Water Bong Cleaning 101

We love water bongs, and you probably do too. Few other pipes or smoking devices offer such clean, smooth hits, cool the smoke, and offer the ability to take such huge rips.

The smoking experience offered by a water pipe smoking sesh is next to none; cleaning them, well, that’s another story.

They can be a bit harder to clean than simple glass hand pipes, but luckily, we have the insider tips you need to get that heady glass sparkling again.

Empty and Flush the Water Bong

First things first, get rid of the old water. That’s culprit number one. It doesn’t hurt to rinse the water pipe out a few times, too.

Fill up the bong with warm, or even hot water. You’re not going to hurt it, it’s glass. Swirl it around to loosen any resin (and god forbid, mold) on the inside of the chamber, then pour out this water.

Pour in a Cleaning Solution

There are all different sorts of bong cleaners you can buy. One popular option is the Dark Crystal cleaner we sell here. It’s odorless, non-toxic, and highly effective on glass, crystal, acrylic, ceramic, quartz, and non-painted metals.

However, you can easily make your own water bong cleaner at home with some basic ingredients you can get at any grocery or convenience store.

All you need is some high-proof isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and some coarse rock salt. These make excellent cleaners for water bongs, for several reasons.

For one, alcohol is highly effective at dissolving resin and smoke tar. Even most stubborn deposits will come off fairly easily. Alcohol can also help dissolve some minerals, such as those that cause hard water stains.

Rubbing alcohol also dries very quickly and leaves no residue behind whatsoever, leaving your glass immaculately clean.

As for the rock salt, you throw that in for a little abrasive power. It is not hard enough to scratch glass or crystal, but it is plenty hard enough to scrub away resin and tar.

Cover the Openings and Shake the Water Bong

Once you’ve filled the chamber with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and coarse rock salt, cover the openings of the water bong.

You can use your hands for this, or stuff the openings with paper towels or rags, but this is liable to make quite a mess if you are not careful.

Alternatively, you can use special silicone stoppers specifically designed to plug up the openings in water pipes for cleaning purposes.

Once you’ve plugged these openings, shake the water pipe vigorously. You want to work the rock salt and alcohol solution up the sides of the chamber, up the tube, and into the downstem.

Shaking the bong should help remove most deposits, but if you have extremely thick tar deposits, one trick is to fill the water pipe up and let it sit for ten to twenty minutes before shaking it.

This will give the deposits inside the chamber, tube, and downstem a little time to absorb the rubbing alcohol and dissolve beforehand, which can ultimately make it easier for you to clean the whole rig.

Use a Pipe Cleaner or Magnetic Water Bong Scrubber to Remove Stubborn Deposits

For particularly stubborn tar deposits on the bowl or inside of the chamber, you might need to call for some backup.

Pipe cleaners can reach into those narrow spaces in the bowl and downstem, helping to absorb, dislodge, and remove any tar.

As for the inside of the tube and chamber, there are special magnetic scrubbers you can buy to help with cleaning. One piece drops into the water bong, the other piece is held against the chamber from the outside.

It magnetically attracts the inner piece, making it easy for you scrub the inside of the chamber.

Pour Out the Cleaning Solution and Rinse with Fresh Water

Once you’ve cleaned out the inside of the water bong, all that’s left for you to do is to rinse it out with fresh water.

It’s pretty easy to clean out salt and isopropyl alcohol, as the latter dries without a residue, but if using another type of commercial cleaning, make sure you rinse your water bong with several changes of water and thoroughly dry it before using it again.

Once it’s been thoroughly cleaned, rinsed, and dried, you can fill it up again with fresh water and get back to using it.

Preventing Water Stains

Using water from the tap can cause hard water stains to materialize in your water bong.

These stains are caused by dissolved minerals in water, chiefly magnesium and calcium. Over time, they can leave unsightly deposits inside your water bong that will be difficult, nearly impossible, to remove.

Light hard water stains can be removed with a regular cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, but thicker deposits will be more difficult to remove.

Cleaning them is hard; preventing them, however, is relatively easy. Use filtered or distilled water in your water pipes - that will help prevent hard water stains from materializing.

Preventing Mold Stains

Mold is even worse than hard water stains, and can be even more difficult to remove. Not only that, but dark mold stains on a beautiful piece of heady glass absolutely ruin the aesthetic aspect of smoking.

They look terrible and are downright gross. A vigorous scrubbing with a water pipe cleaner or alcohol and salt will remove them, but our suggestion is simply to avoid mold stains in the first place.

For one, change your glass bong’s water every day. This will help prevent mold from growing. For another, if you won’t be using your water pipe for a few days, do not leave the chamber full of water. This will encourage mold to grow. Instead, empty it out and let it dry between smoking sessions.

Time for a New Water Bong? Check Out Our Collection!

We carry a wide range of water bongs for sale as well as many fine examples of heady glass, both in our retail shop and in our online store. Take a look through our collection of glass water pipes - if yours is too far gone, it might be time for an upgrade, anyway!