Cleaned a spoon with CLR. The spoon had about an 8th of an inch of resin coated on the inside of the pipe and it was very difficult to clean. I soaked it CLR over night. In the morning, I used a wire brush and hot water to scrub the resin off. About 90% of the resin was cleaned off. Now I had to face the fear of smoking from a piece that had CLR in it. I mean, if those chemicles remove lime calcium and rust, I could imagine what it may do to my lungs. This fear made me rinse the mutha fuck out that pipe. Anyway, I have been smoking from said spoon and its ok. No chemicle aftertaste or burning in my lungs. Sorry, no pics.
Rubbing alcohol and a little table salt is all you need. Don't use any dangerous chemicals, that shit isn't worth the risk.
I had a very difficult bubbler that wouldn't get clean despite soaking and simmering in rubbing alcohol. I finally shot a couple of squirts of carburetor cleaner in it and it was f n' magic. Then I just rinsed thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and soap and water. I'll always use carburetor cleaner now.
Just keep your pieces clean to begin with. Now I never let my pipes or bongs go more than 2-3 uses without a cleaning, and my rigs every 3 days minimum, with a water change all the time. It only takes a minute to clean your pipes if you keep them pretty clean to begin with. I have a couple pipes I rotate through though, so I'm not cleaning something every day, and then when I decide one needs to get cleaned I just suck it up and clean them all. I go through a bottle of rubbing alcohol a week, maybe more. It's worth it to have clean pieces. The taste can't be beat. And then I have bad lungs, so i can't risk mold or some shit growing in my bubbler.. Get a bottle of rubbing alcohol, get a bag of salt, throw it in a drawer, and just make a habit of cleaning it every other night. You'll never have this issue again. I used to let my glass go, and get nasty before I cleaned it. But then my pipes were soaking in alcohol for 4 days and they still had to get scraped for a half hr... I got sick of it. They got too nasty. It's a lot easier to just keep it clean to begin with. And I guess theres nothing wrong with cleaning a pipe with CLR as long as it's thoroughly washed out after, it dissolves in water and most pipes don't have too many nooks and crannies to hide leftovers in. Plus, you can soak a little pipe. A bong or a bubbler i would not clean with something nasty like that.
there is no way i would use something like carb cleaner to clean out my glass i was going to be smoking out of. that shit is full of bad news like cancer and death by poisoning. sure, ya, you could clean all of that nasty shit out but i wouldn't chance it on the regular. maybe to get a thoroughly fucked piece into working order, but never more then that. seriously though, all you need is 91% iso alcohol or better, some rock salt {larger then regular table salt}, a few zip lock baggies and some patients to let it sit over night. dump in enough iso alcohol to completely submerge your glass piece into {i use a couple of cups of iso alcohol}. dump in a few table spoons of rock salt. enough so that when you shake it, the salt will act as abrasives and help scrub it clean. submerge your piece in the bag full of iso alcohol and zip it closed. then put it into yet another zip lock bag for added strength. let it sit over night. {you can grab the bag and shake it up to get the alcohol to break loose any stuff that is ready to come off.} check the piece in the morning. is it clean? if it isn't then try shaking it and working it that way. continue until clean. trust me that it will at some point be completely clean. it usually is clean by letting it soak over night. there are times when that doesn't happen due to your lazy ass never cleaning it or your lazy ass never cleans it. if for some reason it isn't clean, then use something like CLR and the like. just remember that no matter what you use to clean the glass piece with, be sure ALL of it is washed COMPLETELY off of the glass. another method you could try is boiling the glass piece in water first. a slight simmer and NOT a rapid boil is perfect. let it simmer for a half hour and then, while still hot and being careful to not burn yourself, put it in the bag full of iso and rock salt and then shake it around vigorously. it should be clean now. you might pick up pipe cleaners as well. they work excellent for the small holes that are used in glass pipes. as for my bongs, i use hot water from the bath tub spigot to vigorously fill and with continued flow to clean them out before i use alcohol to soak them in. i either tilt the bong under the tubs spigot or it fits directly under it. then i turn on the hot water full blast and let it run for 5 minutes or so. that usually cleans 95% of the shit out of it. no joke. there is still a slight film however and that is where the iso alcohol soak comes it. immediately after i pull it from the hot water and empty it, i dump the iso alcohol in the bong and let it soak. 5 mins and it is done. i save the iso alcohol so i can reuse it too. it might look nasty, but it is still a solvent. so after the iso soak i re run the bong through the hot water for a few minutes to get every last bit out. PRO TIP: for those with a shower wand type of deal where there is a long hose connected to s shower head and handle right? well, take the handle off of the hose so it is just a hose streaming water. that is a high pressure stream when you turn the hot water all the way up and the little spigot valve that you use to switch water from the shower to the hose part has been turned all the way up. the hose i have fits snugly into the joint for my bowl / down stem. this allows me to blast hot ass water backwards though the bongs as well. so i will shoot water in one way and then backwards. if that water is hot, if the water is moving because you turned it up and if you let it sit for a few to 5 minutes it will clean it. not only that it will have done most of the work for you. more so when you have a piece with multiple types of diffusion stacked one on top of each other, creating enclosed spaces that are next to impossible to reach or get into. *if you live in a place where it would be hard to clean said glass pieces, then do it when YOU are showering. trust me, that works with zero chance of getting caught. *use the same bottle the iso alcohol came in to store it in. this way you can reuse it safely with out blowing your house up and catching your self on fire. *magnets work fucking awesome to clean bongs with. use smaller pieces of magnet on the inside of the bong and use a larger more powerful magnet on the outside as a handle. then you can use the magnets to get to those hard to reach spots by using the larger magnet as a handle and the smaller magnets as the scrubber. what a novel egads...happens every time i get high and read these forums lol!! besides, i am pretty sure this will help at least someone out so it was worth it to me!
Thank you for all your replies. I am NOT saying that CLR is a good resin cleaner compared to ISO and salt. I am just saying that it worked for me. But by all means, if you are skiddish, then do not try CLR.