I Just Cleaned 24 Pipes in 20 Minutes!

[jeff540]

I tried the hot water method on one of my Viking pipes last night. As I waited for the tap water to get hot and moved the pipe towards the spigot, I developed the same unsure feeling in my stomach as when I was 7 years old and jumped off the diving board for the first time.
Bowl in palm, tightly grasped against spigot while dodging the jets of water. Immediately dried and buffed pipe with towel, removed stem and blew through both stem and shank to dislodge droplets, followed by fluffy pipe cleaner. Burned $0.0013 by using a Q-tip to dry the shank. Then I used towel to dry the kitchen floor.
The result? Pretty damn clean pipe without any odor or residual burned taste. I may be a convert.

 

[rdavid]

The result? Pretty damn clean pipe without any odor or residual burned taste. I may be a convert.

Yeah same here. Definitely a convert. Again, I don't do this every time I smoke, just for deep cleaning. I'll be the first to report here if I see any type of negative affect, if any, this might have on briar but so far they look perfect (a year now).

 

[ken56]

As a newbie here I have been cleaning my Pipes with warm water and a paper towel (bowl only) since I restarted smoking my Pipes. I have not had any issues.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Jeff- Well done! You're braver than many.
Good to hear results from several others, too.

 

[5star]

I may need to take baby steps first. Starting with using warm water with my pipe cleaners

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If you, or anyone, is having reservations about cleaning their pipes with water, then just continue whatever is working for you. It’s like when I suggested to some friends that taking apart a warm pipe has never hurt my pipes. I’ve always done it and never had an issue, but then I watched a friend do it with their big old ham hands ripping their pipe apart like a gorilla ripping a banana off the bunch. Just because it works for me, may not translate the same for someone else. While I don’t forsee how someone could mess up the process, someone out there may try something or envision the process differently. I’d hate for someone to boil their stem and end up with a limp noodle of a stem and blame US for their issue.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Yes, it's sometimes hard to overcome 100 years of sellers of miracle pipe sweetening alcohols saying "Don't ever use water on your pipe!" (It might ruin our sales....)

 

[timt]

I've just decided to run hot Everclear through my pipes, followed by a lit match thrown into the bowl. Really dries it out.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Bah ha ha!!! Or you can squeeze that last little bit of tar out by running over it with your truck. ::

 

[jeff540]

I'm a convert now. Been doing this for a week, and the benefits far outweigh the initial scariness. Pipes definitely smell and taste better, and the time between smoking seems to have decreased - i.e. when the residue is washed away with hot water the pipe interior dries faster than if just wiped out with pipe cleaner. Two thumbs up!!