Some power tools and industrial solvents may have been used in the process.
I wouldn’t have dared to show the before-picture even if I had one. It was bad. Really bad.
A full bong may be too big, but for my dry herb vape and glass pipes, I put them and the vape parts in zip lock baggies, cover with IPA, and put it in my harbor freight ultrasonic cleaner for about 6 minutes. Rinse and it’s spotless every time.
Mighty vaporizer is a pain to clean as well. Not sure how the plastics feel about IPA though.
I have a mighty. I’ve had to replace two rubber gaskets over about 6ish years, but that’s as much normal wear as anything else, getting pinched when putting it back together. I do have to pop the screen out of the mouthpiece to effectively get it clean, but that’s nothing. The one thing that did happen due to the IPA is the textured logo thing on the mouthpiece lock fell off after a couple years when the adhesive wore out.
I don’t care about the logo. I was just wondered if the plastic is going to be fine. Thanks!
The orange grinder and filler that came with it, the clearish caps did get etched and foggy after an iso bath. Still functional, but ugly now. The original mouthpiece looks as new as when I got it, and I have a backup that I swap to when the first has restricted airflow from resin build up. Once both are dirty, I procrastinate a bit longer then do both at once.
My method is fill it and turn the hot water all the way up to warm the glass then when I empty the water I put some coarse kosher salt (roughly a tablespoon) and about 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol and shake it. After a few shakes I just drain it and flush with warm water. Good as new takes about 5 minutes I do it once a week
exactly this except acetone instead of isopropyl. i find it much more effective.
Doing it once a week is key. You’re never building up the hard stuck on gunk because you’re being proactive about cleaning.
I wish my roommate acted the same way. I swear I’m the only one who has ever cleaned the damn bowl.
The resin adds flavor!
Everyone’s mentioning isopropyl, nobody is mentioning acetone. You don’t need salt or any of that with acetone, and it’s less toxic than isopropyl alcohol. You can get a big tin can of it in the paint supply store and your bong will be day one clean in a minute if not a few seconds.
Acetone attacks most plastic parts though so you can only use it for glass and steel. IPA will easily rinse off and is friendly to most materials.
I think I’ll try a new approach from now on. I had this sit in a bucket of hot soapy water for a day first and that got rid of 90% of it with very little effort. If I just repeat that around once a month instead of letting it get as bad again then I hopefully don’t need to chisel out the tar buildup again in the future.
Try isopropyl alcohol (higher % = better results) and kosher salt. The salt won’t dissolve in the alcohol and will act like liquid sandpaper that won’t damage the glass. The alcohol will weaken the resin and make it more likely to separate from the glass.
Put the whole thing in a container of some sort (ideally something sealed that you can shake without breaking the glass), then add the salt and pour the iso in. Shake it, let it sit for a bit, then shake again and drain. After that, if there’s still stains or anything soap and water will usually get it.
Only throwing this out there cause I saw ‘power tools’ and I had a panic over the glass’ safety.
I do this, except I use plastic wrap and rubber bands to seal each end. Then I can shake the shit out of it
cause I saw ‘power tools’ and I had a panic over the glass’ safety.
I call her the bottlebrush9000
Okay that’s tamer than I was thinking lol
I usually give it a good long bath in IPA, then drop some decanter cleaning beads in and swirl em around and that usually gets rid of every last bit of residue.
