How to Clean a Bong? Your Guide

No matter if you are a bong OG or a bong beginner, you most probably understand the importance of cleaning your unit.

When it comes to bongs, glass pieces, pipes or any type of herb related accessories, it is more than important to keep them clean for them to work properly and offer the best results for users; and no, when I say clean, I don't mean every 3 to 4 months! Cleaning your dry herb accessories is more than important, and it should be done as much as possible.

How to Clean a Bong?

Due to the fact that I am a bong lover myself and have been using bongs for a long period of time, I do understand how much of a drag it can be to clean and maintain your unit.

However, the results are always extremely satisfying, and that gives me the extra inspiration to keep it clean and spotless. By cleaning your unit, you will find that you will get better taste, better results and an overall better experience.

What are the best ways to keep your bong clean?

In this blog, we will be talking about easy and simple ways to clean and maintain your bong, and have it looking brand new in no time. Of course, there are countless ways of doing this, but I would like to share with you the method that I have found the easiest and the most effective to keep my unit looking great and working flawlessly.

Keep in mind that these methods, tips and tricks can be used with almost any accessory.

What You're Going to Need

Some people believe that by simply grabbing some soap, adding a little bit of water and swishing it around inside of the bong, that it will actually clean the unit, however, this will actually make things worse.

If you have tried to clean a bong in the past, you have probably noticed that there is a certain type of oily ‘goo’ or residue that sticks to the surfaces. This is a build up of oil, resin and pieces of materials that fall into the bong. This sticky substance is also the impurities that are filtered through the water.

So, when you simply grab some dish soap and a little bit of cold water and put it in the bong, it will not make the slightest difference or help this sticky substance dissolve or be cleaned.

But worry not! There a wide variety of options and things you can use that are not only easy to find, easy to get and cheap, but also super effective in cleansing your bong completely of all its ‘impurities’.

1. Cleaning Solution

As mentioned above, there are a wide variety of solutions that you could use to clean your bong efficiently. The most effective and most popular choice, is 91% isopropyl alcohol.

This solution really gets to those hard to reach places, and leaves your bong looking brand new. 91% isopropyl alcohol is super easy to find, cheap and probably one of the best options for almost any type of bong and herb accessory.

Other options include 70% isopropyl alcohol, 100% acetone or nail polish remover for heavy cleaning, lemon juice and bong cleaning solutions (sold at almost all smoke/vape accessory shops and stores).

2. Salt

The second thing you're going to need is salt. Although this might sound like a strange science experiment, this item is one of the things that's going to make your bong brand new immediately.

When you add salt to your solution, it basically acts like a scrub. Due to the fact that it is coarse, it gets into those hard-to-reach places and basically scrubs off the bong residue.

The most recommended salts are Epsom salt, coarse sea salt, kosher salt and rock salt. Once again, these salts are super easy to find and are super cheap.

3. Opening Cover

The last thing you're going to need to clean your precious bong is something to cover the openings. You have probably experienced the problem of pouring some water in your dab bong and a little bit of a solution and then going to shake it and the stinky bong water getting all over the place thanks to the many openings.

However, if you have something to cover those openings, you will be able to shake your bong with the solution and salt inside without having any spilling problems.

The best things to use for your bong openings are bong caps. You can find bomb caps at almost any dry herb accessories shop or store and they’re usually pretty cheap.

If you don’t want to spend any extra money on bong caps however, you can use paper towels, q-tips, or Saran wrap and rubber bands. Just make sure that those openings are covered well before you start shaking your bong.

Cleaning your Bong

Now that you have all the necessary bits and pieces to get started, the first thing you're going to need to do is empty your bong of any materials or any extra liquids and rinse it with warm water.

This will simply start the process of getting all the extra residues and pieces out of your bong before you start really cleaning it.

The next step to your ‘clean bong success’, is to add the cleaning solution and salt. The best ratio for this, is about the same amount of water you usually use when smoking of cleaning solution and a small handful of salt.

Of course, if your bong is smaller-sized, you can change the ratio slightly, but just make sure that you have a good amount of both the solution and the salt.

The next step after filling your bong with cleaning solution and salt, and letting it soak for about five minutes, is covering your bongs openings. Once the openings are covered completely and secured, you can start shaking the solution and salt inside of the bong.

Sometimes, I get a little carried away and can be doing the shaking process for more than 15 minutes; however, this is not necessary, you can simply shake the cleaning solution and salt inside of your bong for about 1 minute or 2, and it will do the job efficiently.

After you have shaken the solution inside of your bong and you can start seeing that the residues are coming off and dissolving, you can pour out the solution, (if you find that a part of the bong is not being cleaned efficiently, you can use pipe cleaners to get to those hard-to-reach places).

After pouring out the solution, the last step is rinsing your bong several times with warm water. This will simply ensure that you're not getting any alcohol tastes or fumes the next time you use your bong.

As you can see, the bong cleaning process is not that complicated and it only requires a few key ingredients and about 10 minutes to have your bong looking as good as new.

For those that prefer a more natural solution to clean bong, you can use lemon juice. I have found this method to be very effective, and also, I simply love the smell of lemon juice. It really masks the herb residue smell, which is great.

Why is Cleaning Important?

There a wide variety of reasons of why cleaning your bong is super important. Not only does a bong start looking a little shabby after weeks of use, but it also starts to smell, and lose its smooth functionality.

Once a bong has been used for a long period of time, the openings will start getting plugged and the surfaces will get plastered with herb residue, which affects the taste, the smoke production, and the overall experience.

Another thing that makes cleaning your bong so important, is the fact that no one should be smoking out of a dirty peace or accessory. In my personal experience, I have found that smoking out of a dirty bong or a unmaintained glass piece, makes me cough more, and makes the whole experience more unpleasant.

I strongly believe that for health-related reasons, it is more than important to keep your bong and dry herb related accessories clean.

One of the last things that makes cleaning your bong super important, is the fact that they look gorgeous after being cleaned. No matter if you have a 5 year old bong or a brand new bong, after a couple uses, it starts looking more like an ashtray than a high-quality bong.

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By cleaning your precious bong and accessories, you will have them looking great and working great. Try cleaning your bong at least once a week or at the most, once every two weeks. You will find that this will keep your bong looking great and keep you enjoying the best experience possible.