How to clean your hand pipe or bong!

Today we'll be going over different ways to clean your piece. As far as cleaners go, there are a few good brands you could use for an all in one cleaning solution that can be more convenient sometimes, we have some available on our website. In this blog however, we will be using and highly recommending good old salt and iso. It's a staple every smoker should have and it is far more affordable! 

Everyone has a different routine when it comes to cleaning their piece, its hard to know what works the best! We will show you some methods that work really well for bubblers, bongs and hand pipes! 

What you'll need: 

• 91% Isopropyl alcohol
• Table salt 
• Melamine sponge 
• Paper towels 

Let's start out with an important factor; the proof of your isopropyl alcohol. This is important because if it is too low of a percentage (70%), it simply wont work. To show you just how much of a difference it makes, we're going to clean this Envy glass bong with 91% iso. Here is the first method we used, step by step; 

Starting out 

Dump out any old bong water 

Pro tips: Be careful if you have a white porcelain sink because resin chunks will stick and can be hard to get off. We recommend you use a stainless steel sink if you have access to it. 

Get your sink water as hot as possible.

Pro tips: Make it super hot before putting water in your piece! This is important because cold or cool temp water can cause the dirty resin to harden up and stick more to the piece. Making it incredibly difficult to clean off. Hot water is the way to go! 

Take out the removable pieces such as the downstem and slide.

Pro tips: This applies if you are cleaning out a bong or large bubbler. Place said pieces in a Ziploc bag with salt and iso, make sure there is enough in there to fully submerge everything. This is a great time to put your hand pipe in a separate bag to soak as well. Then shake the bag around a bit, leave those pieces in there while you move onto the next step. 

Cleaning process

For your bong or large bubbler you'll rinse it thoroughly with hot hot water. If you are going to do the shake method we recommend filling the piece with iso up to about half way and add salt, if you don't have plugs for the holes, using your fingers or wash cloths work just fine. 

Pro tips: For the salt, you want to make sure you pour enough to see it collecting at the bottom, if it all dissolves you wont have anything to scrub off the grime which is exactly what the salt is for. Now shake it around until you start to see chunks of resin coming off the glass! You can turn it upside down and back to right side up to give it a good swish. Continue doing this until your piece gets cleaner!

Something to note: If you clean your bong/ hand pipe daily or few times a week, you can save the iso you use and re use it! Cleaning more often also really cuts down on the time you spend doing it. Finding iso at the stores has been unpredictable with the pandemic, so this is a great way to make it last longer. We don't recommend re using it unless the color of iso is on the lighter side, about the color of a light beer is a safe bet.

If you live in a small town or an area that just hasn't had iso in stock for a while, something you can do is take a coffee filter and filter through the re used iso, you can end up getting a few more uses out of it this way.

For a deep cleaning of your bong or hand pipe, the key to getting all the resin off is soaking! This takes time but it is worth it, you're piece will come out looking brand new! 

Soaking

If you have the time to let your piece soak this is a great option because you'll end up using a lot less product. For this you'll need to fill up the piece with iso and make sure every resin covered part is fully submerged! This is important because otherwise you'll have parts that are fully clean and parts that aren't. Add in your salt as well, give it a good shake and then let it sit for a few days or less depending on the size of your piece. 

Smell

Considering isopropyl alcohol's very strong scent, during cleaning and when you leave it to soak, it may be hard to handle that smell. It will usually go away pretty quickly after you're done with the cleaning process, but for those more sensitive we recommend using some lemon or lime juice! This is a natural deodorizer and can for sure make it a bit easier to handle the smell. 

Cleanup 

The after math of cleaning your piece can sometimes mean having resin on your sink or counter top. As well as, on the outside of your bong! For the the counter or sink, melamine sponges work amazing! They're more commonly known as "Magic Eraser" but you can find these on amazon in bulk for cheap! They are great for cleaning off those sticky spots quickly. As far as the outside of your piece, using a little dish soap will do the trick. It's a good idea to avoid getting it inside your bong because it will take quite a bit of water to get those suds out. 

The moral of the story here is, clean your piece! You wouldn't use the same cup every day without washing it, this is practically the same thing except your lungs are a factor as well! 

We made an in depth YouTube video about cleaning methods, check it out below! 

Thanks friends, and happy smoking!