How to clean your lily pipes & glass diffusers

Does your lily pipe or diffuser look green? Or are you suffering from some brown algae on the surface of your glassware? Time to clean your equipment. Especially with a diffuser, this is important because a dirty diffuser is less efficient and this can cause problems. Below I explain how to clean your diffuser and lily pipes in the cheapest way possible: a bleach solution.

How to clean your glass lily pipes & diffusers

Here’s how to proceed:

1. Make a solution of 1 or 2 parts bleach to water
2. Place your diffuser or lily pipe in this solution and scrub (gently!) until it is nice and clean again
3. If the dirt is stubborn, you can leave the diffuser in the solution for several hours
4. Once clean rinse everything very well
5. Next, make a solution of water & water conditioner (e.g. product against chlorine & heavy metals)
6. Place your diffuser or lily pipe in this solution for a few minutes.
7. Rinse everything very well

Caution: sometimes water runs back into the diffuser with some bleach still in it. In that case, just hook it up to your CO2 system as you would always do and turn on the CO2 system. The CO2 will then squeeze the water out of the diffuser because of the high pressure. There you go! Now reconnect (be careful not to press too hard) and your glassware will look like new again.

A safer option: use citric acid

If you prefer not to use bleach, you can also use citric acid. This is safer but slightly less efficient in my experience:

1. Put a teaspoon of baking powder and a teaspoon of citric acid (powdered) in a cup
2. Add 150ml of water, stirring well until dissolved;
3. Add the diffuser and let stand;
4. Then lightly go over it with filter wool and rinse clean
5. Done!

Some extra tips

If it doesn’t get completely clean, or you prefer not to use bleach, you can still use hydrogen peroxide. If you have a lot of dirt in the bottom of your lily pipe, you can use aluminum beads that they sell for cleaning wine bottles, works extremely well!