exactly how often should I change the water in my bong? is regular tap water fine, or should I use bottled water? don’t think I have ever read anywhere how often to do it, I have just been doing it when I think about it. so… I won’t include any images that I think I may just have. I just got over pneumonia in both lungs and the flu, don’t want to end up back in the hospital, 'till this game is done with! 
regards,
Change the water daily, tap water is fine, clean with alcohol and salt weekly
I’ve always used tap, just keep it fairly clean and you should be good, because in my experience it can taste pretty funky and harsh, if you get lazy and let it get really dirty.
And like was stated above, isopropyl alcohol and salt clean water pipes very well.
I change My water once to twice a day depending on how heavy of use and iso/salt wash every 3,to prevent bloom buildup or hard water stains you can use distilled water but that’s if you got a real expensive glass and wanna keep it pristine Also a dry ashcatch works great for making cleaning easier
Personally: every bowl.
On bong, i was using only the bamboo’s ones i maded. So often during a session (like after an half dozen of bowls). It stink the hell too much and too long if you forget, making it unusable until a long process of washing/drying.
Later i was more on glass water pipe, and the change was mostly on the water color. If it was looking like beer, flush. Mostly because i’m lazzy, water pipes are an hell to wash. Better/easier/faster to flush often.
I’ve saw people smoking on tools with water like crude oil and big depots on glass like tar of the road… i just can’t understand how they can handle the taste and the smell in this condition.
Tap water ,91 percent ISO and rough Kosher salt are your friend.A bottle brush for a high five with a V device
I have a few water filtration units for different uses and the ones that are used solely for vaping and dabbing get changed out less often. Whenever I think of it is how often, and with my bong that’s a couple times a day usually, but with my dabbing and vaporizing units I’ve always had days where I suddenly think “eew, how long has this water been in here?” not by the look of it, but by thinking of how stale water can start to smell after a while from the bacteria, so occasionally I kinda gross myself out with my forgetfulness to change it out.
I walked past my roommates bong this morning and god damn lady, that shit was nasty. 
I cleaned it though
this is us. we change it about monthly, but clean the bowl weekly. i can almost tell the difference in taste on the first bowl after new water was put in but it may just be in my head because i know it’s new. we need to do a blind taste test with the other bong one time to see if there is a noticeable difference. i was thinking of getting a carbon attachment i read about to see how it does but what’s the point if i leave the same nasty bong water in for weeks at a time?
i hate these damned ‘ice catchers’ they put in the bong. makes it impossible to clean out properly. i have soaked in alcohol overnight and used salt to finish and it still leaves the dark ring so piss on it. i need to stop being attached to the first bong i bought legally in a store in the us and get a new one with no bullshit inside if they still make those.
I empty the water when I am done smoking from my Bong and wipe the bowl out. Resin is the enemy of your lungs. You really do not want to be smoking through a resinated bowl and stem. Google coughing up resin to see why you do not want to smoke out of dirty pipes and bongs.
Damn, you’re in this club then. I think you’re building a kind of tolerance for this typical smell/taste. Or I’ve a hard intolerance for this, choose ^^
On bongs i share the same problematic : “it should be in bamboo or it’s not the real deal and the real pleasure”. So i just can’t use all other types, i think also it’s because it was my very first tool for “bowl’s binging” and it’s printed hardly in the brain.
When getting the lung full (one bowl / one shot style) was too much i switched to this kind of tool :
And to don’t get this odor (a bit acrid and that let bitterness on the tongue), best way is to change the water often. It limit drastically the maintenance. My way for a session was not specially complicated and i’m sure a lot use the same : a few bottles of clean water and a bucket to collect the dirty water. Each X use, i poor the content of the water pipe in the bucket and i poor clean water in the “bowl straw”. Rince, refill, let’s go again.
Test it with a super clean bong never used, at least a good session. I’m sure you will never come back to the “tar bubbles” ^^
Just because you can’t see inside it doesn’t mean it isn’t disgusting and dirty, lol. If you are getting over lung infections I would recommend not using your bong. This will introduce warm dirty water to your lungs which is a perfect media to grow bacteria and virus in your lungs. I would vape my flower or eat it. So your going to use your bong anyway. Limit the number of hits for the day so you can count them on both hands. Clean it with coarse salt, rubbing alcohol and a plastic brush every time you use it. You are worth the effort and so is your health. Change the water every use tap should be fine. I know the tendency is to get lazy but with compromised lungs you need to get all the benefit of the smoke with none of the drawbacks. It might not be a big deal if you weren’t working with compromised lungs. Be healthy and treat yourself the best you possibly can, take care of your body and organs the best you possibly can just like a fire pot plant. When you take a hit do it slowly and gently without much draw, pulling hard will cause more water to atomize into microscopic droplets and go into your lungs with the smoke. Your body will respond to excellent care just like a cannabis plant, it won’t happen overnight but consistent care brings consistent results.
I change mine every few days and clean CLEAN it with isopropyl and salt…my mom changes her bong water about as frequently as the oil in her car…basically I have to remind her that when the bongwater looks like car oil…change both
Change daily or more often, sometimes every few bowls. It’s easier to clean the more often you change the water IME. I heat up the bong with hot/boiling water on the outside once I put ISO and salt in, the heat penetrating inwards just blasts the resin deposits right off the glass since the side that’s sticking is what’s dissolved first, it flakes right off when it’s thick enough. But yeah, ISO, kosher salt, get a couple rubber lab stoppers for the openings and heat it up then shake, boom it’s clean. Rinse one more time with fresh ISO then air dry or rinse with water and use.
Don’t fuck with those bowl cleaners that are D-limonene that stuff is terrible for you, I don’t like them at all. Isopropyl alcohol, kosher or Epsom, heat and hot water are all you need. You can gently boil slides and other small pieces to clean them if you get a little silicone mat or something to keep them from rattling in the bottom of a saucepan, I’ve done that too. Some people here keep multiple slides and downstems for their bongs rotating through a pair of Barbicide or similar hairbrush/scissor jars full of ISO and just drop them in the dirty jar and then take a freshie from the rinse jar, that seems cool if dedicated of them.
If you are trying to be the most careful with your lungs, I have seen medical patients talking about using cooled water that’s been boiled to sterilize it, that is a pretty easy way to take an extra step for your health. Like someone said above, smoking a water pipe is a little contradictory to getting over a lung infection because of the warm moist air, but I also get why you’d want to, and harm reduction says just make it as clean as you can.
We rarely clean our bong but when we do we use coarse pickling salt and I think it works best in conjunction with rubbing alcohol
Ideally, a bong should be like the toilet, fresh water after every use.
If you’ve ever knocked over a dirty-water bong, the campfire smell is gross and will stink up your carpet or furniture!
here is my take on this but with mostly glass. I used a quart mason jar, with food grade silicon hose. I’ve uploaded it at some point and time in the past but here it is again.
regards,
you change the water in the bong every bowl? just asking to see if I got that right? had to check back after reading the post.
regards,
