Understanding Water Lines in Hookah & How to Prevent Them

Hey hookah fans, we’re back again to pass some hookah knowledge on to you! This week, we’re going to be talking about something that pretty much everybody who has owned a hookah has either seen or experienced: water lines in your base!

Some may see a residue inside their base and panic, thinking that their base is dirty or moldy. While dirt and mold are definitely something you should look out for, regular water lines are not nearly as serious. Water lines are not harmful to you or your hookah so no need to panic!

What is a water line?

A water line is a ring of residue that starts to form right about where you fill your hookah water up to. They typically develop over time along the inside of glass hookah bases and are especially noticeable if you frequently smoke your hookah.

They are primarily caused by small amounts of minerals that are present in most municipal water supplies, such as Calcium and Magnesium.

Basically, what happens is that the water in your hookah base will leave small amounts of these trace minerals along your hookah base as the water dries or evaporates. These lines appear most commonly around the level that you fill your water to in your base.

While the amount of these minerals left behind is very small, the more you use your hookah will cause these water lines to become more pronounced over time. Again, they are not harmful to you or your hookah, but they can be somewhat unpleasant to look at, aesthetically speaking.

Preventing Water Lines

Unfortunately, water lines are not typically something that you as an individual have control over. Whether or not they appear, and how bad they are, really depends on your local water supply. Some regions will have “soft” water that contains less of those previously mentioned trace minerals, while other regions will have “hard” water with a more abundant quantity of minerals.

The average person will likely not be in a position to actively alter the mineral content of their city’s water supply (unless you are like, the city mayor or something). It will just be something that naturally occurs when using tap water, so unless you’re looking to buy ultra purified, mineral free water, you will probably experience water lines at some point or another.

While there’s not much you can do to outright prevent water lines, there are a number of things you can do to help you not have to deal with them as often. While these are helpful in preventing water lines, they are also just good habits to get into in general:

• Empty out the water in your base after you are done smoking
  
• Allow your base to adequately dry after cleaning
• Never let hookah water sit overnight or for extended periods of time
• Give your base a light scrub with a base cleaning brush

These tips will help prevent water lines from forming as quickly, while also preventing other issues (such as mold) from occurring as well. While these will help PREVENT water lines, they will not completely eliminate them. Even if you follow these tips down to the letter, you will likely still have to deal with water lines at some point or another.

How To Get Rid Of Water Lines

I know what you’re thinking. Even though water lines won’t hurt you, your hookah, or your session, those lines can be an eyesore. Especially so if you’re like us and want your glass base to be sparkling clean.

Good news! They’re actually pretty easy to get rid of. If you start to notice these water lines forming, you’ll want to get ahead of the game and give your base a light cleaning with a little bit of soap and a hookah base brush. A couple drops of soap, warm water, and some elbow grease with that brush will help get those lines out of the base.

Depending on the severity of the water line, you may need to get a little more aggressive with the cleaning technique. Luckily, we carry some cleaning solution that will make it super simple (and probably easier than even cleaning your base with a brush). That product is called Bling! cleaning solution.

Bling! is an alcohol based cleaning solution that contains abrasive cleaning “crystals” that help clean your base. The combination of the pineapple scented alcohol and the cleaning crystals will absolutely annihilate any of those hard water stains easily and quickly.

For more information on how to fully clean your hookah base using Bling! and other cleaning techniques, you can check out our blog on how to fully clean your hookah base!

And as always, if you have any questions, concerns, or just want to talk hookah, contact our customer service team and we'll be happy to assist!

Happy smoking!