How to Clean Your Glass Bong, Bubbler, Bowl, or Other Cannabis Device

Watch the video below to learn how to clean your bong.

Keeping your glass device clean is an important part of smoking cannabis safely. Whether you’re using a glass water pipe, bubbler, bowl, or other device, you’ll want to clean it regularly to prevent buildup of residue, bacteria, mold, or other things you definitely don’t want to inhale. Today we’re going to go over the basic steps for cleaning your glass to make sure it’s doing its job of delivering cannabis smoke to your lungs, without introducing anything else that may be harmful.

We’ll use a water pipe, also called a bong, as our example for this tutorial. A water pipe uses water filtration to cool the smoke before it enters your lungs. Many people find that smoking with a water pipe is a more enjoyable experience because they can inhale a bigger cloud, and get a stronger dose compared to a device that doesn’t use filtration. While functional and often beautiful, these glass devices require a bit of maintenance. 7 Stars Holistic Healing Center recommends changing the water in your device at least once a day. Cleaning it after each use is ideal, but we know that’s a big ask. At a minimum, a thorough cleaning should be done once a week. Harmful bacteria can start to grow in less than 48 hours in many conditions, so the importance of cleaning can’t be overemphasized.

How to Clean Your Bong

First, empty the device. Put the device in an empty sink. Fill the sink with hot water and completely submerge the device. The hot water will help loosen any accumulated resin. In the video, we use a popular product called Formula 420 to clean the bong, but you can also use salt and rubbing alcohol. Pour some coarse salt into your device. The amount will vary by the size of the device. Next, pour in some 91% rubbing alcohol. The salt and alcohol mixture should be liquid, not slurry. Now it’s time to shake.

Cover any holes with your hands, and shake the device vigorously. Next, shake it some more. Keep shaking. Finally, shake it even more. And now even more shaking still! Whew! After about a minute your glass should be sparkling! If it’s not, dump the salt and alcohol mixture, fill it up again, and shake for another 60 seconds.

Now rinse it out with hot water again. Keep rinsing, and as you go, gradually cool the water as you go. Don’t pour cold water into hot glass. If you do, it could crack. Keep gradually cooling until the water is cold. Give it one final rinse, and dry it off with clean paper towels. If the device is clean, dry, and doesn’t have any visible residue you’re ready to use it to smoke your favorite flower.