So, you own a top-notch alternative vaporizer? Good choice. Buying a great vaporizer is an investment that can pay great dividends in the future. That’s partially because a better vaporizer tends to last longer – and include a better warranty – than a cheaper one. More importantly, though, a great vape has the ability to pay for itself over time because it allows to get the absolute most out of your material – and getting more out of your material means you pay less for it. Over the years, you’ll spend far more on herbs than you’ll ever spend on vaporizers. It makes sense to spend a little extra on a vape that uses your herbs as efficiently as possible.
Regardless of the type of vaporizer that you own, though, you’re only going to get the most out of it if you do what’s necessary to keep it clean – and if we’re being completely honest, it’s sometimes very hard to work up the initiative to put forth that effort. Cannabis releases extremely sticky resins when it’s heated, and those resins wreak havoc on the performance of your device. The resins clog the vapor path, hampering airflow. They also gum up your vaporizer’s herb chamber, reducing heating efficiency. As those resins go through repeated cycles of heating and cooling, they become harder, denser and more difficult to remove.
It’s much easier, in other words, to do periodic light cleanings of your vaporizer than it is to go several months between deep cleanings – and that’s our first bit of vaporizer cleaning advice for you. In this article, we’re going to provide some more tips that can help to make vaporizer cleaning easier, faster and more fun – no matter what type of vape you own. You’re also going to learn a simple trick for reclaiming the resins stuck to your vaporizer’s removable components. Let’s begin!
The Most Important Tools for Cleaning Any Vaporizer
The most important tools for cleaning any vaporizer are:
- Rubbing alcohol:Cannabis resins are alcohol soluble, and nothing loosens them up for easy removal like rubbing alcohol.
- Cotton swabs:You should always have plenty of cotton swabs in your vaping kit. There is no better tool for soaking up liquified resins and rubbing away stubborn grime.
- Pipe cleaners:If your device’s herb chamber is on the bottom, then you’ve got a long vapor path that isn’t going to be easy to clean. The best way to do it is by soaking a pipe cleaner in alcohol and running it through the vapor path. Do that repeatedly until a pipe cleaner comes out clean.
How to Reclaim Resins When Cleaning Your Vaporizer
The next thing that you need to know about cleaning any vaporizer is that the fastest way to clean any removable component is by soaking it in a bowl of alcohol. That’s how you’ll clean your mouthpieces, stems and other removable components made from glass, ceramic, zirconia, silicone and other alcohol-safe materials. It’s okay to dip materials like rubber and plastic in alcohol, but don’t soak them longer than necessary. After you’ve soaked a component in alcohol, the resins will rinse away easily in plain water.
Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if you could actually do something with those resins rather than simply rinsing them down the sink? As a matter of fact, you can. Here’s the trick: As you already know, rubbing alcohol isn’t safe for consumption. There’s no rule, however, saying that you need to use rubbing alcohol to clean your device. Instead, you can use an alcohol that’s safe to consume.
If you want to get every last bit of goodness out of those resins, soak your vaporizer’s removable components in a high-proof drinking alcohol like Everclear. After an overnight soak, you’ll find that the alcohol has turned brown. You’ve just made a tincture from the resins that have collected on your vaporizer’s components. Strain and bottle the tincture. When you use the tincture, take just a dropper at a time. Remember; it’s strong stuff.
How to Clean Your Vaporizer’s Oven
Cleaning the removable components of your vaporizer is the easy part. What’s not so easy, however, is cleaning the vaporizer itself. The oven of your vaporizer gets extremely hot, cooking the resins in your herbs and forming a cake that sometimes seems almost impossible to remove. Well, it is possible to get your device’s oven looking almost like new, and once again, rubbing alcohol is going to be your best friend here.
Persistence is the key when it comes to removing baked-in resins from a vaporizer’s oven. Make sure that you have a big supply of cotton swabs and plenty of rubbing alcohol. Dip a cotton swab in alcohol. You want to get it very wet – but not so wet that the alcohol drips down into the device’s internal electronics. Push the cotton swab into the device’s oven and begin rubbing it around until the cotton swab is very dirty. When the cotton is dark brown or black, repeat the procedure with the other side of the cotton swab or with a new swab.
After you’ve been cleaning the oven for a couple of minutes, you’re going to find that you have several very dirty cotton swabs, and your device’s oven looks about the same as it did before. Here’s where the “persistence” part comes in. It may not look like the alcohol is doing much, but it’s actually dissolving layer after layer of resin. Keep at it until you see the original white or metallic color of your oven again, and you’ll be rewarded with much better heating performance when you resume vaping.
When cleaning your vaporizer’s oven, one important thing to keep in mind is that it’s perfectly normal for the metal or ceramic to discolor with repeated use. You may still see some persistent splotches of yellow, brown or black, even after you’re certain that you’ve removed every trace of resin from your device. The discoloration doesn’t affect your device’s flavor or heating performance.
