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Nov 01 2019 0 Comments

how to clean vape tanks & coil

How to clean vape coil and tank the right way?

A perfect vaping experience relies on the question of how to clean the vape device. Vape juices do not stain atomizers, but sometimes collect residues and coil gunk. This undoubtedly affects the vape performance. A burnt taste often ruins the entire vaping experience. Now, a common question that comes to mind- what is the best way for cleaning vape coils?

Often using vegetable glycerin (VG) and dark e-juices leave notorious coil gunk. Oil gunk reduces both the flavor and vapor outcome. Often, changing the coil head won’t provide the best result as the leftover and tainted e-juice lingers in the flavor.

Few strong flavors, tobacco, coffee, cinnamon, menthol, melon or grape leave an essence in the tank long after vaping. Imagine trying a grape-flavored juice and getting a grape mixed tobacco flavor! These flavors don’t mix and you don’t want them to mix so why put yourself through that poor flavor experience.

Often vaping at a high wattage setting creates coil gunk. Chain vaping also causes coil gunk and dirty sub ohm coils. Again, using poor-quality e-liquid may also cause coil gunk. So, cleaning sub ohm coils becomes necessary.

New vape smell resembles machine oils. Proper cleaning helps you get rid of that smell. For long-term use and top-notch performance, you must depend on regular cleaning. Keeping the device and its parts clean allows maximum flavor on each hit.

Don’t know how to clean your vape device? Nothing to worry about. Cleaning the device is not a tough task. Proper knowledge, a little time and basic skills are enough to clean a vape device. The current post will guide you through the steps for the best way to clean coils.

What are the components to clean in a vape device?

Want to know how to clean atomizer coil? For cleaning RDA coils properly, understand the anatomy of the vape device. All the atomizers comprise of three main parts. Here are the items.

Drip tip: This is the top part of the mod. It is the mouthpiece vapers use for inhaling the vapor. The drip tip structure plays an important role in the final flavor outcome.

Tank lids: This covers the tank from the top. The lid connects the tank and the drip tip. The vapor goes through this portion to reach the drip tip.

The Tank: Tanks carry the e-liquid. It connects the coil and tank lid. Pour the e-liquid of your choice in the tank. The wick material soaks the liquid and burns to deliver the flavor.

The coil: Coil is the heating element that vaporizes the liquid to deliver those clouds we all love. The flavor largely depends on the coil quality. A poor coil condition results in a poor vaping experience.

The battery: The battery is the powerhouse of this unit. Battery power decides the warmth of the vape.

These are the primary components forming the vape device. Clean the rest of the parts, except the battery as there is no battery cleaning tool available.

Proper cleaning takes care of all flavor related worries and burnt flavor. These are the common components in all mods and sub-ohm tanks.

How to know if it is time to clean vape coils and tanks?

how to clean vape coils

Each time you are changing e-liquid flavor, rinse and clean the vape tank. Often the leftovers of the previous liquid leave a bad taste affecting the vaping experience. Make this a habit to clean the tank once a week. It will keep the vape in good condition, without tampering with the flavor delivery.

However, in case you are not getting the performance expected, conduct a full-scale cleaning. Proper cleaning ensures a better flavor outcome, always. Wondering how to clean my atomizer? Here are the ways.

What are the common cleaning techniques?

Before reading the ways to clean vape parts, know the common cleaning techniques for how to clean out a vaporizer. The current section points out the important techniques to clean the vape.

Liquid Cleaning

The most tried way of cleaning vape devices is using liquids. Liquids wash out the dirt and gunk without damaging the tank. Several liquids can clean the vape device. Vapers mostly use water for cleaning. However, other popular liquids for cleaning vape devices include alcohol, PG liquid, and Coca-Cola. Vapers often avoid Coca-Cola for its high acidic contents, which may damage the device.

Dry Burn

Another quick way of cleaning the coil is by a dry burn. Press the fire button for a few seconds until the coil glows red. The heat burns the gunk. Remove the gunk with the help of ceramic atomizers. In case you use a metal atomizer, ensure you don’t press the fire button, or it can cause a short circuit. The dry burn is useful especially when the coil is relatively new. However, it is not possible to remove a pile of gunk through the dry burn technique only.

Agitation

Agitation is an effective method of cleaning vape parts. To get the best cleaning, try ultrasonic vape cleaner or jewelry cleaner. No matter you are cleaning a coil head or only the wire, agitation method helps cleaning the coil parts perfectly.

You must put the different parts of your mod or pod in the container. The gentle agitation leaves the parts of the atomizer as clean and shiny as a new one.

How to clean vape tank?

tips to clean vape tank

Before cleaning the vape tank, you need to take the coil out. Assuming it is your first time, look carefully while detaching the tank and coil. Pay full attention to how things fit together. After separating the parts, use a towel or mat to keep all the small parts together. This prevent you from misplacing the parts and kicking yourself later.

Know how to assemble the tank while cleaning. This will save you a lot of time.

Here are ways to clean the tank.

The Standard Rinse

If you have a new tank and cleaning it within a week or two, use warm water. After dismantling the parts, place them under running warm water one by one. Dry it with a paper towel or a vape towel.

You can keep the parts soaked in the warm water overnight. Leave these pieces on the mat for air dry and If it is an old tank, not cleaned for a while; you will have to work a little harder.

Take a bowl and fill it with water. While placing the bowl in a microwave for a few minutes to warm, you can rinse the different vape parts under running water. Place it all in the warm water overnight.

The next morning, give the tank parts one last rinse and dry it using a paper towel. Use the parts only when they are completely dried. For speeding the drying process, us a blow dry on a warm setting.

Keep the O-rings separate while using the blow dryer since too much heat may damage the O-rings.

The PG Rinse

PG (propylene glycol) is another great solution to clean your vape tank. Fill a bowl with PG liquid and place all the parts in the bowl for a few hours. PG is a thin liquid and allows quick cleaning. Do not use any thick VG liquid as it will make the more cleaning difficult.

Let the tank soak with the PG liquid. Then keep all the parts on the napkin. The napkin will soak the rest of the liquid to keep it dry. It is an excellent method to get rid of the leftover flavor, as propylene glycol is an excellent flavor carrier.

Additional cleaning agent for rinse

In case of better results, use household cleaning agents to get a deep clean. Apply these cleaning agents on the parts thoroughly and leave the tank to dry. Here is the list of cleaning agents:

  • Baking soda is a great cleaning agent that can get the tanks sparkling.
  • Ethanol, known as grain alcohol, is yet another highly effective substance for cleaning. Don’t confuse this with Isopropyl alcohol which you should not use inside the tank. Cleaning coils with alcoholis effective and yields great results.
  • Vinegar is a good acidic cleaning agent but must be thoroughly rinsed to prevent its smell from lingering.
  • Cheap Vodka is not a household thing, but you can find it at the grocery store. It does the job and doesn’t cost much.
  • Few vapers use dish soap or lemon juice with water to clean the tank. However, rinse well. Often a lemonish taste and flavor may stay when you don’t rinse the product thoroughly.

Using an ultrasonic cleaner

An ultrasonic cleaner offers an effective and thorough cleaning. The cleaner cleans the vape tank and coils completely. People use this to clean precious things like jewelry and metals. Nowadays, vapers use it for cleaning the atomizers.

The ultrasonic vape cleaner offer a simple cleaning process. The cleaner comes with a mesh container. Place the vape parts together. Fill the cleaner reservoir with water. Add a few drops of dishwashing liquids in the cleaner for better results.

Next, set the time and switch on the button. With cleaning sub ohm coils, you can spot the dirt and gunk floating on the water. Then, pull out the container along with the vape parts. Place these on a paper towel and allow it to dry before using it.

The vape cleaner cleans with the power of ultrasonic sound waves and water. Its powerful sound waves teamed with the water, force the dirt and gunk out of the device. Few vapers add few drops of mild dishwashers to get a better result.

You can switch on the device and continue with other work. The cleaner does the cleaning on its own. Thus, using the Wotofo ultrasonic cleaner for coils saves your time. The ultrasonic cleaner removes the dirt from the RTAs, RDAs, Sub-Ohm Tanks. It cleans other metal objects, composites, and glass equipment with other tools, effectively.

How to clean a vape coil?

Cleaning the coil differs from cleaning a tank. It involves a somewhat complicated process. There are two types of the replaceable coil such as rebuildable coils and coil heads for tanks. Install the rebuildable coil and wick it properly before using it. The coil heads for tanks enclosed in a metal chamber contain the absorbent wick.

Let’s discuss the cleaning process of both the coils:

Rebuildable Coils

For the rebuildable coils, clean coils ensure an flavorful vaping. A coil full of gunk affects both flavor and vapor production. Following some simple steps, you can get back the coil as new in no time.

First, remove the wick from the coil. Look at the coil condition. Unless the condition horrible, the dry burn method will work. Press the fire button a few times until you remove all the residue liquids and gunk. Use a ceramic tweezer for a better result. You can remove the gunk even while pressing the fire button, as ceramic is a bad conductor.

After completing the cleaning, let the coil cool, and re-wick it before use.

If you have used the coil for a long time without cleaning it, the dry hit process will not work. For deep cleaning, you need to use the following tricks.

  • Remove the wick from coils
  • Give light dry burns to your coils
  • Set apart the atomizer from the mod
  • Keep it under running water
  • Use a brush toothbrush or metal wire brush lightly to clean it deeply

Again, rinse it once. Keep the coils to dry completely.

Using mild dishwasher helps clean the coils. You may use it while brushing the coil. However, rinse it thoroughly with hot water after cleaning.

After a complete cleaning, if you find the flavor unsatisfactory or insignificant, replace the coil. Proper cleaning increases the longevity of the coil. Frequent use at high temperatures often reduces the coil life span. Thus, while using the coil, a vaper must look at the other factors, too.

Replaceable Coils

It is possible to clean the replaceable coils that come with the sub ohm tanks and clearomizers. It is not as effective as cleaning the rebuildable coils. However, a good cleaning will give you more days to enjoy the same old coil head.

Due to the presence of the wick in the tank head, it does not get cleaned properly. Allow the water to go through the coil head tank and remove the residue. But it fails to completely clean the coil head. Further, water takes longer to evaporate because of the wick. Overall, it is not as simple as the rebuildable coils.

Still here are the steps that you can take to clean the tank’s heads.

  • Let the coil soak in ethanol or vinegar for overnight
  • Hold it under the running water and rinse.
  • Again, rinse it with distilled water
  • Blow air on the open side of the coil forcing the water out through the wicking holes.
  • Keep it aside until the water evaporates

However, keep them under the sun or use a heater for quick drying. After cleaning, you will get a better-looking wick but obviously not like a new one.  

Cleaning extends the life and performance of the coil, but eventually you need to change it. It is one of the downsides of the replaceable coil heads.

How to clean vape pen?

Don’t use mods or sub ohm tank? Still using the old vape pens? No matter what, every vaper wants to know the ways to clean the coil. Cleaning a vape pen becomes easy if it comes with a detachable tank. Simply, follow the vape tank cleaning method for cleaning it.

Along with the tank, cleaning the battery is also important. You cannot use water to clean the batteries. You need a soft piece of cloth for everyday maintenance. To remove stains, use a wet towel. During cleaning make sure water doesn’t enter the button or the charging port. There is no battery cleaning tool available.

The vape pen starter kits with the one-piece design, are difficult to clean. Electronic items don’t go well with water. Thus, cleaning such starter kits by rinsing can go wrong at any point. Using the Q-tip is the best safe and easy way to clean the AIO vape pens. Dip the Q-tip in the propylene glycol (PG) or distilled water to soak and wipe the inside of the tank section thoroughly. Repeat the same with a dry Q-Tip for a better result. Here are the quick tips to get rid of the gunk.

Quick Vape Maintenance tips

vape maintenance tips

Now you know all the ways to clean a vape tank. You also discovered the ways to get rid of coil gunk. Vapers must have proper knowledge of vape tank maintenance if they plan to enjoy their vape experience. Making mistakes and learning from these mistakes can turn a novice vaper to a pro vaper. However, learning these pro tips on caring for vape devices will maximize your device performance.

Look for these quick tips:

Maintain proper e-liquid level

Do not let the tank run dry. Make sure your atomizer has enough e-liquid for vaping. Dry hit often increases the coil gunk. Further, while filling the tank, don’t overfill it. Overfilling causes vape leakage and can ruin the vaping experience.

Keep the e-juice in a proper environment

Never expose the e-liquid to any extreme temperature. Never keep the e-liquid under direct sunlight. Too much heat may reduce the thickness of the liquid and can hamper the flavor. Heat exposure also reduces vapor production. The e-juice doesn’t deliver the expected hit. So, store the juice properly.

Keeping the vaporizer safe

When you are not using the vaporizer, store it in a safe place. It reduces the chance of misplacing. Buy a case for your atomizer and keep it there. You can buy WOTOFO Vape Carry Case for your atomizer. It has enough space to contain additional tools for coil building. Use this case when you are not using the device and when traveling.

Closing Words

The current post discusses the ways of cleaning the vape coil and tank. Compromising on the flavor or vapor acts as a huge setback for any vaper. A dirty tank or coil gunk can exactly do the same. Thus, having a clean atomizer is important to ensure a great vaping experience.

Having gone through this post, you now know the different components of a vape device that require cleaning. You’ve learned how to clean the vape tank, atomizer, vape coil, and even vape pen to maximize your vaping experience. You have multiple options for cleaning your vape tanks and coils now. Starting from using basic water rinse to an ultra-sonic cleaner, you have a range of choices.

Cleaning coils and tanks is essential to have a fantastic vaping experience. A dirty coil or tank affects the flavor and vapor both. For cleaning a vape device, know the different parts and the ways of cleaning properly. Note, using the wrong cleaning method may damage the device permanently. So, it is better to use the proper ways listed above.

Cleaning vape coils and tanks may appear as a strenuous job, but it is not. Knowing the right way to do things always helps and makes the process go smoother. We hope that after going through this post, you can now clean your device with confidence.

Before concluding, this post is written by keeping all vapers in mind who are relatively new to the culture. We hope that you guys enjoyed. Your suggestions and recommendations help us improve to serve you better.

Do you want to add anything to the list? Or you have something interesting to share? Feel free to share it with us in the message box. We’re happy to hear you about your experience.
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