What Is the Point of Rotating Pipes?

[cosmicfolklore]

Yeh John, thinking that moisture and having heard for all of these years that a pipe needed to "dry" between smokes had me really hesitant to wash my pipes like this, especially to smoke it again right away. But, really, I think that water helps prevent any of the moisture build up in the pipe that we think needs to dry. It's weird. There are so many counter-intuitive things involved in pipesmoking.

 

[davek]

I have taken that advice partially and it works a charm. When I clean with alcohol I immediately follow by running hot water through for a while. Occasionally just the hot water. Works on cobs as well although I usually dry a cob for a while.

 

[jaytex1969]

Would you wear the same pair of socks of underwear for a week?

 

[cigrmaster]

I will smoke one bowl in a pipe and then that pipe gets cleaned the next day and it will sit normally for at least 24 hours but usually 48. I have plenty of pipes in my rotation so I find no need to smoke one of my pipes more than once in a day.

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

Got enough to rotate but sometimes a smoke is so good I want to have it again, sometimes I get on a kick and smoke the same pipe/tobacco combo several times a day for a week or so. Could be a Grabow or Mastro de Paja, never had one sour. I always dry out tobacco and swab the shank and bowl with a q tip when finished. After accumulating a few dirty pipes I'll run a cleaner through the stems, depending on size 3-5 can usually be taken care of with one cleaner.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I have a wall of over a hundred pipes, but I don't want to carry a suitcase with me, so sometimes it's easier to just wash a pipe out and smoke it again. But, yeh, in a perfect world where I never left the house, I'd prefer a fresh pipe too. Just for clarification. ::

 

[bluegrasspipe]

Theloniousmonkfish---I gotta say, you and I share a lot of the same habits for cleaning and smoking. Although I don't always use a q tip, just pipe cleaners.
I have an alligator savinelli that I smoke in the car almost everyday, and it still smokes well. I will let it rest a few days here and there, but smoke it everyday for over a week sometimes with no bad results yet. Though, I clean it each time with a pipe cleaner and change the balsa filter every two smokes or so..
Also Jay excellent youtube clip. :lol:

 

[jpmcwjr]

Well, I've worn some Merino wool socks for quite a few days, maybe a whole week.... But that wool seems to eat odors rather than multiply them as some rayons do.
I also have a few pipes in the car that haven't been cleaned in months, but they get several days downtime after smoking 2-4 bowls in them per day when I travel.

 

[skydog]

I occasionally smoke multiple pipes per day or within a few hours in the same pipe. Never had one sour on me but I don't do it every day. I usually let a pipe rest a day since it is the general advice everyone gives and I've got enough pipes to do so. Plus more excuses to buy more pipes!

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

Bluegrass, at 500 q tips for $1-2 I freely use them wherever possible and save the cleaners for stems mostly.

 

[Strike Anywhere]

Maybe it’s just me, but if I smoke the same pipe more than once a day, the flavors are muted. I’ve sometimes wondered if it was me, so I’ll smoke a blend in pipe A then load another bowl of the same blend in Pipe A, and that second bowl will taste like mainly hot air. So I load the same blend in pipe B (dry and rested) and it tastes much more like the first bowl from pipe A. If you’re only smoking one bowl a day, this is moot.

 

[9mmpuffer]

For me, a clean and dry pipe just smokes better. You have to find what works best for you.

 

[mso489]

With "too many" pipes on hand, I never smoke a second bowl in a pipe on the same day (or in the same month). I always switch to another pipe, usually one I haven't smoked in a month or two. I'm a pretty temperate guy, but I actually enjoy my excess of pipes. I wonder if I will ever feel I have more than I want. Not yet.