Disadvantages of Glass Pipes

The most significant advantage of buying glass pipes in bulk is that you will be free from the headache of maintaining them. However, when you have only, you will need to keep it clean to avoid the alteration of flavor. Whatever you smoke in them stays the same, unlike wood and clay pipes that are explicitly used to enhance the flavor. So while glass pipes do not add any impurities during combustion, they also have their side effects or disadvantages. Over the years, the market of glass pipes is becoming more conscious regarding the quality of these products. Buyers are more educated than before, so they are more conscious about maintaining their authentic smoking experiences, cleanliness, and pricing.

In this regard, the biggest disadvantage of glass pipes is that they are made of glass, a fragile material that can break easily. Nobody will like to see his favorite pipe shattering into pieces. Although the craftsmanship is improving the quality of bong pipes and glass, these products still have minor stress points. Big glass pipes get heated and cooled in everyday use. This heating and cooling can fracture and leave cracks that can shatter the pipes under minor stress.

In order to combat this stress issue, most manufacturers have started to use borosilicate glass features commonly known as Pyrex. This glass can stand higher temperature differences that emerge during smoking.

So, while you are smoking with the pipe, the pipe will become gummed up with resin, which is a substance that is left behind in the combustion process. As resin increases, it gets challenging to pull smoke out of the pipe. Not only that, pulling smoke out gets problematic; substances present within resin alter the flavor of the smoke. Empty pipes, if not cleaned for very long, can harbor bacteria, due to which your health gets at the risk of many severe problems. Luckily, you can avoid all of these problems simply by cleaning your glass pipes regularly. This will ensure a healthy smoking habit in you and increase the lifespan of your glass pipes.

One of the best methods for cleaning glass pipes is boiling them. If you are using this technique, remember not to drop your cold pipe into hot boiling water. Instead, the right approach is to place your pipe within lukewarm water because this allows the water to reach boiling point with pipe already in it. The temperature of the glass pipe increases gradually with the water. So, when the water starts boiling, the removal of resin happens. However, even the hot water will simply soften the resin in severe cases. Now, you should use a pipe cleaner to remove anything stuck inside the pipe.

The most suitable pipe cleaner for the removal of softened resin is a combination of rubbing alcohol and salt. In this regard, once your pipe has been taken out of the hot water, you should put it into a container and pull some rubbing alcohol, which will be followed by salt. Now you should keep this as it is for overnight. During this period, the glass will clean up considerably. The job of alcohol is to dissolve the resin, while the salt acts as an oppressive that removes any parties stuck inside the pipe.

In summary, glass pipes are an environmentally sound choice for consuming any substance in the shape of smoke. Proper maintenance, cleaning, and care make them last for several years. In comparison with bongs, the glass pipes can seem like old devices. Indeed, they are ancient pieces for smoking. However, these are still loved by most smokers due to their affordability, readiness, styles, and promptness. No smoker can think his collection is complete without glass pipes. But the most crucial part of owning a glass pipe is its proper cleaning. The glass pipes without regular cleaning would lead to annoying experiences and create health problems. Keeping them cleaned gives smoke purity, better taste, and longevity. You should also provide ample time for drying up your pipe.

Another essential part is to remember that you should completely clean the pipe once you have started cleaning it. In this regard, if you see residues after drying your tube, you should clean it again. Otherwise, the residues will add the next time, and sometimes their removal gets complicated in the next cleaning session. In the period between, these residues can still deteriorate the taste so much that you will have to reclean the whole thing much earlier than the regular schedule. Cleaning this pipe frequently means that everything will be more accessible and last for a lifetime.

If you do not have rubbing alcohol available, you can experiment with boiling water. The pipe will be submerged. However, extreme temperatures can cause fractures in the glass surface, due to which the pipes may break much earlier. So you need to handle the pipe quite carefully. You need to ensure that the pipe does not get hotter suddenly. You should give it ample time to get warm when it is taken out.

Alternatively, you can use vinegar as your glass pipe cleaner. One part vinegar mixed into one-part water will be enough. However, the time it takes to complete can extend up to 12 hours, and this is a more considerable duration than alcohol salt solutions would take.

You get almost a similar experience by smoking with a dirty pipe compared with dirty bongs. They both can harbor toxic substances, so the negative health consequences of smoking are the same. Smoke getting out of these get dirty because of these poisonous chemicals. However, the absence of water will not permit microorganisms from breeding into glass pipes.

In a scientific report paper of 2020, the complete list of toxic compounds was published, and at least 110 of these toxins can settle within the interior pipe surfaces. Unfortunately, scientists are yet to discover how most of these toxins would deteriorate health individually. But at least this is clear that regular cleaning is a must. You should also not share your glass pipes with any other person. Not sharing glass pipes with other people means that you will not get in harms way because no diseases can transfer from person to peron.