Cleaning burnt glassware?

[Astromaddie]

Hey everyone, so I picked up a used SSV recently and dear lord did the previous owner do a number to it. The whip bowl and the glass surrounding the heating element are full of crusted-on burnt residue.

I've got it soaking in a sealed tub of iso, but as of last night (~4 hours soaking) it hadn't helped too much. Barring replacing all the glass ($40 I'd rather not spend) how can I get this all cleaned up?? I'm thinking about trying barkeeper's friend and steel wool, but that's all I've got.

I did a search and didn't find anything outside of reclaiming resin, which this is way beyond salvaging anyway...

 

[Monsoon]

Maybe try some PBW?

 

[Astromaddie]

Wow, that looks like magic. I'll definitely pick some up if/when Barkeeper's Friend fails on me this afternoon!

 

[StickyShisha2]

steel wool has worked for me

 

[Astromaddie]

steel wool has worked for me

The problem with just steel wool is that a lot of the scorching is somehow inside of the glass and I wouldn't be able to get the wool inside there

 

[kellya86]

I recently purchased a solo where the previous owner had the same problem with the stems, I soaked in iso for 24 hours and scraped that shit off with a glass pick, and kept repeating till I have clean glass...

 

[flotntoke]

Course salt in ISO and shaking can be pretty amazing, too. Just put it in a ziplock, let it sit for a few hours, then shake the hell out of it. If still nasty, let it sit a few more hours and give it another good shaking. Repeat for a day or two until it gets clean. You may have to add more salt along the way because the water in the ISO will slowly dissolve it and make it soft.

You can change the ISO/salt mix in the process if you like, but IME the first batch will keep doing the same amount of cleaning for quite some time with just a little salt added. Just remember that salt doesn't dissolve much in ISO, but it will in water. Sometimes if really charred some work with a q tip or wooden skewer with ISO is needed to get out the last bits. And, always a good idea to scrape out what you can before you start with ISO. It really speeds up the process.

I'll sometimes soak a piece in undiluted concentrated Simple Green for a day before ISO treatment if really bad. This cleans it up a good bit, and softens all the gunk so the ISO can really get into it. Make sure you
scrape out what will come off and rinse all the Simple Green off with hot water before transferring to ISO for best results.

After good ISO cleaning, PBW will usually clean it up to pristine, nearly new glass.

 

[Astromaddie]

Update! The extended iso soak didn't really make much more of a difference but holy shit did a ten minute PBW soak fix it up sparkling clean! That stuff is pure magic, I'm sold on it.

Thank you for the suggestion!!

 

[kellya86]

That's good to know, I've never used it, maybe I should give it a try for the stubborn brown stains accumulating on my adapter...