Cleaning up your shisha: tips and tricks
A hookah is a device for smoking special flavoured tobacco. In other countries, terms such as Hookah, shisha, narghile, argyle and hubbly bubbly are used. Smoking hookah has been a tradition in the for 900 years and it is often done in restaurants and hookah cafes. In Western countries, smoking shisha is also rapidly increasing in popularity.
It has become very popular in Australia as well, especially in the last decade.
After each session, you must clean your shisha. This thorough cleaning will allow you to eliminate the taste as well as remove the residue resulting from the previous session. Also, a hookah well maintained and clean will undoubtedly allow you to significantly increase its life, a second point far from negligible.
A properly cleaned shisha contributes and simply promotes the success of your sessions.
Accessories you'll need to keep your shisha clean
Before you begin cleaning your shisha, here is the list of accessories you will need:
- A vase brush
- A brush for the tube
- Dishwashing liquid or s special shisha cleaner
- A sponge
Careful cleaning step by step
1st step is to disassemble your hookah. Remove the bowl, seals, ashtray, take the tube out of the base. Familiarize yourself with all the elements of your hookah in order to be able to put together your shisha easily.
Empty the burnt tobacco from the previous session and scrub vigorously to remove all the tobacco and smell. You can also add a little lemon juice to the water; this will completely neutralize the odours.
We recommend that you wait a few minutes after your session before starting the maintenance phase so that the temperature of the fireplace can go down and thus avoid any heat shock.
When cleaning the pipe, put water inside your pipe and seal both ends. Then completely empty the water from the pipe and repeat the operation until there are no more deposits in it. For perfect hygiene, consider using a cloth with a little bleach on the end of the hose, where you put your mouth. Do not forget to rinse after abundantly.
Not all pipes are washable with water! Before cleaning, make sure it does not damage your hose.
Most of the time a whitish trace is formed inside the vase, it usually follows the water level. Many think it is limestone and uses white vinegar to make it disappear. It is not so. These are deposits of carbon: when you pull on the shisha, ashes pass through the column and are deposited in the water and settle along the walls of the vase.
To remove this trace, add hot water and put washing-up liquid inside the vase of your shisha and rub vigorously with a thick brush then rinse the vase thoroughly.
Once your shisha is thoroughly cleaned and dried, put all the items back on your shisha and store them away from the dust.
Place all rings and rubbers in a small bowl and add some warm water. Let them soak for a while and then give them a good scrub one by one. Put the rubbers in a bowl with, for example, some vegetable oil or olive oil. This gives the rubbers some extra protection.
Note: these water pipe parts may only be washed with water. Do not use any cleaning agents, this will only damage it.
- The hot/cold can cause a thermal shock and weaken your vase, remember to use only hot water to clean the different elements of your shisha.
- No water wastage: To avoid wasting too much water while cleaning your shisha and wasting a lot of time, use a large basin of hot water and a little bleach or washing up liquid and soak all your items a few minutes. You will save time, energy and water.
If your hookah has been used too many times without being properly cleaned, you can head to our hookah accessories page and get brand new parts for your hookah.