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Cleaning bongs with built in downstem

justtakethat

justtakethat

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Messages
800
Location
Southern California
How do u clean ur built in non removable downstem? The methods iv heard of is pouring salt to fill it then puring alchohol and sucking through at the same time (sucking not inhaling) and iv also heard of pouring in some and halfeay down it covering the top, what's the best method?
 
Neversick, im talking about built in downstems that u can really get that into it for more than the time it takes to pour it through and fill up the bottom of the bong
 
woah woah woah, don't use your mouth to suck or whatever to clean it. that can actually be very dangerous with isopropyl and cause you to pass out.

just put salt and iso in your bong like Neversick said and then use your thumb to block the bowl whole and use your palm of your other hand to block the mouth hole of the bong and then shake it....and shake it some more....you should be able to get it looking like NEW fairly easily using this method.
 
I clean my pieces (built in downstem or stemless) using 2 methods.

1) Formula 420 soak n rinse. Cover ends with plastic wrap/rubber band and let sit. Comes out sparkling new. But this stuff isn't cheap. It's mostly limonene though.

2) Immerse entire piece if 95% ethanol and let sit there for 6 hours or so. It helps to place the piece in a sonicator (jeweler's ultra-sonic cleaner). You'd be laying the piece down horizontally and covering it with the everclear and then sonicating it until clean.

Both methods work, and I've always avoided the salt method myself. I 'lost' one piece for 4 years, rediscovered it.....dirty as hell and ended up looking new.

Tom
 
Thomas Davie said:
I clean my pieces (built in downstem or stemless) using 2 methods.

1) Formula 420 soak n rinse. Cover ends with plastic wrap/rubber band and let sit. Comes out sparkling new. But this stuff isn't cheap. It's mostly limonene though.

2) Immerse entire piece if 95% ethanol and let sit there for 6 hours or so. It helps to place the piece in a sonicator (jeweler's ultra-sonic cleaner). You'd be laying the piece down horizontally and covering it with the everclear and then sonicating it until clean.

Both methods work, and I've always avoided the salt method myself. I 'lost' one piece for 4 years, rediscovered it.....dirty as hell and ended up looking new.

Tom
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The problem is when u cover the wholes tje downstem doesnt go all the way to the bottom of glass and its pretty hard to get fluids into it since its in the very center ( think about a hammer bubbler with the downstem halfway down.) I guess ill have to waste a bottle of rubbing alchohol trying to submerge my entire peice in it. Thats a shame. And when i suck through the piece too pull the alchohol salt mixture down the downstem u suck and not inhale so im sure its fine.
 
Slightly off topic, but there is a technique I recently discovered and have been using in the past 6 months to keep my water pipes clean with as little work as possible on a regular basis.

I bought 5 18mm bowls with built in screens as a bulk purchase (really cheap) to fit into my inline ashcatcher.

Smoking flower out of the piece on a daily basis, I only need to do a quick 1 minute salt + iso shake once a week on the ashcatcher and then I place the bowl away for cleaning another time and grab another clean bowl. Once 5 weeks goes by, I then soak the 5 bowls in a small sandwich bag overnight if necessary and then individual shake them in the same salt and iso solution. I never have to clean the bowls until after 5 weeks of daily use. This makes the whole process very efficient, cheap and easy.

This small investment in extra bowls has drastically reduced my cleaning time, and lowered my use of iso as well.
 
Chuck it in the bin and buy a proper bong like my 10 footer i use it as a lamp holder
 
Cheezy said:
Chuck it in the bin and buy a proper bong like my 10 footer i use it as a lamp holder
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10 foot is wayy to much space to get some stale smoke and force to clear it. Im talking about a bubbler i have, most bubblers have a built in downstem so to say to chuck it makes it seem like uv never had one before. Also im getting a 14 inch glass on glass stemless with a stereo matrix perc and an icecatcher, so the bubbler will be collecting dust.
 
Spending lots of money to buy specialized cleaning agents is not necessary. Using 91% iso (easier to find and cheaper than 99% ) warmed up for 12-15 seconds in the microwave (no more than 15s!) with a touch of salt should help it look and taste like new.

@justtakethat, you're right. Any bong over 2 feet tall almost guarantees stale smoke, especially if you're milking it. For smoking flowers out of a bong, 10-18" is perfect.
 
Acetone works good with salt too, it seems to strip the resin a lot quicker than iso, you gotta wear rubber gloves when using acetone but.
Not sure how the glass stem bong works but maybe rinse and soak with acetone and get a wood scewer with some paper towel wrapped around the end and give it a light wipe, acetone melts the resin well but you still need salt or rice to lift/wipe away the resin, the stick with thick paper towel should do the trick.
 
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So ones knows how to clean out the built in downstem in my hammer bubbler? I could just soak the whole thing but that wasts iso. And im worried about putting a qtip down it or something.
 
I've never had problems with any of my built in downstems using the method I described.


Post a pic, maybe we can see your problem better if we can see the actual glass.
 
justtakethat said:
How do i post a picture on here w01?
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Go to imgur.com or another free image hosting site, upload the picture, and then copy and paste the address of the image here onto a bluelight reply with the
 
What Priest said, JTT. Use imgur.com to upload a photo. Copy the address link and put tags around it. It should look something like this:

 
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