I tried one of those bubbler straws, and all it did was get my weed wet. I like it because it was simple and portable, but besides wet weed, there is no way to clean it.
Sorry your experience was poor, but with a couple of minor technique changes both those issues are easily solved. The wet weed is because you've got it over filled. Try blowing water out 'both ends' after filling (leaving only what can be captured in the upper and lower traps). After doing so normal use will get no more water out.
Cleaning is not that tough either. I have a dishwasher so I attach a plastic funnel to mine and stand them up in the silverware tray when I run a load. 20 minutes of hot detergent, followed by the rinse cycle, leaves a squeaky clean bubbler nearly perfectly filled and ready to go.
Before I stumbled on 'the lazy man's solution' I'd put the dirty stem in a 'travel tube' (from PV) or one of the squeeze bottles you find Catsup and Mustard in in diners. Plastic, to avoid 'glass on glass' accidents. In goes a pinch of PBW and hot water maybe half way up:
http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/pbw-the-chemistry-of-clean.7854/
PBW is a 'super detergent' made originally for Coors to clean out brewery equipment which just like here gets fouled with baked on 'hydrocarbon junk' in places you can get to to scrub. Inverting/gently shaking every 30 seconds or so gets the detergent inside and forces exchanges to aid in the washing. Between times I'd put it in a glass of hot tap water in the sink. Heat really helps. Then a rinse by hand (run water through it from the top and you're good to go. Watch out when taking it out, it's very slippery. I lost a stem that way before learning the lesson.
As in most such things, easiest if you 'keep after it', not letting fouling build up too much.
BTW PBW will do an amazing job of cleaning up that old bong from long ago you've been hiding. It's actually fun to watch. PBW uses 'Oxygen action' (one of it's components), tiny streams of bubbles rise from and eventually get under and float away junk that's been there a very very long time. I've done this a dozen times or more with friends bongs (sometimes it takes some prompting to get them to bring it out), they watch in amazement and giggle like school girls. Good times and they get an old friend back.
Also BTW a spoon of the stuff in the dishwasher from time to time wipes out the 'haze' of mineral deposits in the dishwasher (another of it's components so it'll work in the hardest water you can come up with). Pretty cool stuff, you can get it on Amazon or from your local 'home brewery shop'.
ISO and other solvents are much inferior, more expensive and not nearly as 'green'.
Regards to all.
OF