Pipe Cleaners & "Quality"....Who Cares?

[cosmicfolklore]

I buy Beamers by the box full on ebay, tapers, bristles, and soft ones. I just empty the boxes into a drawer and they last a few months. When I can see the bottom of the drawer, I reorder more. I used to use the BJLongs, but I find the Beamers to be almost as good and a lot cheaper.

 

[saltedplug]

BJ Longs Extra Absorbent and 100 Pack Regular from JR. The former can be difficult to insert, but if I bend it and render it useless for further duty, I just reach for another, and if the airway won't take it, I reach for a narrower gauge, the Regular. I could use the Regular regularly, but the Extra Absorbent gets out more crud.

 

[perdurabo]

BJ Long Tapered.

 

[jayski]

BJ Long for me. Tapered is usually what I buy. They seem to get the job done for all my pipes excluding my warden. My only complaint is that I clean them off before I use them to remove the fuzzies.

 

[weezell]

BJ Long unless it's a meer with a restricted airway. Then it's the fluffies from the hobby store...

 

[condorlover1]

Fluffies from the hobby store here every time!

 

[spartan99]

BJ Long. When I've used other brands that I've gotten as freebies, they've either been less absorbent, shed more, or both.

 

[briarbuda48]

Brigham and BJLong. If you are looking for bristle cleaner, I grabbed a few bundles at The Tobacco Pouch on S Yale in Tulsa Ok called Zen. The wire and bristles are stiffer than any others I have found and excellent for really grungy pipes.

 

[ravkesef]

BJ makes great pipe cleaners. I’ve never tried Vauen or Brigham, so I can’t comment, but they’re now on my shopping list. The Blitz red and white striped are a superior pipe cleaner and great for that final pass after you’ve scrubbed your pipe & stem with whatever technique you use. Also, for bristles I use the Ream ‘N’ Klean brand, both the regular and the tapered yellow ones that go by the name “Fluffy Tails.” They’re extra rigid and highly absorbent. A few years ago it looked like they were going out of business, so I bought a case of each. Also, in the category of truly superior pipe cleaners, there’s the Gloredo brand, made in China, I believe. They, too, were extra rigid and absorbent, but I believe they’re no longer available. For really hard core cleaning I have a seat of the bottle brush type scrubbers in various diameters. That and a bit of grain alcohol will clean out the crudiest pipe.

 

[pipebuddy]

MSO nailed it: cheapies shed more and will clog your pipe's airway.

Quality does matter, here.

I only use bristle pipe cleaners. Brigham and Dill's.

 

[dunstanhillwell62]

I aubjected 7 brands of pipe cleaners to the water test; Stanwell, Dunhill, Vauen, BBB, My Own Blend and two no-name ones.

I made a flat spiral and placed it on the surface in a glass of water.

All except Stanwell flunked with flying colours. The Dunhill test was abandoned after two hours as the cleaner still floated merrily around on the surface. Stanwell's went to the bottom immediately.

Quality does matter.
::

 

[warren]

I use cleaners to clean the shank and bit, not to soak up liquids only. So, your test doesn't tell me how efficient each brand is in removing solids or, semi-solids, only liquids. On Sundays, I swipe cleaners through the seven or so brier pipes I've smoked during the week, sometimes with a little 151 proof for the persistent gunk, then set the pipe aside to air dry. Meerschaums are treated differently of course.

 

[dunstanhillwell62]

For the solids and semi-solids, I use the bristled Stanwells. Work like a charm.

I run a pipe cleaner through shank and stem after each smoke, though.

Only the second-hands I find at flea markets need to be de-gunked, hence the bristled cleaners.
::

 

[mrenglish]

I use BJ Long for tapered bristle and regular tapered and buy them by the case. My truck has a convenient slot in the dash that will hold 3 bags of cleaners nicely. Very handy while driving.

 

[sumusfumus]

I could deal with the absorption, fuzzy lint, and other "quality" differences, but I can't deal the slight burrs, or the tiny, bent-wire tips on the ends of too many of pipe-cleaners. I have found these burrs on many brands of PCs. When I ran these PCs down the pipe-stems I could feel the tip of these cleaners scraping and abrading the walls of smoke hole.
I quickly learned to minimize this abrasion by pre-bending the pipe cleaner to mirror the shape of the stem, but it's so damn annoying to know that the cleaners are scratching up the inside of the stem/smoke-hole. I've had to resort to snipping off a small section from the PC's tip to eliminate that burr. I could feel the troublesome tips through the fuzz on the PCs that need clipping.
Is there a quick fix for the wire burrs/bent tips on some pipe-cleaners?
Frank

NYC

 

[balkisobrains]

Yep, you have to resort to snipping off a small section from the PC's tip to eliminate that burr. =)

 

[sumusfumus]

balkisobrains.....
Not happy to read this. Now, I have to buy a good, flush-cut, wire nipper. Scissors are no good for cutting pipe-cleaner tips. Don't ask how I know this.
Thanks.
Frank

NYC

 

[jpmcwjr]

OMG. Striations on one's smoke hole. Sounds serious!
But turbulence in the airway is not something that's been proven to be a thing worth fretting over. (Though some surely do)

 

[balkisobrains]

You can buy side cutters, but a 2" nail-clipper works really well too, and you might have one already. ::

 

[mikefu]

I definitely prefer BJ Longs cleaners. They seem a little less prone to bending, and most importantly, they leave way less fuzzies than others, particularly Brighams.