How to Clean a Bong in 7 Simple Steps

By Charlie Solly – Greener Ganja Cannabis CEO

How to Clean Your Bong Quickly in 7 Easy Steps

Many weed smokers use different ways to smoke. Some prefer joints due to the disposable aspect of them, and the contained amount. Some prefer dab pens due to the ease of use. Some prefer pipes and glassware due to the raw taste and feel of the smoke. Many prefer glass bongs and beakers. This is because they’re quick and easy to use, straight to the point, and give you a really great high.

Now, many people use bongs daily, but a lot of people tend to be smoking out of a dirty bong. This could either be because they don’t know how to clean it, or the fact that they don’t want to. This is understandable as it is a process sometimes, and many people think they need to buy supplies in order to clean their bong. This isn’t all true, as I’ll show in this post.

People dealing with a dirty bong may be wondering “how do I clean my bong?”, and others don’t want to go through the process of buying cleaning supplies, so I’ll be giving an expert tutorial on how to clean a bong today, in 7 quick and easy steps, with supplies you can find right in your house.

The 8 steps are as follows, and I’ll go into more depth below.

1. Remove your downstem and bowl piece
2. Get soap and a plastic zip bag
3. Apply soap to the bong
4. Rinse out the bong
5. Fill the bag with soap and hot water
6. Get toothpicks (or a pipe cleaner)
7. Clean out excess residue

Now that you know the steps, it’s time to demonstrate how to clean a bong quickly and efficiently at home.

1. Remove Your Downstem and Bowl Piece

The first step to cleaning your bong is to remove the dirty downstem and bowl piece and place them on a table or your workspace. Make sure they don’t roll off your table, as they can break easily.

These will be cleaned later, but for now it’s good to have them in their own designated area while you clean your bong.

2. Get Soap and a Plastic Zip Bag

The second step is to gather cleaning supplies. I suggest a spray bottle of heavy-duty dish soap, but hand soap or any other cleaning detergent works for this occasion. I also suggest a medium-sized Zipper Seal bag to work with, as it shouldn’t be too small or overly large.

These should be readily available to you in your house, so there is no need to buy extra supplies or spend any more time gathering these cleaning supplies. Remember, we’re cleaning a bong from home.

3. Apply Soap to the Bong

The third step is where we take it back to the bong itself. Using your soap or cleaning solution, spray or pump it into the top of the bong, and through the hole where the downstem usually goes. This will ensure that your bong gets enough soap evenly dispersed within the bong itself.

During this step, you might want to start boiling a kettle of water, or warming up your tap water, as it takes hot water working with the soap to help fully disperse of residue and built-up ash.

4. Rinse Out the Bong

For this step, you must have hot water ready to be poured into your bong through the top opening. This ensures the water is rinsing through the entire bong and getting bacteria out of the smoke hole. After the water is poured in to a normal level, cover the hole for the downstem and violently shake the bong back and forth, rinsing thoroughly inside the bong and disrupting the buildup of residue. After it’s been shaken for around 15-25 seconds, pour out the water through the downstem hole.

Repeat this process 4-5 times, or until the bong is relieved of most ash residue and the soap is washed out of the bong. Then, fill the bong with hot water and let it sit for the rest of the process.

5. Fill the Bag With Soap and Hot Water

In this fifth step, we take away from the bong for a minute to focus on the downstem and bowl piece, as they get dirtier more quickly, but are easier to clean. First, place the downstem and bowl piece in the bag. Using the soap and hot water, fill the zip bag up past the top of the downstem and close the bag, making sure it’s airtight and the items are being flooded with the clean water.

You then want to shake around the bag, making sure the soap gets in and fills every hole of the downstem and bowl piece. You can also use your fingers from the outside to rub away some excess ash in the bowl piece. Let them soak for 15-20 minutes.

6. Get Toothpicks

In step six, you need to obtain some type of long, thin, disposable object that can be used to clean the excess residue from these narrow items. I chose to use wooden skewers, but longer toothpicks can also work.

At this point, your bong, downstem and bowl piece have been soaking for some time, making sure that the residue is flaky and ready to let go.

7. Clean Out Excess Residue

For the seventh and final step, you must use the toothpicks to clean excess residue. Remove the downstem and bowl piece from the bag and dispose of the dirty bag, and then use these toothpicks to chip away and remove the residue on the outside of the glass. Make sure to take your time and really clean it out, because it will make a world of a difference and make it easier to clean next time.

You can also use these tools in the bong through the downstem hole, into the back of the base of the bong, to scratch away any excess debris before it gets out of hand.

Enjoy Your Clean Bong!

After these steps, feel free to replace your downstem and bowl piece and enjoy a clear toke from your new clean bong! With an approximate cleaning time of around 30 minutes, this is a must for bong owners and should be done every couple months, or whenever the downstem and bowl piece start to clog again.

I hope this article helped with anyone who was hesitant on cleaning their glassware, and us at Greener Ganja Cannabis hope to push this message out to all of our customers. Visit our glassware section below for better smoking equipment, or a beginner bong to start your smoking journey!

• https://greenerganja.com/bongs-beakers.html

Enjoy your new clean rig and happy smoking!

Alternative Cleaning Methods

If you have access to any of these products, we suggest using these instead. For the sake of the home cleaning methods above though, we list these down here just in case you’d like to take the extra step.

• Pipe Cleaners
  • If you have pipe cleaners, use them instead of toothpicks in step 6. They are much more versatile as they can bend and git to an object, and are better for scratching off excess residue.
• Orange Chronic
  • Orange Chronic is a cleaning solution used solely for cleaning bongs. It removes the hassle of scrubbing or soaking anything, having the properties for taking away the ash efficiently within seconds. We recommend this purchase if you are a consistent bong smoker. You can purchase Orange Chronic here!