Misc (tobacco) Used hookah problems. Nasty stuff inside it.

[Wash]

Copying my friend's post on another forum about this, thought I'd share with you guys.

I posted a few weeks ago about buying a hookah that was on sale. Shortly after buying it me and my friends realized it was used because it had chips on some parts and smelled like it had been smoked out of. We looked up a video on how to clean a hookah and cleaned it as thoroughly as we could (which wasnt thorough at all, we had no idea what we were doing and just ran water through it)

Eventually, I came down with strep and I didnt think anything of it, I figured it was just a bug going around. When I recovered, we decided to THOROUGHLY (correctly, gun cleaning kit, lemon juice, baking soda) clean the hookah to rid of any sickness I could have gotten on it. Well, we completely disassembled it and shined a light down the stem. The inside was disgusting and caked with brown and green ... STUFF. We scrubbed it out with the gun cleaning brush and moved onto cleaning the area you put the hose into and the inside was brown and sticky, it had what looked like insects crawling inside of it. It smelled literally like road kill, and that isnt an exaggerated, it literally smelled like a dead animal.

We were DISGUSTED and figured no matter how much we cleaned this thing, we werent going to smoke out of it, so we decided to disect it and get a good look of what was inside this thing that made me sick. We cut the hose open and the inside of the hose was covered in white and brown particles. It wasnt rust, it was something else that felt like dirt or sand. We had a problem when we used to smoke it of getting stuff in our mouth, we thought it was wood chips coming loose from the wooden end of the hose. NOPE. it was whatever was growing on the inside of the hose. It looked like some kind of mold or something. It was powdery.

Next we investigated the part of the stem thats circular and the hoses go into. Not sure what it's called, but we busted it open with a hammer and this.. is what we saw.. This is what we had been smoking out of. (we put a string through it so we wouldnt lose the pieces when it broke apart) I wish we had a good camera, its green, and yellow, and looks like dried vomit. it smells like a dead animal or something that has been rotting. I feel. sick.

image of it:

 

[HaZeX]

Cant see what it is...

You have to clean your hookah every time when your done using it, use hot water, scrub the inner pipes with a brush, flush the inside of the hoses(if water proof)....

Dont ever leave water in it over night. When your done cleaning it put it in a dry non-humid space.

 

[ErgicMergic]

Ughh I hate dirty hookahs almost as much as burned shisha bowls

Run a lot of hot water through the downstem, you can even use a bit of lemon juice to get the gunk off, then keep rinsing with hot water.

 

[brutus]

I had the same problem a few years ago and the only solution was to throw the hookah away.

 

[dcraver877]

soak it in lye water! i would try 90% isopropyl for a few weeks but i think you need a strongly basified solution to get that crud off. Look for 100% lye crystals at the hardware store in the plumbing section. Mix it with water and let it soak

 

[sekio]

It looks to me that bit's just tarry as hell from overuse - tobacco smoke can leave really gnarly residue.

If it doesn't come off with hot soapy water & a vigourous scrub, try isopropyl alcohol. If that doesn't work try acetone.
As a last resort a lye-water bath can be used but it may corrode the metal parts.

Probably best to buy a new one and treat it a little better.

 

[tricomb]

IMO that thing should be shitcanned. Looks yucky.

 

[Sorce]

strep and staff are both common bacteria that grow just about anywhere they can find food. looks like you had a pitri dish in your hookah.

if you used some heavy duty disinfectant followed by boiling water it could be made safe again.

 

[brutus]

^ Strep and staph grow just about everywhere, really nothing to worry about. I guarantee you that your cell phone is has more bacteria than that hookah.

 

[bronson]

Well I smoke tobacco pipes, and can advise you on how nasty ones of the briar variety are cleaned. More or less you just want to fill the nasty parts full with salt, then add isopropyl alcohol ( 90% ) to the point where the salt becomes saturated. Allow to sit undisturbed for between 24 to 48 hours. A soft sold forms which can easily be broken up and taken out, and will also take the foul tobacco residue with it.

From there you just would be looking at a good scrubbing and rinsing, and it's probably advisable to just replace the hose. It might not end up cosmetically perfect, but it should smoke just fine.

 

[Wash]

soak it in lye water! i would try 90% isopropyl for a few weeks but i think you need a strongly basified solution to get that crud off. Look for 100% lye crystals at the hardware store in the plumbing section. Mix it with water and let it soak

Wish we had known that before. We already trashed it. We bought it from a store, turns out it was used. We smoked it maybe 3 times, then he got sick, and decided to investigate.
Honestly, after seeing it in person (The picture does NOT do it justice on how disgusting it looked) we didn't really want to smoke it at all, no matter how thoroughly we cleaned it.
If you look at the picture, the sides are all bent. We couldnt get it apart, and after deciding to buy a new stem and hoses, we broke it open to see inside it.

 

[Dunno]

Was it from dandy?

 

[Wash]

Was it from dandy?

Nah, local store. Ironically, called "Cheap Tobacco". Saw it when i was buying tobacco for rolling cigs.

 

[bronson]

There are a few really good vendors with fair prices around the interwebz. Though I dare not give any links a quick google search should turn up a few. Was the smoking being done shisha of interest? I can recommend some good tobaccos if so.

 

[Wash]

There are a few really good vendors with fair prices around the interwebz. Though I dare not give any links a quick google search should turn up a few. Was the smoking being done shisha of interest? I can recommend some good tobaccos if so.

We've been using Social Smoke shisha, it's alright but nothing special. I've heard good things about Al Fakher, so we may be getting some of that soon. Any other good brands you know?

 

[bronson]

Romman has awesome almond and orange flavors, and Starbuzz in general is very enjoyable.

 

[ErgicMergic]

We've been using Social Smoke shisha, it's alright but nothing special. I've heard good things about Al Fakher, so we may be getting some of that soon. Any other good brands you know?

Al Fakhr white grape is a classic, their mint is good, too. I got out of my hookah phase right when Starbuzz started releasing flavors, but Starbuzz is really good, especially Melon Dew, and is a better value than Al Fakhr for the much better quality you get.

Also, don't know if this is BS, since I haven't smoked too much Starbuzz, but apparently it's washed of its nicotine content more throughly, compared to Al Fakher which still has a notable nicotine content. My first time getting high on something other than alcohol was on a hookah loaded with Al Fakher in my backyard, lol... the 5 minute nicotine rush... I've never smoked a cigarette, though.

 

[dcraver877]

with shisha you really get what you pay for. In most reputable hookah/smoke shops, the more expensive the shisha, the better quality. I've had some cheap shisha before that has given me terrible allergic reactions but, alas, I am highly sensitive and have a gluten intolerance (gluten ingredients are commonly used as filler in cheap food/ingestable products.

 

[The.Ghost]

soak it in lye water! i would try 90% isopropyl for a few weeks but i think you need a strongly basified solution to get that crud off. Look for 100% lye crystals at the hardware store in the plumbing section. Mix it with water and let it soak

For posterity: Be damned careful with concentrated water / lye solutions. When you mix the two, much heat is generated, and a hot concentrated lye solution is about the quickest way to take your skin clean off. Wear gloves and goggles, period. It will kill most anything, because it reacts with just about anything biological like crazy, and, unlike an acid, penetrates quickly. That's why I'll handle 40% sulfuric acid (aka battery acid) without gloves, but wouldn't even think of going near 40% NaOH without them.

As an aside, you can make a solution of lye in isopropyl alcohol. In my lab we call that a base bath and use it to remove the absolute most stubborn stains off glassware. Be warned, though, that this *will* dissolve a thin layer of glass, and any skin it happens to contact. This may work as a last resort, but be damned careful.