap like iso.
Pour in a little aquarium gravel, dish soap, and water. Swirl around gently, shaking it a few times, then rinse. No harsh chemicals. You can reuse the gravel and save money.
I have the same problem; I used nail polish remover to clean my bubbler, and I’ve tried salt and hot water many many times and it still tastes like nail polish remover. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Don’t use hot water. It will crack your glass bong!!!! Trust me; don’t learn the hard way. Salt and alcohol is the best way. Don’t waste your money on cleaners when you can just do it at home with household stuff.
After a pour through of hot water and rubbing alcohol, to clean inside the stem, remove the stem from your water pipe, take toilet paper or a paper towel (about 2-3 ft. of toilet paper or 2 sheets of paper towel) and fold the T.P. over itself to decrease the length by 1/2. Then, twist it until it is sturdy enough at the tip to be inserted into the bottom part of the stem. Insert, continue twisting until the T.P. snake makes it to the bottom of the bowl, and then slow twist as you pull the paper out; that should reach everything in there. If not, rinse again with hot water and alcohol and repeat! =]
Methanol is very toxic with as little as 10mL making you permanently blind if ingested. So be careful if you are gonna try this one guys, rinse well, hehe.
My friend used to use a certain kind of alcohol that cleaned the bong almost instantly, just a little shake. I think it was methanol, aka methyl alcohol, I was hoping someone here could verify that. ;P
Alcohol, 70-90 percent; I like 90 but that’s just me. It evaporates quickly so no long lasting smells, it doesn’t stick into any crevices as it just wants to dissipate into the atmosphere. Works great on metal, ceramic, and glass, even wood! Just let it sit longer than others.
Kosher Salt, even the iodized salt will work, but kosher is bigger and heavier and actually holds resin itself. Rice works well, but you gotta throw it in the trash, sinks/erators don’t like it so much, so it stinks up the trash.
With this method, you need some Q-tips and paper towels to wipe resin on. You should not try to be ultra conservative of the alcohol, it does have a limit on how much resin it can hold. Replace it when it’s dark brown. The hard stuff may be really tricky, rinse all the crap out and put some alcohol directly on the tough spot (why I like 91%) and let it sit about 5 minutes. Add more alcohol and salt and shake again. Rinse out. I like to also use some Dawn dish detergent afterward. Shake it really good, rinse it and let it drip dry. Bigger pieces may require a bottle brush or water pipe cleaner. Every pipe that is glass, WILL come clean eventually, (unless there’s all those damn perks) with bigger water pipes, try using alcohol and salt instead of water and put a vacuum on the mouth piece and turn it on, the bubbles will help clean it.
Other Methods:
Citri-clean type stuff = Stronger ones that have lots of citric acid work well on glass. Not so well on acrylic, and will dissolve metal.
Acitone = Works good on glass with no paint or other soluble stuff. It takes it right off. It’s fingernail polish remover. It cracks acrylic. Pour a bottle in your acrylic piece and see what happens, you won’t like it, and metal absorbs the taste of it.
Denture tabs = Haven’t tried it, but it’s logical.
Boiling water = WARNING: If your pipe is not borosilicate or PYREX glass, it WILL stress-fracture, if not completely shatter into hot-ass shards of glass. But it works.
420beads = Not sure if that’s what they’re called, but they work amazing with alcohol, and they’re cleanable and reusable. They have a little dull blade-like ridge around them, think Saturn, and they scrape ’em clean, but only for water pipes.
I usually use isopropyl alcohol and rock salt, works a treat but recently ran out and used the Mrs.’s nail polish remover. Now my bong tastes like soap. Any ideas for getting rid of the taste?? (It’s all glass by the way.)
If you’re trying to clean the stem, I recommend putting it in a bag filled with alcohol and kosher salt then shaking the bag to get the salt moving against the resin.
Just as with anything, make sure to rinse really well.
Well, I don’t know about other people’s methods, but I’ve learned that a little water (hot or cold) and some nail polish remover works great to clean your glass pipe. Let it soak for about ten minutes and use something like a Q-tip to get to the hard to reach spots. Rinse well and you’re ready to go.
I prefer acetone & dry rice. The acetone cuts through the resin better than rubbing alcohol and the rice serves as a much better abrasive than salt as it does not dissolve and can be reused throughout the cleaning.
When you clean a bong with nail polish remover and rubbing alcohol mixed together, (in my case, I was running out of rubbing alcohol so I mixed them to add to the level) plus epsom salt and you cap the whole thing off; once you start shaking it to get it clean, pressure starts to build up inside so when I took off the cap, BOOM: big old bong volcano. =) So watch out.
P.S – Don’t clean under the influence, disasters await those who try, only some times that is.
The best method I found is to boil some water and squeeze about two and a half lemons into it. Leave it in your bong for about an hour and voilà! Good as new! It’s cheap and easy.
Yep, the alcohol and salt works like a dream. My bong was disgusting, so I Googled “how to clean a glass bong” and found this site. The method took a while and there was lots of shaking to be done, but all resin is cleared out and I now I fire up in a nice clean bong. Cheers!
I’ve tried the salt and alcohol and it isn’t working that well and a just got this bong the day before. I just don’t want to waste my money on all the rest of the junk knowing that it probably won’t work. Does it make a difference that mine is an ice catcher Bong?
The absolute best way to clean a dirty glass bong or water pipe requires two simple ingredients:
91% Isopropyl Alcohol
Epsom Salt
Both are available at your local pharmacy. If 91% is not available, 70% will work too. These are the two primary ingredients in almost all packaged bong cleaners. Simply pour some alcohol and Epsom salt into your pipe and shake vigorously (with all the holes covered up) for a couple minutes. The result should be clean-as-new glass. Q-tips are recommended for reaching tight spots that are extra dirty.
Alcohol + Salt = Death of acrylic pieces. If your unit is plastic, do this and you will be sorry. It’ll work just fine, you’ll love it for a while, but eventually the plastic will be weakened by the alcohol, and your piece will be a busted POS. Trust me, I’ve done it a few times myself. In Canada, there’s a product called Orange TKO, might be in the States too, works just as well as the alcohol and salt method, without compromising the integrity of the plastic. It’s expensive, but bloody worth it; cheaper than buying a new bong. You literally only need about a cap for most jobs, maybe even less if you dilute it like they recommend. But since it’s made from 100% natural orange junk, I don’t bother and it doesn’t hurt any of my units, and I’ve been using it for years. If your unit is glass or ceramic however, I think the cheaper alcohol and salt solution is just fine (I think – not sure on that really). A lot of the commercial cleaners ARE just alcohol with scent and color added, so don’t bother wasting your money on those. To clean the stem piece, use the same cleaner as you use on the unit, just get bamboo skewers from the dollar store and scrape it off, cotton swaps are a good tool as well. If you don’t keep nasty water in your unit, as in, dump it and get clean water every session, it’ll be a billion times easier to clean too. Those are my tips – Good luck.
Alcohol and Epsom salt are cheap and easy! Took me seconds to restore almost as new.
Question though; How do you completely remove the resin from under the slide??? I can always restore the glass piece brand new, however the area under the slide in the middle is tough. Any ideas?
Try using some acetone (it’s in most nail polish removers, if you don’t have any)… It works wonders, but obviously make sure to rinse it well afterward.
I have not cleaned my bong in six years. It is so dirty/nasty that I can’t even see how much water is in it. I’m going to clean it tonight. Thank you all for the inspiration.
I just tried citrus based De-solve-it (for getting sticker residue off) and it’s as clean as the day I bought it. It did take about 10 fills, shakes, and empty cycles.
Fill the bong with as much water as possible. Plug the bowl hole if you want to clean to the top. Drop a tab of Polident ™, let it sit and then rinse. Voila, clean pipe.
Use kosher salt and alcohol, pour it into the waterpipe and shake the **** out of it, then rinse with hot water until you can’t smell the alcohol anymore.
If you decide to clean your water pipe with alcohol and your bowl has rubber washers, be sure to remove them before cleaning; alcohol dries out and cracks rubber and will ruin the seals.
You are all idiots. “Get the hottest water you can find,” they said; “use boiling water,” they said. My bong cracked in half you morons.
I went on vacation, leaving a clean pipe behind. When I returned three months later, my grandson, who was living with us and taking care of the homestead, used my pipe repeatedly and put it back wet and full of sludge and gunk. What was a clear glass pipe with blue and orange spots was so black and full of plugs and sludge that I could not use it. I tried dish washer soap, 409, laundry soap and a couple of other cleaners to no avail. As I was planning how many ways I was going to wring his neck, it occurred to me to check online for cleaning methods. I tried the alcohol and salt method and the remaining sludge that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in my pipe was GONE in one cleaning; you saved my rascally grandson from a whip lash. And my pipe looks brand new! Thank you so much.
Just tried the Epsom salt and iso. alcohol method. Works like a charm; I’ve never seen something so dirty clean up so quickly and easily. Only use about a tablespoon of salt and a few tablespoons of alcohol and shake it. Pour it out and rinse it out with water. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold – I don’t know why people are tripping out about it; the only reason you need to rinse is to get the residual salts, alcohol and resin out. Works like a charm; I’ll never clean my bong any other way.
Nail varnish remover and raw cous cous works well.
Edit:
Just thought, a coca cola soak would probably work (phosphoric acid and co2).
GOO GONE!
You don’t need a lot. Swish it around for about 15-20 seconds; repeat this process until the resin is all gone.
Rinse it with water REALLY well.
TIPS: Extreme Goo Gone works the best. Don’t dump fluids directly in the sink bowl; pour it in the toilet or directly down your sink drain.
This is really messy way to clean your tool, but it’s the most effective.
GOOD LUCK! 😀
I use the alcohol and salt method and it works great! But sometimes at the end, you still have some stains, which you can get off by using vinegar.
If you don’t want to use alcohol, just try a bunch of ice, a bunch of salt, and some water.
VERY IMPORTANT!! DO NOT use the alcohol/salt mixture on plastic water pipes!! It will crack within minutes.
Two things. Isopropyl alcohol and rice grain. Add up to 10 ml of alcohol and rice grains up to 15 pcs. Shake it as hard as you can and it won’t take a minute to shine your bong.
Empty the water-pipe, pour in a little Epsom salts and rubbing alcohol and just swirl it around, up and over all the resin. The Epsom salts don’t dissolve in the alcohol very quickly, but help break apart the resin while the alcohol dissolves it. Epsom salt is wicked cheap and can be found at CVS or Walgreens in the foot care section (it’s used to soak your feet). Quickest and cheapest way EVER!
Cleaning your piece is very easy. Trust a long time toker:
Rinse out the piece with hot water to loosen up the resin. Then, pour in some regular table salt and isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. Shake the piece, closing up any openings with your hands. Rinse itout a couple times with water.
The alcohol dissolves the resin and the salt acts as an abrasive to help take off the stubborn stuff.
MYTHS:
-It is not necessary to buy special cleaners, they’re just isopropyl alcohol and salt with scent and coloring added.
-There is no need for water to be especially hot. Super hot water can crack your glass or cause you to burn yourself and drop your piece.
-There is no need to use 90% isopropyl alcohol, the 70% works just as well and costs half as much.
HELPFUL HINTS:
-For a small piece, you can shake it up in a Ziploc bag.
-For really dirty pieces, you may have to repeat the process a couple of times because the alcohol dissolves all of the resin it can contain.
-You will probably have some resin stick to the sink or tub. Just use some rubbing alcohol on a paper towel or tissue to clean it off.
I want to know the answer to CLUELESS’ problem!!! (A few comments up!) I have some chunks of unburnt ash stuck floating around between two percs as well! Help would be appreciated!
Would nail polish remover + salt work in place of the rubbing alcohol + salt to clean my bong?
For a stem, I just wet with alcohol and pour salt into it. Wet again a little bit, and use a screw driver to clean the whole stem. If the screw driver is dirty, clean it with the alcohol and salt.
Soak in hot water first, then dry rice and alcohol works best. Salt has really no comparison.
If your piece is tasting like nail polish remover then you need to use salt and alcohol or industrial acetone use for paint thinning. You can buy industrial acetone at Home Depot or Lowes; it doesn’t have the stuff that is meant to stick to your nails and strengthen them, etc.
So I can clean mine well enough to be happy, but between a barrel percolator an a honeycomb percolator, there are chunks of unburnt substance that won’t rinse out through the perc holes…is there a chemical that will disintegrate it or how do I create enough pressure to remove the chunks through the tiny perc holes????? Please help!!!!
I tried acetone + salt (probably don’t need salt). Taped up the holes (small glass piece) and swirled it around (somewhat daintily) about 5 times or until grime disappeared. The water will instantly go a dark sort of color (like a reaction). So good!
I cleaned my water pipe using the alcohol and salt method. For whatever reason, not all the salt has come out. I’ve never had this problem before. Also, I have had no success removing the salt. I tried alcohol, hot water, and even Ajax. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Bweemanpatchjob,
That sounds like salt creep, like found on a saltwater aquarium. Fill the pipe with white vinegar or a vinegar/water mix and allow it to soak overnight. Repeat nightly until the salt deposits have dissolved. If the problem is in the pipe stem, either lay the pipe on its side in a plugged sink filled with the vinegar/water mix, or cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Alcohol is not polar, so the salt will not dissolve easily in it. Water and vinegar are both polar, but it takes time to dissolve the salt. You could try using seltzer or club soda to jar the salt particles loose and speed up the cleaning; just make sure that one hole of the pipe is uncovered so the gas can escape. Dish soap could also work.
Source: About.com – Getting Salt Creep Off Your Aquarium
Source: Middle School Chemistry – Why Does Water Dissolve Salt?
Source: trinalin’s Science Blog – “Like Dissolves Like” because “Opposites Attract”
All these work very well! But those who have expensive percy’s and hard to reach places that are covered in resin, don’t worry; just fill it with shaving cream! Leave it in over night and then rinse with hot water, alcohol, etc.
First Pass: Good for caked limescale/hard water/calcium buildups on *glass* bongs… Standard resin cleanings.
1 x PINCH Laundry Detergent.. (1/per perc/chamber)
1 x Pure Lemon Juice (Optional – First Pass/Heavy [~51% LEMON JUICE IF POSSIBLE]) *Slightly lower pH than vinegar.
1 X 25-40% Isopropyl Alcohol (99% proof)
1 X 60-75% Vinegar (Jug for value.)
1 X Coarse Salt (40%) If Applicable.
1 X Table Salt/Epsom Salt (40%) If Applicable.
I ditch a lot of resin fluid that separated… Loose liquid First Pass? Replace with alcohol 50%/vinegar 50%.
Ensure all bad areas are covered – use corks/stoppers if necessary. Soak for a minimum of four hours for lightly caked bongs, eight for medium caked, 16+ for heavily caked bongs and 24 hours for badly caked bongs. Vigorous shaking throughout cycles. Once in awhile, when you take a hit, etc., you will notice after about 6-8 hours that the limescale/calcium/hard water deposits begin to come off with heavy shaking. Long soaks help.
Second Pass: Minimum 24-36 Hours for heavy caked bongs. Always shake for a minimum of 10-15 minutes before dumping the fluids.
If the bong is close to 100%, move back to alcohol/coarse salt/table salt for remaining passes.
Second Pass, Stage 1A:
Sticky resin?
1 x 100% Lemon Juice Wash (12 Hours)
Vigourous Shaking
Salt
Second Pass, Stage 1B:
1 x 100% Alcohol Wash (12 Hours)
Vigourous Shaking
Salt
Daily Use 420 cleaner is the fastest, best way to clean a glass pipe of any kind…water or dry….perks or no perks….and it does great job on the corners and tight stem spots!!!
Used the kosher salt and Iso. alcohol method for the first time. Worked great! It sparkles!! Party on, dudes! 😉
These suggestions invariably involve throwing the oil away, whilst I prefer to keep it. I have a large collection of oil at the bottom of my bong that has built up over time as I’ve been clearing the down-pipe (usually with a lighter flame to loosen it sufficiently) and I want to keep it.
Occasionally it’ll go in a cold oven and be brought up to 100-150 degrees. This collects all the oil in the bottom from the other parts. I’m now going to put it in the oven again, but this time I’ll pour out all the oil whilst it’s nice and runny. Once I’ve done that, then I’ll follow the salt\alcohol method and this’ll hopefully keep the oil loss down to a minimum.
Obviously, this is only recommend for glass bongs!
We would like to know the process of cleaning for basement water pipes.
Although you probably won’t see it in their advertising, Oxy-Clean is a perfect bong cleaner. It won’t hurt plastic. It dissolves all the tar, and washes clean with no smell or residue left behind. Use a bottle brush with it for best results.
I tip a little cooking oil into my bong so it covers the resin, leave it overnight, then in the morning, tip it out and poor dish washing powder in with some water and shake it around till all the oil is gone. Once the washing solution has been rinsed out with either hot or cold water (I prefer hot), I roll up a towel and slide it down the shaft and twist it till all the water residue is gone. This gets my glass bong looking like the day I bought it. Also, this method eliminates the need for harsh cleaning chemicals that may damage your bong.
Can I use CLR?
After much experimenting, I definitely recommend using acetone, rinsing, followed by a Listerine rinse, finishing up with a lot of water. Acetone cleans the best and the Listerine will leave your bong crescent fresh.
Listerine (any flavor) and rice or salt works well, and you will get a minty fresh bong hit (and no, it doesn’t count as brushing)! 🙂
———-#1 Best Way———-
White vinegar and dry white rice. Add about 2/3 of the bubble worth of rice and then pour vinegar. Shake it and soon you will be ready to “bake” it. You may need to add new rice if the pipe is so dirty that the rice begins to soften before you are done.
The alcohol and salt method sounds great. I’ll try it next time.
For my glass piece, I use a product called Simple Green. It’s an all-purpose cleanser that does a great job.
But I’ll try the alcohol/salt method next time. Thanks all.
Alcohol and kosher salt worked like a charm. My bong wasn’t filthy, but it had a nasty resin taste to it and now that’s gone. It cleaned the perc. just fine too, which I didn’t expect.
Rinse briefly in plutonium… (i.e.: throw the thing away and buy another one you cheap skate!).
Don’t put water in your bong! Fill it with Coke or Pepsi Cola: cool smoke and no goo! Try it; you’ll be surprised. For a thorough cleaning, simply rise with hot water and dish washing liquid. My 20-year-old Toker II was crystal clear the day it broke!
Anybody know where I can buy another Toker II?
Quick question, my bong has a perk and I’ve never cleaned it before. What is the best way to clean it completely?
I’ve been cleaning my bongs and pipes for years, though without alcohol and salts.
I just use lukewarm water with some soap, shake the piece a few times, empty it and then repeat a few times before I bring out my bottle brush (or pipe cleaners) and start to actually clean it.
Oh and not to forget, rinse with cold water when done to get the last of the soap out.
Bad smell and taste are now history, else rinse and repeat one more time.
I don’t know what kind of shitty stuff most people seem to smoke to actually need all those chemicals they use, maybe it’s just me who cares about my stuff and tries my best to keep it fresh by cleaning it the same day it’s been used to avoid bad smells and disgusting stains. It’s a smoking tool after all; you’d not want to smoke from a used toilet now, would you?.
I have one of the pipes with multi-chambers and such, and it gums up pretty quickly. I’m a mechanic so I just shoot some carburetor cleaner into all the chambers and it dissolves that stuff right off. And it’s kinda fun to take the cleaner “straw” and bend it and twist it so it hits everywhere.
It is highly flammable and toxic, so I wouldn’t suggest it for the casual user. Make sure you rinse it out well.
I just rinse out the piece with warm water, then fill it with alcohol and salt, stick it in a plastic bag, and shake it like crazy. After doing this about twice, I use a random attachment for the water pipe that we never use and get the last of the dirt out with that.
I had an ash catcher that I have wanted to clean for about three years. Now, I regularly clean this piece about twice a week with coarse sea salt and 70% iso. alcohol, which would remove the resin and caked up crap from recent smoking, but not the stuff caked to the bottom. I had also tried paint thinner and acetone before today.
I finally got her 100% clean, looking like new. I purchased CLR Bath and Kitchen, and washed the piece about four times. For my abrasive, I used chopped up pieces of weed whacker cord, which may seem crazy, but salt and rice did not do the trick and it was time for something drastic. I also had success using a piece of long, bent, copper wire to scrape some resin out of the down pipe. At the end of the fifth time soaking and then shaking in CLR, the last few crunchy chunks of baked resin came out.
Now I just have to clean it a few more times with alcohol and rinse it so there aren’t traces of CLR. Use this method when all others fail.
NO HOT WATER! It will actually cook the resin in your bong, then you have a ruined piece of glass. Room temp only.
I used regular alcohol, table salt, and 15-20 BB’s. Put the bb’s in the bong with salt and alcohol. Swirl around until you have brown liquid and then pour it out and replace the alcohol, salt, and BB’s. Repeat until clean – ETA: 15-20 mins. Rinse with hot water for glass only.
Had already bought some Kosher salt. Did exactly as you said and the glass water pipe was SPOTLESS in ten seconds. Thank you!
Steradent, hot water and a bottle brush.
Clean, effective and no after tastes.
After all, Steradent is designed to be used for things that go into ones mouth…unlike acetone, Ajax, Methyl, etc.
Bong on peepz…
Metho and rice works very nice!
I just bought a pretty large glass bong with lots of twists and turns in it. I read a few of the comments and I’ve tried all except nail polish remover. I just tried it five minutes ago and it is hands down the best way. First of all, your mom or girlfriend are going to have some lying around and it’s cheap. You add about two shots of the nail polish remover and about half a shot of salt depending on the size of the bong, swirl it around – knocking off all the big chunks of resin, then if needed, replace or simply add more nail polish and get the rest. I rinsed it out a couple of times with hot water then grabbed my girlfriends strawberry shower gel and dumped as much as I thought was needed into the bong. Fill it with hot water and swirl it all around and repeat the process until it smells like the soap you used.
There are things you can buy to flavor your tokes, which would probably help out with the smell, but good luck finding some worth the price.
Fark! Last night, I used Ajax and window cleaner with a toothbrush. I spent about an hour trying get all the resin off and there were still stains this morning. So I got an alcohol wipe, which has 70% isopropyl, and all the stains just wiped away. There was no need for salt – probably because I loosened it last night.
To get rid of the taste, use baking soda.
Using tap water or bottled water in my bong resulted in a smelly and difficult to clean residue building up on the inside of my bong just above the water level. I replaced it with normal saline solution, available at any pharmacy, and now get no nasty residue building up on the inside at all. Hardly any cleaning necessary. Does not seem to have any effect on the taste or the buzz.
My glass on glass stem is stuck inside of my bong. This happened before (probably from tapping bowls out) and I broke my last one. My choices at this point are leave it be or try and get it out whilst breaking it most likely. Any advice out there?
Cheers, and Happy smoking!
I HAVE A SPARKLING CLEAN WATER PIPE NOW! Immaculate via the isopropyl alcohol/coarse salt method. Thanks!
Uh, no. The easiest and cheapest way is with an ounce of nail polish remover or anything else that has acetone in it. Don’t people experiment anymore?
This is by far the easiest, cheapest way to clean your bong or glass pieces:
Buy the strongest isopropyl alcohol (93%) and coarse Kosher salt (about $3 total). Pour salt in the bottom and some alcohol, swirl vigorously. The salt is the abrasive and the alcohol is the cleaner. Resin, tar and everything else on the inside glass will be perfectly cleaned. The salt does not dissolve in the alcohol, so just a little salt is all you need. Use a Q-tip or similar on the narrow neck the bowl. Rinse well with clean cold water.
The smoke of quality ganja in a perfectly clean bong is world-class. Highly recommended as a weekly cleaner for connoisseurs and medical patients.
Smoke Well,
Da Ganja Samurai
I let the bong soak in hydrogen peroxide and dish soap. After like 15 minutes, you put a little bit of rice inside the bong with some of the soap and HP solution. Shake the bong and the rice helps to clean the gunky stuff inside.
I tried the salt and alcohol and it worked great! I used Kosher salt, and 70% rubbing alcohol. On the bowl, I had to do a little manual labor and scrape out the resin where the neck gets small, but it wasn’t any problem at all!
Use Oxyclean or something similar; it’s used for laundry and stains. Put a couple teaspoons inside the pipe or bong, put it in a container and fill it with hot water, then wait for the bubbles to stop and rinse it. 😉
You guys should all check out this stuff, Grunge Off – by far the best glass cleaner. Reusable for life and minimal physical work, lol.
Nearly anywhere you’d go to buy iso., you can find fingernail polish remover. Ya’ll should really try acetone (or just regular fingernail polish, the kind with acetone in it). I’ve been using isopropyl alcohol for a few years now. I ran out today and needed to clean my piece; knowing a little about chemistry, I grabbed my girlfriend’s polish remover and bam! – clean bong. 99% of the sticky stuff came off in one or two swirls, the rest was just getting the little Klingons. 😉 Anyway, the acetone works 10X better than alcohol; try it and see for yourself… Oh, and acetone is extremely cheap like iso.
If you have a blocked pipe-piece that’s the same size as your garden hose (I believe most are that size), you can clean it in under 30 seconds.
1. Remove the pipe from the bong.
2. Put your hose around the pipe – squeeze tightly.
3. Turn on the water (extra pressure helps).
Hopefully it will gurgle a bit, shoot some black stuff out and then – amazing! Unblocked.
Pour in a little aquarium gravel, dish soap, and water. Swirl around gently, shaking it a few times, then rinse. No harsh chemicals. You can reuse the gravel and save money.
I have the same problem; I used nail polish remover to clean my bubbler, and I’ve tried salt and hot water many many times and it still tastes like nail polish remover. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Don’t use hot water. It will crack your glass bong!!!! Trust me; don’t learn the hard way. Salt and alcohol is the best way. Don’t waste your money on cleaners when you can just do it at home with household stuff.
Rice and alcohol, easy. Rice scours, alcohol cleans. Great for double stems.
After a pour through of hot water and rubbing alcohol, to clean inside the stem, remove the stem from your water pipe, take toilet paper or a paper towel (about 2-3 ft. of toilet paper or 2 sheets of paper towel) and fold the T.P. over itself to decrease the length by 1/2. Then, twist it until it is sturdy enough at the tip to be inserted into the bottom part of the stem. Insert, continue twisting until the T.P. snake makes it to the bottom of the bowl, and then slow twist as you pull the paper out; that should reach everything in there. If not, rinse again with hot water and alcohol and repeat! =]
Happy smoking!
Methanol is very toxic with as little as 10mL making you permanently blind if ingested. So be careful if you are gonna try this one guys, rinse well, hehe.
My friend used to use a certain kind of alcohol that cleaned the bong almost instantly, just a little shake. I think it was methanol, aka methyl alcohol, I was hoping someone here could verify that. ;P
Okay, as many fine stoner’s have said:
Alcohol, 70-90 percent; I like 90 but that’s just me. It evaporates quickly so no long lasting smells, it doesn’t stick into any crevices as it just wants to dissipate into the atmosphere. Works great on metal, ceramic, and glass, even wood! Just let it sit longer than others.
Kosher Salt, even the iodized salt will work, but kosher is bigger and heavier and actually holds resin itself. Rice works well, but you gotta throw it in the trash, sinks/erators don’t like it so much, so it stinks up the trash.
With this method, you need some Q-tips and paper towels to wipe resin on. You should not try to be ultra conservative of the alcohol, it does have a limit on how much resin it can hold. Replace it when it’s dark brown. The hard stuff may be really tricky, rinse all the crap out and put some alcohol directly on the tough spot (why I like 91%) and let it sit about 5 minutes. Add more alcohol and salt and shake again. Rinse out. I like to also use some Dawn dish detergent afterward. Shake it really good, rinse it and let it drip dry. Bigger pieces may require a bottle brush or water pipe cleaner. Every pipe that is glass, WILL come clean eventually, (unless there’s all those damn perks) with bigger water pipes, try using alcohol and salt instead of water and put a vacuum on the mouth piece and turn it on, the bubbles will help clean it.
Other Methods:
Citri-clean type stuff = Stronger ones that have lots of citric acid work well on glass. Not so well on acrylic, and will dissolve metal.
Acitone = Works good on glass with no paint or other soluble stuff. It takes it right off. It’s fingernail polish remover. It cracks acrylic. Pour a bottle in your acrylic piece and see what happens, you won’t like it, and metal absorbs the taste of it.
Denture tabs = Haven’t tried it, but it’s logical.
Boiling water = WARNING: If your pipe is not borosilicate or PYREX glass, it WILL stress-fracture, if not completely shatter into hot-ass shards of glass. But it works.
420beads = Not sure if that’s what they’re called, but they work amazing with alcohol, and they’re cleanable and reusable. They have a little dull blade-like ridge around them, think Saturn, and they scrape ’em clean, but only for water pipes.
I usually use isopropyl alcohol and rock salt, works a treat but recently ran out and used the Mrs.’s nail polish remover. Now my bong tastes like soap. Any ideas for getting rid of the taste?? (It’s all glass by the way.)
Still there after many cleans, not happy.
Use Grunge Off, Bling, or Formula 420.
If you’re trying to clean the stem, I recommend putting it in a bag filled with alcohol and kosher salt then shaking the bag to get the salt moving against the resin.
Just as with anything, make sure to rinse really well.
Acetone is best for glass or metal, but not safe for acrylic.
I have no problem cleaning the glass bong itself, but the glass cone piece never looks new.
How do I get into the long narrow stem and get out that resin?
Or can I just soak it in alcohol and salt in a small dish/bowl? The Q-tips can only do so much. I appreciate the taste of a totally clean bong.
Well, I don’t know about other people’s methods, but I’ve learned that a little water (hot or cold) and some nail polish remover works great to clean your glass pipe. Let it soak for about ten minutes and use something like a Q-tip to get to the hard to reach spots. Rinse well and you’re ready to go.
I used Acetone and salt (and of course hot water as well). Let it sit for 10 minutes. CLEAN BONG.
Happy smoking.
I prefer acetone & dry rice. The acetone cuts through the resin better than rubbing alcohol and the rice serves as a much better abrasive than salt as it does not dissolve and can be reused throughout the cleaning.
!!!!CAUTION!!!!
When you clean a bong with nail polish remover and rubbing alcohol mixed together, (in my case, I was running out of rubbing alcohol so I mixed them to add to the level) plus epsom salt and you cap the whole thing off; once you start shaking it to get it clean, pressure starts to build up inside so when I took off the cap, BOOM: big old bong volcano. =) So watch out.
P.S – Don’t clean under the influence, disasters await those who try, only some times that is.
The best method I found is to boil some water and squeeze about two and a half lemons into it. Leave it in your bong for about an hour and voilà! Good as new! It’s cheap and easy.
Yep, the alcohol and salt works like a dream. My bong was disgusting, so I Googled “how to clean a glass bong” and found this site. The method took a while and there was lots of shaking to be done, but all resin is cleared out and I now I fire up in a nice clean bong. Cheers!
I’ve tried the salt and alcohol and it isn’t working that well and a just got this bong the day before. I just don’t want to waste my money on all the rest of the junk knowing that it probably won’t work. Does it make a difference that mine is an ice catcher Bong?
The absolute best way to clean a dirty glass bong or water pipe requires two simple ingredients:
91% Isopropyl Alcohol
Epsom Salt
Both are available at your local pharmacy. If 91% is not available, 70% will work too. These are the two primary ingredients in almost all packaged bong cleaners. Simply pour some alcohol and Epsom salt into your pipe and shake vigorously (with all the holes covered up) for a couple minutes. The result should be clean-as-new glass. Q-tips are recommended for reaching tight spots that are extra dirty.
Alcohol + Salt = Death of acrylic pieces. If your unit is plastic, do this and you will be sorry. It’ll work just fine, you’ll love it for a while, but eventually the plastic will be weakened by the alcohol, and your piece will be a busted POS. Trust me, I’ve done it a few times myself. In Canada, there’s a product called Orange TKO, might be in the States too, works just as well as the alcohol and salt method, without compromising the integrity of the plastic. It’s expensive, but bloody worth it; cheaper than buying a new bong. You literally only need about a cap for most jobs, maybe even less if you dilute it like they recommend. But since it’s made from 100% natural orange junk, I don’t bother and it doesn’t hurt any of my units, and I’ve been using it for years. If your unit is glass or ceramic however, I think the cheaper alcohol and salt solution is just fine (I think – not sure on that really). A lot of the commercial cleaners ARE just alcohol with scent and color added, so don’t bother wasting your money on those. To clean the stem piece, use the same cleaner as you use on the unit, just get bamboo skewers from the dollar store and scrape it off, cotton swaps are a good tool as well. If you don’t keep nasty water in your unit, as in, dump it and get clean water every session, it’ll be a billion times easier to clean too. Those are my tips – Good luck.
Alcohol and Epsom salt are cheap and easy! Took me seconds to restore almost as new.
Question though; How do you completely remove the resin from under the slide??? I can always restore the glass piece brand new, however the area under the slide in the middle is tough. Any ideas?
Try using some acetone (it’s in most nail polish removers, if you don’t have any)… It works wonders, but obviously make sure to rinse it well afterward.
I have not cleaned my bong in six years. It is so dirty/nasty that I can’t even see how much water is in it. I’m going to clean it tonight. Thank you all for the inspiration.
I just tried the salt and alcohol method… PERFECT!!!! Thanks guys. 🙂
I just tried citrus based De-solve-it (for getting sticker residue off) and it’s as clean as the day I bought it. It did take about 10 fills, shakes, and empty cycles.
Fill the bong with as much water as possible. Plug the bowl hole if you want to clean to the top. Drop a tab of Polident ™, let it sit and then rinse. Voila, clean pipe.
I’ve heard that lemon juice is a good cleanser, and also you can shake around some dry rice in there to act as a scour.
Run the hottest water in your house through your bong until all of the resin stains come out.
Use kosher salt and alcohol, pour it into the waterpipe and shake the **** out of it, then rinse with hot water until you can’t smell the alcohol anymore.