When it comes to proper maintenance of a hookah equipment, a lot of people, and even some hookah lounges lack the proper maintenance protocols. There are some benefits of properly maintaining the hookah equipment which we will go over soon. If you even noticed a flavor fade in your hookah session or notice a foggy hookah base, it is a sign that you’ll need to clean your hookah. Most of the hookahs come with some tools to clean your hookah but if your hookah came without any tools to clean the hookah, worry not, I’ll go over the alternatives for you. So let’s get started.

First of all, let’s go over the easier part. Disassemble your hookah to the maximum amount of separate parts. Once it is done, pour some warm water in a container, and add some liquid soap. Smaller parts will go there to soak while you clean the rest. If you ever disassembled your purge valve you will see some residue from in form of moisture. Once this residue dries it is often makes the purge valve ball stick to the valve, thus blocking the airflow when you blow out the hookah to extract excess smoke. Additionally, if you use silicone hose, connector to the hookah stem from that hose can go in there as well. Great, lets move to the next step.

Our next step, should be to disassemble stem and grab a long thin brush that fits inside of the stem. We usually use dish soap and warm water to clean the stem. This gets rid of any unwanted residue and removes the leftover flavor from the stem. With up and down motions push the brush through the stem to clean it. Make sure to wash the whole length of the stem. Once it is done, rinse it and leave the stem on the side we will move over to the hose.

At our hookah lounge we not only wash the hoses, we also treat them to stem cleaning to destroy any leftover flavor and sanitize it. So what you will need is some hot water, soap or alcohol, This process is self explanatory, you mix some water with soap, rinse the hose from outside and inside, and rinse again with water. Once it is done, hang your hose to dry.

Now the fun part, cleaning the base of a hookah. Conceptually, cleaning the base compares to cleaning any cup or glass. The catch here is that most of the bases come with narrow neck and wide base and it is pretty hard to clean the walls of a hookah. Grab a rush and Crete an elbow shape that copies the curve of your hookah base. Wet the brush with soap and water and slide the brush inside the hookah base. With rotating motions, clean the base and make sure you scrub all the angles. Leave it there for about 2-3 minutes and rinse it. Make sure not to use hot water, we have seen cases when rapid change in temperature makes glass bases shatter. Once you’ve rinsed the the base flip it upside down and put it aside. This way all the leftover water will run down and you are left with the clean hookah.

Alternative way for cleaning the base would be to use a rug soaked in water and soap. Put the rug inside the boat and shake the bowl in rotating motions The rug will scrub against he inside of the bowl and clean in. Then just take out the rug and rinse the base. Flip it and leave it to dry. 

Once you’ve cleaned your hookah it is time to assemble it back, make sure that all parts fit nicely and enjoy the hookah session. You will definitely notice how flavor transfer quality of your hookah changes. We recommend cleaning hookah as often as possible to prolong the lifespan of a hookah. Please remember that most of the hookahs are made out of metal, and metal, when exposed to excess moisture, goes bad. Although, most of the hookahs nowadays, are made of stainless steel, proper maintenance and regular washes are the key to happy hookah sessions.