Wondering how to clean a perc bong? Also known as a percolator bong, one of the most common questions is how do you clean the thing? Most of the construction is straightforward and similar to a normal bong, but the percolator is a complex and breakable part of it. Failing to clean the bong will result in your hits being less satisfying, and less efficient.

Solvent

Widely lauded as one of the best cleaning solutions for bongs, people have reported using everything from isopropyl 91% alcohol to mouthwash to clean their bongs. That being said, isopropyl alcohol is one of the best options out there due to the lack of impurities and other potential problems.

Probably the most expensive of options, many headshops sell a variety of specialty cleaning solutions to be able to clean your bong. These, naturally, come in a variety of efficacies and will vary from region to region. A particularly popular variety online is Grunge Off.

The cheapest, however, is just using plain old hot water. It needs to be noted that this can’t be boiling water or it is likely to break the bong, and that cheaper bongs especially will quickly wear down through using hot water. Hot water can work especially well for this, but it can be limited for particularly stubborn cleaning jobs.

Agitator

While it is an optional factor, adding an agitator can be a big advantage with getting your bong clean enough. There are numerous options for this, and people have sworn by it getting out tricky pieces of resin. Care should be taken mixing agitators with cleaning products, as they might already have agitators involved.

An easy and common agitator is using salt dissolved in either alcohol or hot water. This can be either table salt or rock salt, and there is a great deal of folk wisdom around which is better for cleaning.

Others have suggested other agitator options including toothpaste in alcohol, baking soda and water, and similar. In any case, it needs to be soluble within the solvent that you have chosen or it is going to result in a worse situation than you have previously.

Technique

Just pouring alcohol, or whatever solvent your are using, into your bong isn’t going to be enough. You’ve got to do one of two things, if not both of them. The first is just letting it sit. With whatever solvent you use, just letting it sit is going to pull apart a lot of the resin that’s been left there. By pulling the resin into solution, it can just be poured out when you’re done.

That isn’t necessarily enough, however. Sometimes, especially if you haven’t been cleaning your equipment regularly, you need to shake the liquid within the bong. It needs to be done hard but carefully to ensure that everything is sloshed around properly. It is when doing this that the agitator is particularly helpful.

Finally, if you have a bong brush, you can carefully use it to scrub your bong and keep it clean. As always, be careful not to break the glass when doing this.