How To Clean Your Vaporizer

If you recently started using a vaporizer, your hits will still be smooth and delicious. But give it a month or two, and the quality of your vape may decrease significantly. If you clean your vaporizer regularly, you can prevent this all-too-common occurrence from spoiling your cannabis experience. In addition to ensuring top performance and flavour from your vape, a good clean will also increase the lifespan of your device. Read on for a comprehensive guide on how to clean your vaporizer.

WHY DO YOU NEED TO CLEAN YOUR VAPORIZER?

Vaporizers provide a much cleaner and purer cannabis experience compared to smoking. Since you do not combust your herbs when vaping, there is no smoke, and therefore far fewer of the icky and harmful substances that come with smoking. But despite vaping being much cleaner than smoking, this doesn’t mean your vaporizer won’t also get icky over time. Just like smoking from a regular pipe or bong, sticky residue will eventually build up—it may just happen slightly slower and be a bit less obvious with your vape. And just like other smoking devices, there are some good reasons you should clean your vape regularly.

1. Better taste and performance

As you use your vaporizer, more and more of the residue from your juicy buds will stick to various parts of the device. It will clog the heating chamber and vents, and can stick to important elements like heating coils. This will negatively impact the performance of your vaporizer and result in a bad taste. Clean your vape frequently, and you will always enjoy the best flavour and function.

2. Increases the lifespan of your vape

When important parts of your vaporizer are covered in a sticky mix of resin and plant matter, and you don’t clean your vape regularly, this can dramatically decrease the lifespan of your vaporizer. Worse, it could even irrevocably damage the device if neglected long enough. Regularly cleaning your vaporizer is the best thing you can do to enjoy your vape for years to come.

3. A cleaner vape is healthier

Aside from affecting taste and performance, excess residue in your vape is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and other microorganisms such as mould. These potentially harmful intruders can cause irritation and respiratory problems, and can lead to other health issues down the road.

WHEN TO CLEAN YOUR VAPORIZER

There are two ways to clean your vaporizer. One is a daily routine cleaning performed after each time you vape. This is easy to do and takes only a minute or two.

The other type of cleaning procedure is a thorough deep cleaning that you should do every 1–2 weeks. Deep cleaning is also recommended if you are switching strains, or moving from flower to concentrates/liquids or vice versa. After a deep clean, you can start with a fresh and clean device that doesn’t have any leftover contents.

HOW TO PERFORM A DAILY ROUTINE CLEANING

Your vape should come with a tiny brush that you can use for the routine cleaning. If a brush was not included, you’ll need to acquire a small cleaning brush like those that come with electric razors. Make sure the bristles are hard so you can remove the tougher residue. Pipe cleaners or cotton swabs also work if you don’t have a brush.

Empty out the herb chamber of your vape and use the brush or pipe cleaner to remove plant matter and other residue build-up. If your vaporizer uses screens or mesh, gives these a nice brushing as well. After cleaning the heating chamber and mesh of your vape, use a pipe cleaner to clean the mouthpiece.

Finish your regular cleaning routine by wiping the mouthpiece and the outside of your vaporizer with alcohol wipes.

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HOW TO PERFORM A DEEP CLEANING

• Dry herb vaporizer

To thoroughly clean a dry herb vaporizer start by carefully taking your vape apart. Although dry herb vapes can differ depending on the make and model, they normally consist of common parts like a mouthpiece, battery, heating chamber, screens, and so forth.

Make sure to refer to your vape’s manual as it will normally have instructions on how to take the vaporizer apart for cleaning.

Shake and tap each part carefully to remove any trapped plant matter. Now, take the brush from the cleaning kit or use a pipe cleaner to remove any residue from the parts. Pay special attention to the herb chamber and mouthpiece as these two are crucial for the performance of your vape. If there is a screen inside the herb chamber, remove it and brush it off as well. A clogged screen is the most common reason for performance and taste issues.

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Following the treatment with the brush, use 99% isopropyl alcohol and a cotton swab or pipe cleaner to clean the herb chamber, the screens, and the mouthpiece. The alcohol should be able to get rid of even stubborn spots of residue that have built up.

Tip: If some parts of your vape are very encrusted and you can’t easily clean them, soak the part in 99% alcohol for about 20–30 minutes. Afterwards, rinse with clean water and dry using a paper towel. This works especially well for things like heavily encrusted screens, making them shine like new!

Now, take out the battery from your device and brush the battery and the battery chamber. As a final step, put your vaporizer back together and give it a final wipe on the outside.

• Concentrate vaporizer

Cannabis concentrates are particularly sticky, so cleaning concentrate vaporizers like the G Pen Connect or hybrid vapes like the Fenix vaporizer is especially important. The residue from concentrates can be quite stubborn, but nothing that you shouldn’t be able to handle with isopropyl alcohol and some cotton swabs.

Refer to your device’s manual and remove the parts for cleaning. Remove the mouthpiece and open the heating chamber. Take a cotton swab or a pipe cleaner and dip one end into isopropyl alcohol. When cleaning the heating chamber of a concentrate vaporizer, be extra careful. The chamber contains the heating coil, which is a very delicate part that can break if you apply too much pressure.

Carefully clean the heating chamber with the cotton swab. If needed, take a new swab and keep cleaning the chamber until there’s no more residue. Once the heating chamber is clean, move onto the mouthpiece. Be sure to also clean any other parts of your concentrate vape, such as glass tubes, filters, and metal screens if it has them (if some parts are very sticky, wipe each separately with an alcohol wipe or soak them in alcohol for half an hour).

Now, open the battery compartment, take out the battery, and carefully give it a wipe as well. Wait a few minutes until the alcohol has evaporated, then put your vaporizer back together.

• VAPE PEN

If you have a vaporizer pen, such as the Storm vaporizer, here is how to go about cleaning:

Start by carefully tapping your vape pen to dislodge and remove any herb that may have stuck to it. Do this over a desk as some vape pens may contain small parts like screens that you could easily lose. Now, open your vape pen as described in the instructions so you can access everything for easy cleaning.

Take the small brush that came with your vape pen or use a pipe cleaner to clean the inside of your vape pen. If your pen came with a removable heating chamber, take it out and clean the chamber separately.

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With vape pens, it is important that you clean the threads, as these can often hide plant matter and other types of residue. Take a cotton swab and dip it into rubbing alcohol. Take the heating chamber, flip it around, and clean the threaded tip of the chamber with the cotton swab. After you do a few rounds with the swab to clean out any gunk from the threading, turn the cotton swab around and dry the threading with the dry end. Take a new cotton swab, dip it in alcohol, and clean out any gunk from the other threads of your vape pen.

Now comes the part that can make the biggest difference in getting your vape pen back to top performance. Carefully take out any glass or metal screens and soak them in a small glass with isopropyl alcohol for 20–30 minutes. Afterwards, carefully polish the screens and allow them to dry. They should be like new now. Finally, put your vape pen back together. It should now perform just like on the day you got it!

Steven Voser

Steven Voser is an independent cannabis journalist with over 6 years of experience writing about all things weed; how to grow it, how best to enjoy it, and the booming industry and murky legal landscape surrounding it.

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