When, Why, and How to Clean Your Bong

Admit it — you don’t want to clean your bong. Maintenance is never fun, but when your bong looks filthy and the taste is nothing like the weed you’re smoking, it needs some TLC.

Bongs have long been one of the favored ways to enjoy a bit of weed, but experienced users will tell you that you need to clean your bong regularly in order to truly be enjoyed. Luckily there’s a couple ways you can clean everything in it without damaging it or ruining the taste.

How Often Should a Bong Be Cleaned?

There’s a lot of controversy over when to clean your bong, because it really all depends on you and what your favored experience is. Some believe it’s best to clean it after every use, and regarding the bong water they’re right; dirty bong water is a breeding ground for harmful bacteria and toxins.

But as far as the bong itself goes, the jury is still out. You can clean it daily, once or twice a week or even never if that’s your prerogative, but it will never taste as great as a freshly cleaned piece of equipment!

The Alcohol and Salt Trick

Before you ask, you should most definitely not try to clean your bong with beer! If you’re looking into the old alcohol and salt trick, you’ll only need two items – a $.99 bottle of isopropyl rubbing alcohol and some plain old table salt. Possibly a little baggie to help, but it’s not mandatory. Here’s what you do:

1. Prep Your Bong

First thing’s first – rinse that baby out! There’s bound to be plenty of built up resin that will wash out using just some warm water, and the less there is to deal with when you go to clean it the better. After or before rinsing (because it really doesn’t matter yet) disassemble your bong.

2. Pour in the Rubbing Alcohol

After a good rinse you’ll want to go ahead and toss in the rubbing alcohol. Remember, the higher percentage of alcohol it is the better it will work!

3. Next Comes the Salt

Here’s a bit of science for you; iodized salt will not dissolve in rubbing alcohol. Why? Because in terms of molecules the ionic bond in NaCl (salt) is much more favorable than if one of those were to bond with H (hydrogen) in the alcohol itself; this means that the salt will remain granular and not mix in, sans the little bits mixing with the water in the alcohol. The salt acts more as an abrasive in this concoction than anything.

4. SHAKE

Now get the mixture to do its work and shake it like a salt shaker!

5. Rinse and Repeat

You may not get everything out on the first go depending on how long your bong has been sitting for, so just repeat the above steps and you’ll see just how quickly it gets the job done. From personal experience I’ve found it takes 2-3 runs to get a bong back to crystal clarity.

Here’s an awesome video to give you a clear idea as to what to do here.

Purchasable Cleaning Agents

With the entire culture behind marijuana expanding and changing constantly it’s becoming easier for weed-related products to hit the markets – products like cleaning agents for your bong. Most smoke shops will offer a variety of different products that will all work wonders, but you’d also run the risk of spending more money than if you used the alcohol and salt trick.