How To Clean A Glass Pipe At Home : 5 Methods Including Without Alcohol

A dirty pipe just isn't healthy. Pipes that aren't cleaned regularly quickly become a breeding ground for bacteria. So, we cover all the ways to clean out your glass pipe. 

Cleaning your pipe is important. We're something of flower snobs here - we've grown our strains for the tastiest terpenes, after all. If you're looking for a quality smoke, you can't get it from a dirty pipe. Keep your paraphernalia clean so you can actually enjoy the flavor and terpenes of your hemp buds!

As serious as we are about good, premium quality hemp, it might be even more important to point out - a dirty pipe just isn't healthy. Pipes that aren't cleaned regularly quickly become a breeding ground for bacteria, and who wants that?   So, below we'll cover the best ways to clean out your glass pipe. You can clean with alcohol, without alcohol, with vinegar, boiling water, acetone-free nail polish remover, and even sand or denture tablets! There's tons of methods for cleaning your pipe. We've broken everything you need to know down in a comprehensive list, so read on.

Rubbing alcohol is pretty much a standard for cleaning your pipe. We do want to urge you to consider, first, whether it's the best method.

If you're interested in organic CBD like we offer at Dreamland Organics, it's important to point out that many agencies consider isopropyl alcohol toxic. These include the EPA, OSHA, and more. Do you really want a toxic material cleaning the pipe that you use to smoke your "healthy" CBD? If you use CBD for medical issues, you may want to find a safer method (look below, we have plenty!) If, on the other hand, you aren't worried about using alcohol, then go for it! Just:

• Fill a baggie with alcohol, and add your bong.

• Add a tablespoon of coarse salt.

• Work the salt all over the pipe. It's abrasive and works to remove resin.

• No salt? You can use another abrasive scrub, like coffee grounds.

• Let it soak for about an hour or so.

• Rinse, and do it all again if you need to. Start with a whole new batch of alcohol - the old stuff should be pretty gross and brown by now anyway.

• Once your pipe is clean, rinse with cool water and let dry.

Good ol' isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol, is the most common method for cleaning out a pipe. But maybe you've realized that you're all out, or just want a more natural and healthy cleaning method.

In either case, have no fear. There's still plenty of good methods to get your glass pipe clean - no alcohol needed.

Just get a plastic baggy. You can (carefully!) fill it with vinegar and baking soda.

Add your pipe, seal it up, and let the ensuing chemical reaction clean your pipe for you. Let it soak for an hour or so, depending on how dirty your pipe is. Then rinse it well with water, let it dry, and light up again! Another method is to put white vinegar and your pipe into a baggy. Add some large, coarse salt and shake it around. It takes some elbow grease, but if you really work the salt into all the nooks and crannies you can get your pipe clean. Avoid using apple cider vinegar. With glass pipes, some people report discoloration from anything but plain white vinegar. It doesn't always happen, but it's a risk.

No vinegar? Try Epsom salt and hot water instead. If you have access to them, people have also used denture cleaning tablets and hot water. You can also try to use sand in place of salt. It's coarse enough to scrub out resin. Just add it to water and work it over the glass surface.

If, for some reason, you have absolutely no cleaning supplies and are absolutely desperate, it is possible to clean a pipe with nothing but water. Just boil the pipe in water for around 30 minutes. This will loosen the gunk and resin from the pipe. When it's done, you can swab out whatever goop is left with a cotton swab. (Caution! The pipe will be hot so handle it carefully!) This isn't the best method, however. It's long and tiring and takes a lot of effort. You may have to re-boil the pipe several times before everything gets loosened enough to remove. Plus, a glass pipe can crack this way. Make sure the water doesn't boil away before you're done. Also, take care that the pipe doesn't cool too soon after being taken out of the water.

We're going to be honest here. This one isn't our favorite. The other suggestions involve ingredients that we know aren't toxic and are used every day, like salt, water, baking soda, and vinegar. At Dreamland Organics, we take pride in growing truly organic hemp. You can smoke it without having to worry about what else you're putting into your body. There's no pesticides or other "yuck" to deal with. Many people smoke CBD as a therapy of sort - and it just doesn't make sense to use if the treatment is shoddily grown hemp that doesn't keep your health in mind! For this reason, we have some obvious concerns about nail polish remover. If nothing else, make sure the remover is acetone-free. Yes, acetone is a strong solvent, and it'll break up resin. But should you really be inhaling it? We aren't the scientists, but we aren't so sure it's a great idea. Once you have acetone-free nail polish remover, just dip a q-tip in it. Swab the q-tip all around the pipe, rubbing thoroughly until everything is clean. Rinse your pipe and let it dry.

If you need some extra help loosening the resin, try freezing it first. Just put the whole thing in the freezer and let it cool. Then, you can chip out the resin with a small tool like a toothpick. Once the majority of it is loose, try cleaning with one of the methods already listed. Just be aware that this only works when the resin is cold. It doesn't take long to return to room temperature, so you may have to re-freeze the pipe several times.

If you need to get your pipe clean fast, the alcohol method works the best. The best way to clean a pipe fast, though? Just keep it clean! If you don't let residue build up, you can clean it quickly each and every time you use it. A fast swab with a little alcohol and a q-tip can keep you from having to spend an hour scrubbing your pipe. Need some top shelf hemp nugs to dirty up that pipe, so you can clean it again? We got you, we are the hemp flower kings! Try a sampler pack of our organic hemp flower and let us know what you think?