Proper vape maintenance is essential to vaping - you’ll get better flavour, longer vape life, and a generally more pleasant experience. In this quick guide, you’ll learn about how to clean your vape tank, and how to replace or clean your vape coils:
Disassembling Your Vape
To clean that vape, you’re going to have to get inside it. We’d love to give you a step-by-step guide in how to disassemble your vape, but that’s a tall order. Different vapes and mods are assembled a bit differently, but they’re almost always easy to take apart. Once you’ve got the tank out, you’ll want to drain out any excess liquid. You may also want to put the pieces of your vape neatly on a towel or other moisture-absorbent surface. Take pictures as you’re disassembling so you know exactly how to put everything back together.
Be careful about small components like O-rings - they’re easily lost but essential to the operation of your vape.
Clean Your Tank
Exactly how you’re going to clean your tank depends on how frequently you maintain your vape. Cleaning it at least once a week is an excellent idea; by doing this, you’ll skip out on some of the more heavy-duty cleaning. For an easy clean, all you need to do is fill a bowl with warm water, drop the tank in, and let it soak. Alternatively, put your tank under a faucet and run hot water through it for about 20-30 seconds.
Once you’ve washed out the tank, you can dry it with a paper towel or microfiber cloth. Afterwards, let it air dry. Do this once a week, and you shouldn’t have to engage in more intensive cleaning.
For those of you who have been neglecting your vape cleaning, don’t worry - we’ve got a technique for you. There are a wide variety of cleaners you can find around your house that might be up to the task: vinegar, propylene glycol, or (best of all), some high-proof vodka - so you can have a refreshment and clean your vape with the same stuff.
There are a few techniques you can use, but the simplest is probably to put your cleaning substance of choice in a bowl, put your tank in there, and let it soak for a while. Alternatively, you can just soak a rag in vodka and get to cleaning manually. Either way, you’ll want to rinse your vape afterwards very thoroughly with hot water, then follow the drying steps outlined above.
Cleaning Your Coil
The method you’ll use to clean your coil will greatly depend on what kind of coil you have: replaceable or rebuildable. Cleaning your vape coils is a great way to make the coils last longer. Replaceable coils are what come standard in most pre-assembled vapes, and while you can clean them, you really shouldn’t. The wicks on these things eventually just run out, and while cleaning might get you a few extra days out of it, you’re going to have to replace it sooner or later. If you really want to clean a replaceable wick, you can follow pretty much the exact steps that have already been discussed - let it soak in some high-proof vodka, rinse it off, air dry it (in this case, some method of forcing air like a fan or blow dryer can be helpful), then reinstall.
Rebuildable coils, on the other hand, can and should be cleaned regularly. You can use the dry burning process to do this. Make sure all the liquid has been removed from your vape and take the wick off of your coil. Fire up your mod and keep it lit until the coil burns red; keep in mind all kinds of gunk might start sputtering off the coil, so be careful. From there, remove your atomizer, run the coil under water, brush the coil with a coil brush or toothbrush, then go for a final dry burn to get rid of excess water.
We’ve got all kinds of coils available at our vape shop in Garden City, Winnipeg (and our other locations, too). Looking for some extra advice on how to do a deep clean of your vape? Come visit us and we can give you a hand.