Water And Pipe Cleaners

piperatthegatesofdawn · Jul 30, 2019

It seems the general advice is to clean your pipe with pipe cleaners between bowls, but is there any reason not to also rinse through the pipe with warm water after each smoke to help eliminate ash, moisture and even reduce ghosting (if necessary), then let the pipe dry over night?
Surely this would reduce the times you'd need to do a deep clean at all, wouldn't it?

seldom · Jul 30, 2019

Oh man. This again. I'll leave this link here: Clean Your Briar Pipes The "New Way".

cortezattic · Jul 30, 2019

It must be OK if they say so on the internet, but I don't have the cojones to put a $300 pipe under the faucet. : puffy

:

piperatthegatesofdawn · Jul 30, 2019

Thanks for the link - a great read.
Still not sure what the conclusion was... :?
If only pipes came with a manufacturer's manual - "For the best results when cleaning your pipe use the following method..."

ashdigger · Jul 30, 2019

More Fun Reading.
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/pipe-water-torture-winter-vortex-edition

didimauw · Jul 30, 2019

My only thing with that is, I get enough moisture in my pipe without purposely pouring water into it. Not saying it won't help or work, but I'm just too stubborn.

sablebrush52 · Jul 30, 2019

I was, to put it mildly, skeptical and it was a year before I decided to give it a try. Now, I'm a convert.
For me, a 30 second to 1 minute flush with very warm water, followed immediately with wiping down the chamber with wadded paper toweling and pipe cleaners produces a fresher tasting bowl than using any sort of spirit. It helps neutralize the bowl. But many pipe smokers don't want a neutral bowl, they want it either seasoned with a favored blend, or flavored with spirits, or honey or something else.
Unlike some who do this, I don't leave a vulcanite stem attached as the warm water can raise the sulphur content and cause the stem to go gray, so I treat the stem separately with alcohol. Acrylic stems get a warm water flush as alcohol is deadly for acrylic stems.
Also, a couple bowls may swell a bit and may need an extra 30 minutes to an hour before the mortise fit returns to normal, but that is pretty rare, and the fit always returns to normal. Briar characteristics vary from bowl to bowl to bowl.
Any pipe that I use in regular rotation gets this treatment and none have suffered from it.

jpmcwjr · Jul 30, 2019

As perhaps the chief initiator and promoter of this method, and now with several years under my belt, I can say it is 100% safe, and a good method to cut down on the frequency of really deep cleaning. Most pipes have gone two + years with no need for harsher treatment.
I do leave the stems in, vulcanite or acrylic. I also scrub the outside of the stem with a scrubbing sponge (similar to micromesh?) and let dry. The vulcanite will dry to a light grey. A very thin coating and rubbing with mineral oil will produce a shiny deep black. That's not as shiny and nice as buffing with wax under a wheel, but looks just fine.

jpmcwjr · Jul 30, 2019

I would add that many pipe making outfits regularly admonished, "Do NOT use water!!!" when cleaning the pipe. They are the same ones who were selling "pipe sweeteners", "pipe cleaning fluids" etc. Unfortunately, this misdirection in order to increase sales of ancillary products has found its way into the plethora of shibboleths that persist to this day. (vocabulary cards, No's 38, 430, 873 and 12)

piperatthegatesofdawn · Jul 30, 2019

As perhaps the chief initiator and promoter of this method, and now with several years under my belt, I can say it is 100% safe, and a good method to cut down on the frequency of really deep cleaning. Most pipes have gone two + years with no need for harsher treatment.

Interesting. Two years is a decent trial period to test its efficacy.
Do you notice more flavour/ smoother smoke than when you (presumeably) used pipe cleaners only up until a couple of years ago?

PaulTheScandinavian · Jul 30, 2019

Same here ,after my pipe, brand new or estate is sufficiently broken in,then I occasionally flush the bowl-mortise with warm water, followed with wiping down the chamber, stems are removed and cleaned separately and immediately reinserted back when done, no ill effects so far, and definitely this method freshes up my pipes.

hoosierpipeguy · Jul 30, 2019

I do it frequently and it works. I use hot tap water. You can even smell the musty ash odor right when you start filling the bowl with hot water. I've been doing it about a year with zero negative effects to date, at least that I've found. I rarely have to ream for excessive cake build up. The cake that does build up is good, solid cake. I do it for every pipe, most of which are over $300 pipes with Vulcanite stems. I can't imagine doing it any differently now. YMMV

trubka2 · Jul 30, 2019

A couple questions for the water-rinsers that this and previous threads haven't really answered for me:

1. Assuming middling ambient RH and temps, how long do you give the pipes to dry out before smoking them? JPM says "rest as normal" in the original thread, but I don't know how long that is.

2. How often (after approx. how many smokes) do you do the rinse? Or is it just when they start to taste a little off?
I've been wanting to try this for a while. I do most of my clean-up of estate pipes in the kitchen sink, and I'm not hydrophobic in the least. The only thing that gives me pause is that I have a small enough rotation that I'm just barely able to give my pipes a day or two of rest between smokes, and I'm anxious to avoid adding additional rest time. (And, yes, I know some people say that resting pipes isn't really necessary, but for me it is - if I don't rest them, they're kinda wet and smoke poorly. Chalk it up to bad technique.)
Has anyone tried rinsing out cobs? Do they turn into soggy cornflakes and paper mache?
EDIT: Another question: Does the water help with stubborn ghosts at all?

jojoc · Jul 30, 2019

Trubka - I rinse mine after every smoke. As they are only exposed to the water for 30-60 seconds, I do not notice that the briar has absorbed much if any water. My process is to run a pipe cleaner through the stem to the bowl and then to scoop the bowl to get the worst of the ash and tobacco remains out. I then run the hot water through the bowl and out the button hole. I let the water run for 30-60 seconds. I then wipe it all down with a paper towel. I take the stem off, run a couple more pipe cleaners through, and "screw" an paper towel down the bowl to scrub it out and dry it. I put the pipe back together and put it away. 24 hours rest time should be fine. I done all of this and smoked the same pipe within 24 hours with no issues. However, I am not a daily smoker so mine do usually get more rest than that.
Benefits that I see - reduced smell, controls the cake buildup, but also seems to make a stronger cake. Draw backs, it take a little more time to clean
As to cobs, I have no idea as I have no cobs.
I don't think water alone is going to do much about a stubborn ghost. I'd suggest either the salt or coffee treatment.

jpmcwjr · Jul 30, 2019

How long to rest? I've flushed and paper toweled the chamber and smoked right away a number of times: no problem.
However, this is on pipes that come out dry after a smoke. If the heel is damp, normal resting time would be indicated. In other words, the water flush (and the hottest it comes from my sink tap) adds virtually no moisture, so it really depends on what you start with.

hoosierpipeguy · Jul 30, 2019

If I'm on the ball, I rinse the pipes I smoked that day. I've got enough pipes I generally don't smoke them two days in a row. But I have smoked them 2 days in a row after rinsing as a test. No issue. As jmpdwjr said, I'd have no reservations about smoking it within minutes of rinsing.
I absolutely would not rinse a cob. Too absorbent.
I would also argue overall, it takes less time to clean over a long period.

trubka2 · Jul 30, 2019

Thanks for answering my questions, fellas. Today's pipes are going under the faucet tonight so they're nice and fresh for Thursday.

jeff540 · Jul 31, 2019

Sablebrush described it perfectly.
I still water rinse after being converted last year; however, I don't rinse after every smoke anymore. While the water method keeps the bowls from getting sour, it similarly prevents the accumulation of sweet overtones that I enjoy after several bowls of Virginia based blends.
Thus, I modified my approach to rinsing the stems after each smoke, but only water rinsing the bowls if they start to turn sour - otherwise bowls just get dry pipe cleaner and q-tip in the mortise.

crashthegrey · Jul 31, 2019

With how long it had been and no problems for the water folks, I'm glad to see that we are no longer arguing about this. I never converted but I certainly stopped doubting.

frankrem · Jul 31, 2019

Great thread - Helped me as well.

Water And Pipe Cleaners

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