A Good Schedule for Cleaning?

kane · Jan 6, 2015

Assuming that one cleans the stem, shank, and bowl with dry pipe cleaners and a paper towel after each smoke, after how many smokes do you clean the stem and shank with pipe cleaners soaked in alcohol?

After how many smokes do you do the alcohol/cotton ball or alcohol/salt treatment to the bowl?
Thanks!

jazz · Jan 6, 2015

I tend to do this to the stem and shank after a pipe has had about 10-15 smokes through it or I notice something is not right. I use Deniclean. I have never done the salt or cotton ball thing. I have never felt like I needed to. If this is a good schedule or not I am uncertain but it works for me.

freakiefrog · Jan 6, 2015

Unless I'm taking all the cake off which I've never done, I wont do the salt and alcohol to the bowl. What I will do is run a pipe cleaner or three or four through the stem to the bowl after every smoke, then like on a Sunday afternoon, I'll sit down once a month maybe even 2 months. Take a bag of pipe cleaners some Everclear and a shank brush. I'll give every pipe a good stem and shank scrub. Wipe them down with some of that de-haze stuff and maybe even buff the stems with a cloth if I need to. Then I'm letting them rest for a week..
During that week of resting I'm going through tobacco and seeing what I need to reorder or open a new tin of.

papipeguy · Jan 6, 2015

Hmmm, I use pipe cleaners with every smoke. As for a total cleaning I'd have to say about every 10 years. I'm bad that way.

kane · Jan 6, 2015

The only time I've done any extra cleaning was to run pipe cleaners with Bacardi 151 through the stem and shank of a pipe that tasted really bad, very bitter or sour as they say. That really helped, and now the pipe tastes and smokes good. I did not do the bowl treatment, nor have I ever as this is all still pretty new. My pipes are all hand-me-downs, or you could call them non-cleaned-up estates with varying mileage, and most smoke pretty well, but I am looking forward to how much better they will be with a proper deep cleaning.

Can you do the salt alcohol treatment to a bowl with cake? Is that advised, or is it only for when the cake is removed, as freakiefrog mentioned?

phred · Jan 6, 2015

I don't smoke that often - usually a couple of bowls on Friday afternoons, and maybe another bowl or two over the weekend, weather permitting (definitely if yardwork is on the agenda...). I'll swab out the bowl with a paper towel and run pipe cleaners through after smoking, and then about once a month I'll pull all of the pipes that I've smoked and give them a good scrubbing with bristle pipe cleaners, Everclear, and then fluffy pipe cleaners until they come out clean. Haven't yet bothered with salt & alcohol, as my pipes haven't gotten gunked up or sour enough to warrant it - they're all between 1-3 years old at this point. :D

shaintiques · Jan 6, 2015

I clean mine after every smoke with alcohol.

warren · Jan 6, 2015

Sunday afternoon is pipe cleaning time. Weekly cleaning means I do not have to use alcohol but rarely. Never considered wiping a bowl after every smoke, even for meers. Meers get reamed, cleaned and wiped on Sunday. Sunday is the day I clean pipes. A couple of my pipes are 40+ years old, smoked a few times one day every week and are only cleaned on Sunday, every Sunday. Pipes in the rack not smoked during the week are still cleaned on Sunday.

cmdrmcbragg · Jan 6, 2015

I wipe the bowl out with a paper towel after every smoke. I only do the pipe cleaners every so often, but when I do it is the full deal: wet and dry cleaners. I don't see the benefit to being too fastidious with the cleaning. I doubt it can hurt, but it seems like a waste of time to do it all the time.

phil67 · Jan 6, 2015

Wipe the bowl out with a napkin/paper towel and run a pipe cleaner with 151 grain alcohol after every smoke (sometimes I'll do it following day) depends on how lazy I am. Seeing that I only smoke about 2 to 3 bowls a day this is no problem whatsoever. As for an alcohol/salt treatment to the bowl that is only for estate pipes that are in extremely bad shape or fouled. If you have to go to such an extreme means of cleaning your own pipes then I'd suggest you revisit on how to properly clean and maintain them as it should never be necessary if they are properly cleaned/maintained.

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