Keeping a clean and shiny bong is something every stoner should strive for. There’s nothing worse than showing up to a smoking circle and being handed a crusty, dirty bong that hasn’t been cleaned in months. Don’t be that person. Learn how to clean your bong properly by reading this article.
If only you could see my face every time I get handed a very dirty bong – it says it all. And if your guests don’t do the same when you hand them a dirty bong, it’s because they have much better manners than I do.
That’s right – it’s basically blasphemy to smoke out of a dirty bong, let alone to serve up your friends in one. Before your friends come over, do the right thing and clean your bong.
You wouldn’t serve up a dinner party in dirty dishes that had been lying around for months, would you? I always wondered why people never treated their bongs like dirty dishes, washing them regularly and keeping everything in order. For that matter, smoking out of a dirty bong also heavily affects the taste.
Nothing says “good stoner” better than a shiny bong, and no smoke tastes better than the first hit out of a new or freshly cleaned piece. Here’s the how-to on cleaning on your bong – the proper way!
Get yourself ready for a Spring cleaning
This isn’t usually a lengthy process if you’re the kind of smoker who regularly cleans their bong. However, it’s easy to get complacent and end up with a bong that’s completely covered in grime. Yes – that will make this harder and more tedious. But it’s okay. There’s nothing you can’t handle for the reward of a smoke from a shiny new bong.
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The things you will need are:
- Rubbing alcohol
- Salt or rice (something abrasive)
- Cotton balls
- Q-tips
- Sandwich bags (or Tupperware containers)
- Hand towels
- A pipe cleaner or bottle brush
- Hot water
For good measure, also prepare yourself with a fresh bag of weed to enjoy after finally cleaning your bong.
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How to clean your bong
Now it’s time to clean your bong. Make sure you’ve emptied out your bong and there’s no more water inside before you start.
- Take apart your bong and separate all the pieces. For some of you, it just means removing the bowl from the stem. For others, it means also removing the stem from the bong.
- Rinse everything under hot, running water. The hotter the water, the better, so wear dish-washing gloves if you have to. This is a great way to start loosening up all the gunk that has started to accumulate in your bong.
- Now get out those sandwich bags. Put each piece in its own little sandwich bag – or Tupperware container if that’s what you’ve chosen to use.
- Pour some rubbing alcohol into each sandwich bag and add a few teaspoons of salt (or rice). For the record, the alcohol is what is going to begin dissolving some of the resin and built up material in your bong. The salt (or rice) acts as something abrasive to scrape off the built up gunk and assist your rubbing alcohol. The proportions don’t really matter. Just make sure the salt doesn’t dissolve in the rubbing alcohol.
- Now that each part is in its own baggie with alcohol and salt, shake it. Shake it real good. No – really. Shake for as long as you can. The longer you shake around the baggie with the alcohol and salt, the more this solution can reach all of the crevices of each piece and the cleaner everything will become.
- Now it’s time to clean the main part of your bong. You will do it in much the same way as you did with the other pieces. Start by pouring some salt or rice into your bong. Use a lot, enough so that the salt doesn’t dissolve in the alcohol and enough to sufficiently clean your piece. Now pour in the rubbing alcohol. Using the hand towels, plug the holes. Remember to plug the carburetor with your finger.
- And shake. Shake, shake, shake! After five minutes of shaking, shake some more. You want to give this part of your bong an epic cleaning, because this is where the water sits and accumulates material.
- Once that’s all done, take everything out of the sandwich bags, empty out your bong and rinse everything with hot water again. You should notice that everything is much shinier than it was before. If there are some spots that just aren’t clean, you can use the bottle brush or q tip. Soak it in rubbing alcohol and give it a fair go. Then rinse everything one more time with hot water.
- Let everything air dry before smoking up a storm again. It’s not very nice to smoke out of a bong that still has the smell and taste of rubbing alcohol.
Now your bong is shiny and clean! Don’t forget what it feels like to smoke out of a clean bong!
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3 Tips for maintaining bong cleanliness
Now that your bong is deliciously clean, let’s try and keep it that way. We have some tips for you for bong maintenance. You’d be surprised how much faster and easier it will be to clean your bong next time if you follow some simple advice.
1. Clean your bong regularly
Simple maintenance is cleaning your bong regularly. Don’t wait months before you decide that it’s time for a clean. Ideally, after every use you give your bong a shake with, at the very least, some hot water. Then, once a week you can give it the full-blown spring cleaning that we just taught you how to do.
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2. Lemon juice for hard water stains
If you’ve been lazy about cleaning your bong up until now, there’s a chance that some hard water stains accumulated on the inside of the bong. Hard water stains are what make your bong look dirty even though you’ve cleaned it thoroughly. To avoid this happening in the future – or to a new bong – try adding a few drops of lemon juice to your bong water.
This doesn’t mean you can stop cleaning your bong. But it does mean that you can avoid having any permanent stains on the inside of your bong.
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3. Store your bong clean and empty
When you put your bong away, make sure it’s not full of dirty bong water. Leaving dirty bong water in it overnight is a way to ensure that your next clean will be long and difficult – if you can even get all of those stains out.
Keeping a clean piece should be just as important as keeping clean dishes or a clean house. It’s good weed etiquette to have a clean bong for your friends to smoke, regardless if it’s a store-bought or home-made bong. Plus, it’s just much nicer to smoke! Enjoy the taste of freedom from a dirty bong!
