Enjoying your hookah every now and again is a great experience – it can be something you do on your own to wind down after a long day, or it can be a fun activity to do with friends. Having an amazing time smoking out of your hookah isn’t just about how tasty the shisha being smoked is or how smooth the hits are – it’s also a lot about how clean your setup is. There are specific things you need to do to ensure that your hookah continues working and producing a great smoking experience, and here are some useful tips that will help you do just that.
1. Disassembling The Hookah
The first thing you will need to do is disassemble the hookah. While this might seem a bit complicated at first glance because there’s such a wide variety of hookahs, the disassembly process is pretty much the same with all of them. To do this, simply unscrew any parts of your hookah which are connected to each other. Any bowl pieces, stem pieces, vase pieces – all of these should be unscrewed from their joints, and placed on a clean kitchen towel or any other soft surface that won’t scratch your pieces. Whenever you’re doing something like this, it’s a good idea to put the screws socket you took it from so that you don’t have to worry about which one goes where when it’s time to assemble it back up.
2. Cleaning The Glass
Chances are your hookah is made out of different materials – some parts are glass, others are metal, and so on. To clean the glass parts correctly, you will need to use warm water and dish soap. You don’t want to use anything too abrasive as that could cause the glass. Just put a small amount of dish soap in warm water, submerge the glass piece in the solution, and wipe away any dirt or residue with a non-abrasive cloth. After you’re done cleaning it, make sure that you rinse the glass part thoroughly. If the nicotine stains are really persistent, you might want to let it sit in soapy water for around 30 minutes – or even overnight. It’s best to use a microfiber cloth or a cotton cloth in order to ensure there are no scratches.
3. Cleaning The Metal Components
Cleaning the metal parts of your hookah is a bit easier than cleaning the glass, but it’s still important to do so carefully in order to avoid rust and corrosion. To clean metal parts, you will need to soak them for around 10 minutes in warm water and anti-rust liquid – if you don’t have anti-rust liquid, you can use dish soap as a substitute. If there are any crevices and nooks and crannies where dirt and residue might be hiding, you should use a brush or even some q-tips – but make sure it’s not anything that can scratch the surface. Most of the time, some warm water and dish soap are enough to take care of the cleaning process. Once you submerge the part into your solution, make sure that you scrub it down thoroughly using a brush if needed – but be gentle! After you’re done, rinse them off with clean water and dry them off with a dishtowel to avoid any rusting.
4. The Hose
The hose is quite possibly the dirtiest part of your hookah, and that’s because it gets a lot of use – smoke goes in one end, and out the other. You don’t want to just run water through the hose either since that will only push any grime further down into it. Instead, you should soak the hose in hot water and vinegar for around 20 minutes. The vinegar will help dissolve any residue, dirt, or grime that might be stuck in the hose. The solution should approximately be 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar. After you’re done soaking it, take a look at the inside of the hose to see if there are any black spots or anything of the sort. If there are, you might want to scrub the hose gently with a brush – if not, you should be good. If you can’t quite reach it, you might want to wrap a clean cloth around a long, thin object like a screwdriver and use that to scrub the inside of the hose. Although, you should make sure you don’t press down too hard or it’s possible you could damage your hose. After you’re done, rinse it out with clean water and dry it well before using.
When you clean your hookah, it’s important that you let each piece dry thoroughly before you assemble it again. You should probably do this once a week if you use it daily. In the meantime, you should always wipe the hookah down after each use, and pay special mind to the mouth tip so that you can get rid of any potential germs.