Toke Tries Eco-Friendly Pipe Cleaning Kit: Does It Work?

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All photos by Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

​There are a number of pipe-cleaning kits on the market which are aimed at marijuana smokers. To varying degrees, most are useful when it comes to getting the grunge off your bongs, bubblers, and pipes, but one of the kits distinguishes itself by being probably the most eco-friendly of the bunch: Ms. Jane’s Brown Box Special.

We at Toke of the Town recently had the opportunity to try out the efficacy of the Brown Box Special.

What’s so special about the Brown Box Special? Well, it’s the outlook of the Ms. Jane organization, to vein with. The company says it strives to make all of its products as eco-friendly as possible. “We strive to make our products Low Impact Recyclable, Biodegradable, Reusable, All Natural and Made in the USA,” Ms. Jane tells us.
The other thing that’s special is that right now is an especially good time to buy a Brown Box Special, because Ms. Jane is offering whopping 42.0 percent savings on all their products through the New Year. To get the 42 percent discount, enter the coupon code MsJTeam420 when you order.

According to Ms. Jane, the Brown Box Special is effective on 95 percent of pipes on the market today. The company says it works great with bongs, pipes, ashtrays, hookahs, and even small items such as stems and bowls.

​Each Brown Box Special, priced at $29.98, includes:
• One “Magic Tonic,” a resin-dissolving “special cleansing mixture” which seems to be mostly rubbing alcohol, going by the smell. Enough Tonic’s in the bottle for two to four uses, depending on the size of your piece and the how damn dirty you let your pipe get before cleaning it, stoner.
• Two Grips, which come as a single piece of labeled green fabric wrapped around the Brown Box, which you must cut in half to use. The reverse side of the label features a special printed grip that allows you to hold your piece more securely while cleaning it.

​• One pack of “Light Abrasives,” resin-attracting agitators which appear to be salt. There are enough abrasives for many uses; after one cleaning I still had most of my abrasives left over.
• One pack of “Heavy Abrasives,” which look to be four different kinds of seeds and grains; as with the Light Abrasives, there’s enough of this stuff for multiple cleaning sessions.
• Two “Multi-Tools,” which are basically tough pieces of bamboo — coated in resin repellent — that turn out to be way more useful than they first appear. (My first reaction was “WTF are these? Freakin’ glorified toothpicks!” But I was wrong.) It works well on smaller components like grinders, bowls, stems, and screens.
• One Work Tray, a rectangular black plastic box with a clear lid in which you keep all the other stuff.
Ms. Jane’s Brown Box Special Refill Kits are available; once you run out of Light Abrasives, Heavy Abrasives and Magic Tonic (which will be several cleanings later, unless you are profligately wasteful), you can restock on all three for $14.98.

We found the Brown Box Special’s instructions to be helpful, accurate and easy to follow.

OK, I admit it. It had been far too long since I had cleaned the bowl and stem of my bong. Could Ms. Jane’s Brown Box Special come to the rescue?

After rinsing thoroughly with cold water, I went to work on the bowl and stem with the Multi-Use Tool. It worked way better than I had imagined.

The bong itself, while not extraordinarily grungy, was certainly due for a good cleaning.

I poured about 1/3 of the Magic Tonic into my piece, along with generous helpings of Light Abrasive and Heavy Abrasive, before agitating the bong, using the Grips to hold it securely.

Cut the included strip of fabric into two halves, and, Voila! — you have two Grips to hold your piece securely.

Heavy Abrasives (pictured above) and Light Abrasives (which appeared to be coarse salt) are added into the piece along with Magic Tonic.

After just a few minutes of agitation, I could see that the Magic Tonic and the Light and Heavy Abrasives were doing my bong some good.

Yeah, baby! THAT’s what I’m talkin’ about!

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