Hot Water Wash?

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onematch

Lurker
Mar 10, 2018
15
2
Hi,
I've been reading posts here for a few days and I've noticed more then once someone mentioning doing a hot water wash or water wash on their pipe. Been puffing a pipe for 44 years and never heard of this. Truth be told the only time any of my pipes touched running water is when I dropped it in the river while fly-fishing. Could someone kindly explain what a hot water wash is and the purpose of it. Thank you.

 
Jan 8, 2013
7,493
733
It's definitely not for me either. Pipe cleaners through the stem and shank, cork screw a paper towel in the chamber to clean it out and set it on the rack. If I need a deeper clean, I'll carefully use alcohol.

 

onematch

Lurker
Mar 10, 2018
15
2
Thanks unkleyoda!

Interesting read.

Not sure this old dog is ready for a new trick,

but interesting non the less.

 

davek

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 20, 2014
685
952
Then again, alcohol is supposed to be bad for briar if overused, so hot water right after alcohol to dissolve gunk might be best.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,630
44,848
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
I used to be a skeptic. It took me a year before I decided to try it on one of my pipes and the results were stunningly good! Now I do it regularly. It's not like it's going to hurt the briar. Every time you smoke, you're subjecting the wood to steam heated to hundreds of degrees. Briar isn't particularly absorptive. Once you've dried off the water, you're good to go.

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
I can't bring myself to do it either -- even in the face of Jesse's inescapable logic.

What sticks with me is the idea that water is the enemy of wood, at least any wood that's been harvested.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,570
27,077
Carmel Valley, CA
C'mon you guys, don't be so stuck!
I've been doing it for years, and writing about it, and no one has come forward with negative results, many with positive reviews; even some thank yous. Yes, I started gingerly, on some beaters, but now all pipes get that treatment. And only one pipe has required the salt and alcohol treatment subsequent to that.
The only pipe I would not treat this way is one with a deep fissure- but then I'd probably not be smoking that one either..
I am well into my 70's and if I can innovate so can some of you young punks.

 
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If you want to stick with how you clean your pipes, that's perfectly ok. Men have been cleaning their pipes that way for a very long time. But, if you are curious and an explorer at heart, give it a whirl. I've been doing this since John brought it up on here, and my pipe room doesn't have that nasty ashtray smell, my pipes are always fresh, and the briar and stems are always immaculate. I really haven't had to do a deep clean in a long time. Yeh, sometimes I just don't have the time and I just run a pipecleaner through them and return them to the rack. But, after the next smoke, I just run water, paper towel, and a couple of pipe cleaners and it is better than deep cleaned.
I also had a Bjarne plateau dublin that was getting swollen at the mortise where the stem goes in. The stem was starting to get loose, and I was afraid I was going to have to band it. And, it just wasn't a design that would look good with a band. But, after smoking it for a few months and washing it with water, it's all back to the way it was when I came home with it. It's like the rinsing and wiping down un-swelled the mortise or something.
But, it goes back to a post that I made when I first got here. We had a guy come into the Briary lounge with a story about dropping his favorite pipe into the water while fishing, with grand gestures and looks of defeat. You could tell that he had told this story for decades.
I, wondering what the big deal was, asked, "so what then?"

The guy said, "the pipe got wet..." and gestured like that should be enough.

"What did the water do to it?"

"It was wet, when a pipe gets wet, it's dead."

"Why is it dead? Does it break apart?"

"No, you idiot, when you drop a pipe into the water, it's over. It's just not usable any more."

I turned to the room and shrugged, "why can you not smoke a pipe that has gotten wet?"

"Because when a pipe gets wet, it's dead you idiot."
I'm just an idiot, because for the life of me, I am not sure why a pipe is dead when it gets wet. Was it alive before? My dumbass smokes his pipe in the pool, The beach, the rain, the hot tub, and the shower all the time. I've dropped pipes into the river while fishing, and I wash them out with water. I'm just too frugal to throw them away once they've been wet. Maybe I just like dead pipes. YMMV. :puffy:

 

pianopuffer

Can't Leave
Jul 3, 2017
491
140
NYC
I have found the hot water treatment works great for odor control. My lady has no tolerance for foul smelling pipes, so the hot water bath treatment seems to get me there. Between that and a pipe cleaner or towel through the bowl to dry everything up, it keeps my deep cleans (Everclear) at bay much longer.
The only point I make sure to follow is to not get the outside of the pipe wet, if possible. Otherwise, you'll need to reapply your wax/buffer.

 
Actually, do you find this to be true from experience, piano? I have a towel next to my sink that I use that I just wipe down the outside after rinsing, and I haven't had to re-wax or buff any of my pipes since doing this water thing. And, my stems are staying un-oxidized and shiny. I hit the stems with a jewelry polishing cloth after wiping down with a towel.
You may have to give them a little vigorous twist or buffing with the towel. I'm not sure that just wiping them with a towel would do anything. But, it is keeping the grain on my pipes poppin' nice and contrast-y and my red pipes aren't turning dark like they used to do. But, YMMV

 

joeman

Can't Leave
Mar 6, 2016
310
36
South Carolina
I would disagree that briar is not particularly absorptive. I've watched briar absorb and discharge oil in my early days of refurbishing pipes and smoking. I was surprised at how absorptive it is.

 

badbeard

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 9, 2017
284
585
Kentucky, USA
I gave the hot water method a try and it works well to clean the ash from the pipe, but I eventually went back to my old method. For me it was not without issues. I had trouble with it making the cake in my pipes really soft and tacky, dulling the wax finish on several of my pipes(easily buffed back to a shine, but still), and it froze the stem like rock on my favorite Amphora X-tra. Also for those who may not be smoking top notch pipes, I had an estate where the hot water caused a couple small fills in the bowl to break down and fall out. If you think that the hot water isn't going to get on the exterior of your pipe, then you must be just barely trickling hot water into your pipe.. I don't see how that will clean at all.
I generally don't shy away from new ways of doing things, but in this case I feel that tradition isn't without solid reasons. To each his own, different strokes, all that jazz.

 
Of course different strokes, makes the world better. I could care less how someone else cleans their pipes.
But, just for clarification on what some of us do, the wax may dull, especially if the wax is substantially layered on the surface. It will repel the water, so it is actually doing what it is supposed to do. So, the water doesn't really mess up anything on the surface. But, you can just giver a slight to moderate vigor wiping with a towel to bring back up the shine. But, of course this is true even if the pipe just dulls from smoking and warming the wax.

 
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