apologies for bringing this back from the dead but i think this may be of use to enough people to warrant it. the person repeatedly posting about water being the solution is actually right, water is the most effective liquid for cleaning them, but there’s been a crucial part left out - you can get water about 40 degrees hotter than most of the solvents traditionally used to clean glassware (i used to use isopropanol which boils at 180 - water boils at 220). that 40 degrees is enough to make a huge difference in how effective the liquid alone is at removing stains / gunk / gak / and assorted undesireable remnants of drugstuffs. previously i put boiling isopropanol in there with a bit of salt and went at it with a q-tip. the first time i used boiling water, i poured the water in and placed it in a cup in a position so the water stayed in the bowl - went to get the salt and q tips - came back and noticed everything had already come off by itself. in about 2 minutes. without agitating it. occasionally there will be a stubborn stain and i’ll use a q tip after the water to polish it out. since seeing the light i have tried isopropanol again just out of curiosity and nope, water way more effective.
in the past i’ve also tried acetone, regular ethanol, ethyl acetate, lye-water, windex, goo-gone (which is mostly petroleum distillates), and dmso. of all those, the lye-water was by far the most effective but i just don’t like handling lye and the idea of it even being in the thing at all. dmso was also more effective than any of the other solvents (which i found unexpected and odd) but no matter how much i rinsed it i couldn’t get that taste out (and if you know that taste you know that pipe is going in the trash).
anyway give boiling water a shot next time. let it sit in the bowl for a couple minutes, shake, empty. hope it works for y’all.
