I have tried everything to clean my bong and no success; Please help

Hi everyone, long time lurker, first time poster.

I really need help on cleaning my bong. I am moving out of state and need to clean all my pieces spotlessly and this piece is giving me so much trouble. I have been trying to clean it for 4 days. Its over 10 years old and although I have cleaned it before, never have I attempted to clean it like this.

It's a stemless bong and I have two parts that I can't seem to get rid of. Gunk at the bottom and what looks like to be a smoke burn inside the percolator. See pics for what I am talking about.

I have tried everything including: soaking overnight in grunge off multiple times, iso + salt, boiling water, soaking in 420 cleaner overnight, soaking in acetone overnight, soaking in white vinegar overnight, and even a mix of all of this. Although I was able to get some of the gunk off the bottom, it wasn't much, especially because of the angle. I even tried these micro steel sharp beads used for glass and that didn't help. I kind of was able to get the bristle brush in but because of the angle, I am having a lot of trouble. As for the smoke burn inside the perc, nothing has seemed to work.

I don't know what else to do. Is there any more powerful solvent that I could use that could work? I saw something in a post about Simple Green a while back, but I'm not sure that would be safe when I want to smoke out of it after even if I clean it thoroughly after that? Would that even help with both the gunk and the smoke burn? I also don't know of any kind of scraper or brush that could get into the bottom because of the angle?

I have searched everywhere and don't know what to do so I'm hoping someone here could help! The help is much appreciated. Thank you!

IMG_9468 by Boondocks316 posted Mar 17, 2019 at 6:49 PM

IMG_9467 by Boondocks316 posted Mar 17, 2019 at 6:49 PM

IMG_9466 by Boondocks316 posted Mar 17, 2019 at 6:49 PM

IMG_9465 by Boondocks316 posted Mar 17, 2019 at 6:49 PM

IMG_9464 by Boondocks316 posted Mar 17, 2019 at 6:49 PM

 

Thanks for replying! I'll probably go straight for the Easy Off as I was reading that Denatured Alcohol has marginally better results compared to Iso. However, there's two types of Easy Off's that I found on Amazon. The regular kind and then a kind specifically formulated for glass. Would the glass kind work just as well? I really don't want to be handling lye unless it's a last resort.

 

Ok great thank you! I'll do that.

Thanks! I'll get this as a backup to the EasyOff. Hopefully one of these two do the job.

 

This has been such a pain, but I finally got it cleaned! I decided to start with Easy Off Glass Cleaner over night and that really didn't do anything. I then tried the PBW and that stuff is like MAGIC! It got rid of the smoke like burns inside the percolator, but didn't really do much for the gunk at the bottom. So essentially it was fully clean except for that stuff. I decided to try another round of Easy Off Glass Cleaner, but this time did not mix it with that much water and left it over night. That finally did the trick and now it is 100% clean! So happy.

However, and it's not the worst thing in the world, but after the PBW soaking session, there's a fog / what looks like a little etching inside one of the percolator chambers (see pictures). I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about it, and if not, it's fine. I'll live with it haha. But if anyone knows of anything that can help with the fog/etching, that would be helpful? @BrassNwood

Also, to make sure I'm not inhaling harmful chemicals, I rinsed the piece with white vinegar, then isopropyl alcohol, and then Ajax dish cleaner. Is there anything else needed in order to make it safe to use? Or am I good to go?

Thanks again for all the help everyone!

 

Awesome! I figured it was clean to use. I'm assuming though nothing to fix the fogging/etching right?