Here at Exclusive, we spend a lot of our time sourcing the freshest, best-tasting, and most potent cannabis products we can possibly find. But given all the energy we expend on the hunt for the best smoke, there’s one important detail that tends to get overlooked: taking care of the gear and accessories we need to enjoy that exceptional bud.
From our perspective, it’s a shame to go through the trouble and expense of buying premium flower and then smoking it out of a dirty, gunky glass pipe. It’s not just unsightly, but it’s adding all sort of burnt, resinous flavors to your experience.
If you’ve been putting off cleaning your pipe, let us help. Keep reading to get a step-by-step guide on how to clean a glass pipe quickly and easily, along with four common mistakes to avoid when cleaning your glass.
Trust us: Once you sample that new-pipe taste again, you’ll never go back!
Cleaning Your Glass Pipe: Why It Matters
Does anyone really love the taste of burnt resin? Not us. If you’ve ever inhaled fresh, locally grown cannabis from a spotless pipe, you know what we’re talking about. When you smoke through clean glass, all you’re tasting is fresh cannabis, not the harsh taste of yesterday.
What’s the big deal? For one thing, smoking plant matter—whether cannabis, tobacco, or anything else—produces combustion by-products such as tar, nitrogen oxides, and other chemicals. Even when we can’t see them, they’re there.
And when we can see them—in the form of gunky, resinous stains on the inside of your glass—they’re really there. And while smoking cannabis is still considered generally safer than smoking tobacco, you shouldn’t be smoking that dried-out crust.
Fortunately, cleaning glass pipe stems or bowls isn’t hard. All you need are the right tools, a little patience, and some advance planning.
How to Clean a Glass Pipe Quickly in 4 Easy Steps
Before you start, you’ll need a few household items to help:
- A purpose-made miniature nylon wire brush or
- A wooden toothpick, bobby pin, or other thin (but stiff) wire implement
- Paper towels, tissue, or an expendable rag
- A sealable plastic freezer baggie
- Salt, preferably kosher or some other coarse-grade
- Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, 90% or higher, or white vinegar
- Optional: A pipe cleaner, available from craft stores or dispensaries
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Apply Heat
Soften the resin by applying some gentle heat. We recommend you do this by running the pipe over a candle flame or holding a lighter under the glass. You’re probably not going to melt it: the goal is just to soften that black gunk a touch.
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Give It Some Elbow (or Finger) Grease
Using the nylon brush, gently scrape the resin from the bowl, walls and mouthpiece of the pipe. A wooden toothpick, bobby pin or stiff wire will work, but remember that glass is scratchable. If you use metal wire, go easy with it.
Have that paper towel or rag nearby to wipe off the collected resin. And be careful what you touch! That resin will stick to (and stain) nearly everything it touches.
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Break Out the Baggie
Once you’ve removed the larger chunks of resin and your pipe has cooled back down to room temperature, put the pipe in the sealable bag, add enough coarse salt to at least surround it by half, and then carefully pour in just enough rubbing alcohol or white vinegar to submerge the pipe completely.
Seal the baggie, then start gently swishing and rubbing the salt-and-alcohol mixture with your fingers to scrub the pipe. Do this for a couple of minutes or until the majority of the resin has been scraped off, and then allow the pipe to soak in the liquid for a couple of hours. Inspect the pipe carefully; if any resin remains, keep scrubbing gently till the glass is squeaky clean.
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Final Inspection
Remove the pipe and rinse it thoroughly in hot water. Now gently dry with a towel or other absorbent material, and give it a close look. Ideally, your pipe should look shiny and new again; if not, use the pipe cleaner to remove any remaining traces of resin. Perhaps it’s time for a celebratory bowl?
Cleaning a Glass Pipe: 3 Alternate Techniques
While we’ve found that this basic cleaning process works well in most cases, there are some potential refinements you could try. Here are a few of the top-rated approaches:
Freeze It
If your pipe is especially gunked-up, try freezing it for anywhere from 30 – 60 minutes. Remove it from the freezer and quickly use a wooden toothpick or stiff wire—remember, be gentle here!—to loosen the biggest chunks of resin.
You’ll still probably need to use one of the other methods we share for a complete clean, but this will save you the hassle of dealing with the worst offenders first.
The Gentle Boil Trick
Want a clean glass pipe without any chemicals whatsoever? Try submerging it in a saucepan of cold water, and then slowly bring it up to a boil on medium heat.
When the water boils, turn the heat down to simmer. Leave the pipe in the water for 20 or 30 minutes, then scrub it carefully with a cotton-tipped swab or small nylon brush until clean. Because glass can break when exposed to different temperatures too quickly, ensure it’s continuously submerged by adding more water as needed while simmering.
Denture Tablets
If you’re looking for a no-fuss solution to a dirty pipe, put your glass in a glass or plastic container, cover it with hot tap water, and drop in 2 or 3 denture cleaning tablets. After letting the pipe soak for half an hour, scrub off any residue with a pipe cleaner or miniature brush before rinsing completely with clean water.
What about potential chemical residue? While some pipe owners scoff at the idea of using cleansers like those found in denture tablets, a thorough rinsing should remove any trace of chemicals from your glass.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Though we’d rather they didn’t, glass-cleaning accidents can happen. Here are some common mistakes—and how to avoid them.
- Be Gentle: Glass—even the relatively durable types used in pipes and bongs—is still fairly fragile. If you need to resort to using a wire or other metallic scraper, be very careful. If you end up scratching the surface of the glass, you’ll create tiny furrows that are the perfect environment for resin—and potentially even bacteria—to collect.
- Watch the Heat: As we mentioned earlier, even tempered glass doesn’t like rapid temperature changes (especially from hot to cold). If you’re working with open flames or a boiling water bath, be sure to allow time for the glass to cool adequately before exposing it to cool rubbing alcohol or a tap-water wash. Because try as you might, you can’t really glue glass back together!
- Don’t Take Shortcuts: Wanting to get the job done quickly with whatever household cleaners are on hand? We respectfully suggest you don’t. Using chemicals harsher than vinegar, rubbing alcohol or denture tablets can not only irritate your skin but it can leave toxic residue on your pipe. And after all, the whole point is to remove irritants, not add them. Be patient, start with the simplest techniques, and only escalate in the face of truly stubborn, baked-on resin.
How Often Should I Clean My Glass Pipe?
While the obvious-sounding answer might be “whenever your glass looks dirty,” we’d like to put in a word for a tighter schedule. Why? The main reason is that scrubbing off a heavy resin build-up is far more time-consuming than cleaning a light one.
Depending on how often you smoke, we’d argue that a cleaning regimen of once a week to (at most) once a month will keep your smoking experience clean, flavorful, and trouble-free.
Shop Michigan’s Best Selection of Glassware
Now that you know how to clean a glass pipe quickly and easily, how about getting one of your own? At Exclusive, we stock a wide selection of glassware in every style and price point. Just choose the nearest dispensary location and click “Accessories” from the pull-down menu to see what’s hot and in stock.
Have any other questions? Stop by any of our dispensaries, grab our app, or drop us a line. We’re here to help you get what you need!
