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Tips on cleaning waterpipe?

I

iodo

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 18, 2012
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312
My bong is disgusting. I have a bong that I don't clean much, and as a result it has a huge black ring that goes about two inches up the pipe. Its a 12 inch bong with an ice catcher, the cheap, standard one you see at gas stations. I neglected to clean it and only changed the water every few days, and it now has a two inch resin mark that extends up to the ice catcher.

I have another bong that I've cleaned daily since I got it, I use rubbing alcohol and salt, and it's pretty clean. The other bong will not get clean though. I've used rubbing alcohol and salt, I've let it soak in alcohol and very warm water, but nothing will remove the ring.

My friend told me it looks like mold or fungus and I immediately soaked it in alcohol for 24 hours, changing the alcohol ever 3 or four hours. But that was months ago, and it didn't remover the resin "stain". And it's only gotten worse since then, even with a weekly alcohol soak.

How do I get rid of it? Is it permanently stained?
 
91-99% iso in a seperate iso alcohol bottle, heat it for 17 seconds in the microwave (no more! iso is flammable!), then pour the hot iso in your bong with some salt and go to work shaking dat booty.
 
^ is that really sound advice?

surely everyone's microwave heat at different strengths, so someones 17 seconds in the microwave could cause a fire?
 
Acetone should work, but I recommend that you clean it either outside or in a very well ventilated area because acetone evaporates rather easy and you don't want to breathe any of it not to mention it's very flammable too.

EDIT: I noticed you didn't mention whether the pipe is some sort of plastic or a glass one please note that acetone dissolves many types of plastic too and it will pretty much ruin anything made of acryl.
 
tripnotyzm said:
This!
Click to expand...

If you want to heat alcohol -- heat a pan of water, turn OFF the heat (especially if its gas), then place your glass or ceramic container in the water for 17-20 seconds to heat it. Using a water bath is a much saner way to heat this up than a microwave, or any type of open flame. If for any reason it were to catch fire, don't panic. Just put a lid on it and smother it.
 
Mysterie said:
^ is that really sound advice?

surely everyone's microwave heat at different strengths, so someones 17 seconds in the microwave could cause a fire?
Click to expand...

when microwaving alcohol watch it, until it starts to boil, it does only take seconds. i depends on the power of your microwave and the amount of alcohol you are heating.

the issue is that the alcohol can boil and burst out of the container which causes burns

I have never had any light on fire in the microwave, when I left it in for too long it just boils over (good for cleaning the microwave).

it is dangerous yes, but very effective on cleaning out the grosses, baked on resin from a nice glass bong. many commercial bong cleaners are just rubbing alcohol, salt and sometimes a citrus extract.
 
We used to use efferent.
The denture tablets?
You can get a nice minty flavor.
or just use dawn and a scrubber.
if its really gnarly, toss it.
 
all you need to do is use rubbing alcohol ( isopropyl...sp?) and sea salt (the big rough kind), swish it around until clean and then wash out with water
 
rinse the piece under hot water inside and out that gets the res in the pipe softer then do the rubbing alcohol and salt much easier then messing with heating up the alcohol. just dont fill it back up with ice cold water if its still warm to the touch cause you could crack it depending on how hot/cold it is and quality of the glass
 
Assuming this is a glass pipe, acetone should work pretty well. It's super cheap and more effective than isopropyl alcohol and salt, but it is quite volatile and smells strongly so do it in a well ventilated area.
 
Thanks for everyone's advice so far. I ran some boiling water through it this morning before scraping some of the resin off the side using a hanger, followed by an alcohol soak. I use 99% alcohol . It worked to an extent, getting larger buildups out but I was unable to get under the ice catcher. There's still clumps of resin everywhere, and the stain is still pretty much there, but it looks cleaner. I'll pick up the acetone next time I go shopping.

Any tips on getting the horrible resin taste out? I've put lemon juice in the water and I didn't notice much of a difference. I'd imagine getting it completely spotless would remove it, but is there anything that would make it taste better for the time being?
 
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