How to Clean a Dirty Water Pipe? [PROVEN]

If you’re bringing out one of your OG water pipes from the deep, dark shadows of your shelf, cabinet, or wherever you stash your dry herb goodies, and you haven’t shown your water pipe some good ole’ TLC, Cloud 9 Smoke Co has got you covered with the best guide!

Today, Cloud 9 Smoke Co is going to teach you how to clean a dirty, and we mean DIRTY, water pipe! We’ve tested this method, and it is without a doubt, the most effective way to clean a gnarly water pipe.

You ready? Let’s dive in!

Step #1 - Take all Removable Pieces Out of Your Water Pipe

If your water pipe has any removable pieces, such as a slide, downstem, and other attachments, go ahead and remove them from your water pipe. After you remove them, run each piece, separately, under hot water. Keep the temperature around the same temperature as a hot shower. Unless you bathe in hell water, then maybe tone it down a few degrees! ;)

Step #2 - Soak all Removable Pieces in Hot Water

You can soak your slide, downstem, attachments, and accessories in tupperware dishes for this portion of the cleaning process! By giving these pieces a good soak in hot water, the heat of the water will be able to break down the components of resin, tar, and all other byproducts in these pieces. That way, you won’t have to worry too much about taking any additional cleaning steps to remove these sticky substances.

A good rule of thumb is to let these pieces soak in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes.

Step #3 - Pour all Water from Your Water Pipe

Make sure to completely empty your water pipe before cleaning it! You can do this by starting from the joint of your water pipe. This is located at the base of your water pipe where you insert your downstem and slide!

As you pour water from your dirty water pipe, keep a solid grip and slow, steady flow of water to prevent any accidents from happening.

If your water pipe has percolators in its upper body and neck, you can pour the remaining water in these percolators from the mouthpiece of your water pipe. You can do this by carefully tilting the neck of your water pipe into the sink. As water begins to pour out, you can tilt your water pipe back to a level stance (upright position) to see how much water is left in your percolators.

It’s important to remove all the water from your water pipe, so if your water pipe has more than one percolator, you may be repeating the tilt and pour method for a couple of rounds!

Step #4 - Rinse Your Water Pipe with Hot Water

If your water pipe has delicate percolators (such as tree percolators) make sure the temperature of your water is a little cooler than the heat you chose for your slide, downstem, attachments, and accessories.

As you rinse your water pipe, make sure to cover all bases of the water pipe! Make sure you rinse the ice pinch, neck, mouthpiece, percolator, joint piece, base - the whole nine yards.

Step #5 - Soak Your Water Pipe in Hot Water

Now it’s time to get to soaking. You don’t have to fill your entire water pipe with hot water! Just make sure you submerge all areas that are heavily coated with any tar, resin, and ash.

As you soak your water pipe in hot water, keep your water pipe in the upright position! You can also give your water pipe gentle shakes during this process to loosen up any resin in other places in your water pipe that may not be able to be submerged in the hot water.

This step gives the resin and tar in your water pipe a chance to break down and loosen.

If your water pipe is extremely dirty, it’s best to let it soak in hot water for 20 - 30 minutes.

Step #6 - Rinse all Removable Pieces in Hot Water Again

Now that your slide, downstem, attachments, and/or accessories have had the chance to soak in hot water to loosen up any resin and tar, it’s best to give them another rinse!

Doing so will take all loose resin and tar and flush them out. It’ll also work to loosen other remaining sticky substances that may have been too stubborn to lift during the soak.

After you’ve rinsed all removable pieces, place each piece in its own plastic bag.

Step #7 - Soak all Removable Pieces in Resinate Green

As you get every piece into its own plastic bag, pour a generous amount of Resinate Green into your water pipe to submerge the piece in this glass cleaner. The reason why Cloud 9 Smoke Co suggests Resinate Green is because this glass cleaner is a heavy-duty abrasive glass cleaner that works to instantly sanitize, disinfect, and clean your slide, downstem, and accessories. Resinate also contains 0 VOCs and 0 alcohol, so your water pipe, and removable pieces, are being cleaned with gently abrasive components that won’t damage or affect the integrity of your glass!

Let your removable pieces soak in Resinate Green for 25 - 30 minutes.

You can also give your plastic bags a shake while the Resinate is working its magic! This allows the abrasive components in Resinate to break down, loosen, and remove leftover resin and tar.

Step #8 - Rinse Your Water Pipe with Hot Water Again

After your water pipe has had ample time to soak in hot water, rinse the water pipe with hot water once more! As you learned earlier, this step allows the hot water to flush out loose resin and tar while giving the leftover sticky particles a chance to loosen again.

As you rinse your water pipe, make sure all water leaves your water pipe! Whether you have to go through the ‘tilt and pour’ method a few times, or not depending on the condition of your water pipe before cleaning, this step is essential to making sure your water pipe is properly cleaned and sanitized.

Step #9 - Soak Your Water Pipe in Resinate Green

To soak your water pipe in Resinate Green, start by pouring Resinate into the base of your water pipe. If your percolators need a good cleaning, that’s okay. Cloud 9 Smoke Co suggests using Resinate Blue (nonabrasive Resinate) to clean delicate percolators. However, Resinate Green will do the job. It’s advised not to directly pour Resinate Green into your percolators. This could result in the abrasive components getting suck in the stems or holes of your percolator, which could affect their function and integrity!

You can also shake your water pipe as your Resinate is soaking! To do this, you can grab a towel, oven mit, or gloves, to cover the mouthpiece and joint piece of your water pipe while shaking it. Shaking your water pipe will allow resin and tar to loosen, while also giving all parts of your water pipe a chance to be cleaned and disinfected!

Let your water pipe soak in Resinate for 30 - 40 minutes.

Step #10 - Rinse All Parts of Your Water Pipe with Hot Water

After all parts of your water pipe have been soaked in Resinate (removables and the entire water pipe included), rinse them out with hot water! Doing this step will flush out Resinate and leftover particles to ensure that when your water pipe is 100% clean, you won’t be inhaling any chemicals from the cleaning product.

Though Resinate is totally safe to use for water pipes and their pieces, it’s best to get rid of as much cleaning solution as possible! This will ensure the taste of your smoke will be full of terpenes only.

After your rinse, if your water pipe, or removable pieces, aren’t at a point of appearing totally clean, you can repeat the cleaning process once more (or as many times as needed) to ensure your water pipe is sparkly clean afterwards.

Step #11 - Use Glob Mops for Leftover Resin

If you see any leftover gunks of resin and tar in those hard-to-reach areas of your removable pieces, soak a Glob Mop in Resinate. Then take the Glob Mop and remove any resin and tar from those areas. This also applies to your water pipe!

The reason why Cloud 9 Smoke Co suggest Glob Mops over average Q-Tips is due to the material of Glop Mops. In comparison to Q-Tips, Glob Mops are made from 100% pure organic cotton that won’t leave any glue residue, leftover ‘swab’ material, and other icky debris that will affect the integrity of your glass.

Once you’ve gotten those hard-to-reach areas, rinse your water pipe and removable pieces again!

Step #12 - Enjoy a Clean Water Pipe

Congratulations! You’ve finished cleaning your dirty water pipe. Now that you know how to clean a dirty water pipe, you can spread the word and show some love to the rest of your glass collection!

Was it intense? Yes. Was it long? Yes. Are you tired of cleaning for the day? Probably.

Buuuuuttttt ….. Is your water pipe looking brand spankin’ new? YES!

This fool-proof method will help you clean even the dirtiest of water pipes so all glass pieces can participate in future seshes. Look at you go, you cleaning guru!

Happy toking!