A dry herb vaporizer is a big investment regardless of how much or how little it costs. And as with all investments, you will want to protect it for as long as possible. This means making sure to clean it on a regular basis to ensure that it always operates like it was brand new.
Cleaning your vaporizer is a pretty straightforward process that is essentially the same for every type of dry herb vaporizer. However, the design of some vaporizers can have an effect on the ease or difficulty of the cleaning process.
Related: Best dry herb vaporizers of [year]
Why Do I Need To Keep My Vape Clean?
Keeping your weed vape clean ensures that it will keep working at its peak efficiency for a very long time. Not only that, but every time you use your dry herb vaporizer, the vapor it produces will be of the highest quality as well. Those are just two of the reasons why you want, or rather, that you need to keep your dry herb vaporizer clean. Here are some of the problems that you can expect if you don’t keep your weed vape clean.
You Can’t Fill The Oven To Capacity – If you don’t clean out the herb chamber of your weed vape on the regular, then residue from previous sessions will get built up over time. This can prevent you from completely filling up the chamber in subsequent sessions.
The Vapor Quality Will Be Affected (In a Bad Way) – An unclean oven can also affect the vapor quality since the residue from previous bowls will get mixed up with the fresh herb from your current bowl. This can be especially problematic if the fresh herb and the residue are two different strains.
Your Herb Won’t Get Completely Vaporized – The built-up residue can prevent your fresh herb from being evenly vaporized. That is because some of that residue can block the heat from the oven, which means uneven heating, which means poor vapor quality.
Related: When to replace herb in vaporizer oven?
The Airflow Might Get Affected – It’s not just the oven that can have problems, the vapor path can get gunked up with residue too. If that happens, the airflow can become restricted, which can increase the draw resistance. A more difficult inhale is the last thing that anyone wants when they vape.c
As you can see, the problems of not keeping your vape clean are all pretty detrimental to the vaping experience in a lot of different ways.
How Often Should I Clean It?
As often as possible. But more specifically, you should clean out the residue and debris after every session. You don’t need to give it a thorough scrubbing, a quick clean is all that you need.
However, you will want to give it a thorough scrubbing every ten to twenty sessions. This involves a deeper clean and more accessories than the brief post-session cleaning of course.
How To Clean Your Dry Herb Vaporizer
As you’ve likely noticed by now, the herb chamber and the mouthpiece are the parts of the weed vape that need to be cleaned regularly. You don’t need to know how they work, but you do need to take care of them, here’s how you do that.
Cleaning The Herb Chamber
First of all, you should follow the instruction manual of your vape for specific cleaning instructions, these are more generalized instructions that can work with most dry herb vaporizers. Next, it’s better if you clean the oven while it is still warm. That is because any leftover residue will still be soft and pliable, if you wait too long, then it will harden and be much more difficult to clean. For a quick post-session cleaning, just empty out the cashed herb and run a cleaning brush around the oven. For a more detailed cleaning, you should do the following:
- Empty out the cashed herb from the oven, making sure to get all the stray buds.
- Get a small cleaning brush with firm bristles and brush it around the oven to clear up any loose detritus.
- Use the cleaning brush to clean the mouthpiece screen as well.
- Once the herb chamber has been emptied and brushed, wipe it down with a cotton swab that has been dipped in isopropyl alcohol.
- Wait for the herb chamber to dry before covering it up or using it again.
Cleaning The Mouthpiece/Vapor Path
It’s important to keep the mouthpiece clean on both the inside and the outside. Cleaning the inside will prevent it from getting clogged and increasing the draw resistance. Cleaning the outside prevents the buildup of germs and bacteria which is beneficial for obvious reasons. Some vaporizers have glass mouthpieces which tend to be wider and easier to clean than mouthpieces made from plastic or rubber.
To clean the outside of any type of mouthpiece, you can wipe it down with warm water or iso alcohol. To clean the inside of glass mouthpieces, you should use a cleaning brush to scrub down its inner surface. A more thorough cleaning requires the use of a q-tip or cotton swab that has been dipped in iso alcohol. You just use the swab or q-tip to wipe down the inner surface. You can also submerge the entire mouthpiece in a bowl or dish filled with iso alcohol for about an hour or two.
For other types of mouthpieces, the first thing you need to do is remove it from the vaporizer and forcefully blow into it to remove any detritus. To clean the inside even more thoroughly, you should run a cleaning brush around its inner surface. If the mouthpiece is too narrow for a cleaning brush, then you can use a toothpick or a pick tool instead. You can also place the vaporizer under high-pressure running water to dislodge any stuck-on debris. If you do use this method, then make sure that the mouthpiece is completely dry before you use it again.
Low Maintenance vs High Maintenance Vaporizers
If you want to keep your dry herb vape clean without expending too much effort, then it is advised that you get one that is relatively low maintenance. Vaporizers where the mouthpiece and vapor path are one and the same are the easiest to clean since you only need to worry about one component. Some examples of weed vapes like that are the Venty, Crafty +, Mighty+, or the Arizer Solo 2 Max. In fact, with the Crafty/Mighty, you can just replace the entire mouthpiece and vapor path instead of cleaning it.
Vaporizers where the vapor path and mouthpiece are separated from each other take longer to clean, though they aren’t necessarily more difficult to clean. Vaporizers like the DaVinci IQ2 or Firefly 2+ are like that. Keep in mind that taking a long time to clean doesn’t mean that a vaporizer is bad since there are other factors that have an effect on a vaporizer’s quality. It’s up to you to decide whether a weed vape being high or low maintenance is a big deal for you.
