How To Open A Stuck Vape Tank?

Over tightening your vape tank does not necessarily result in better attachment or performance; all that it can do is cause problems when you want to detach it from its position. Your tank can get stuck from two positions – where the tank is attached to the vape or at the point where the tank is connected with the coil/atomizer.

The remedy depends on the type of problem you’re experiencing. You can use different methods to solve it, but you must be careful to avoid breaking the tank. You’re advised to take all your stresses and steam on something else, relax, and then come back to fix the problem.

Vapes are always great until you realize that they require constant maintenance. As you use your device and add vape flavor regularly, the reservoir (tank) suffers from the remnants left by vape flavors.

This may result in an array of problems like a leaking and overheating tank, burnt taste, as well as a jammed or stuck tank. A jammed tank is one of the worst experiences you’ll never wish to encounter. It usually occurs as a result of over-tightening, bad threading, or incapacity to perfectly grip the vape tank and swivel it open.

For most of us, the obvious things we do when we tinker with our vapes are refilling when the tank dries, cleaning, charging dead batteries, and changing faulty batteries. For those who have been in the game for some time, we rebuild our own coils, and this can be included in the list. But at other times, we need to detach the whole tank and atomizer for “general” cleaning.

At this point, things might not be as rosy as you would have expected when it happens that you have a jammed vape tank. No matter how strong your swivel and turn, the thing just won’t dislodge. Here, you get soaked in sweat and pitch curses, but nothing happens. When this happens, don’t stress yourself, there’re plenty of solutions to your problem.

There’re a number of reasons why your tank is stuck. They include:

If you have a “muscular” pair of hands, and can firmly grip the tank, then you’re good to go. Take note that a vape tank is fragile and should be handled with a lot of care. You should only apply pressure to the right part of the vape tank. Besides, numerous tools can help you open a jammed vape tank:

This is probably the easiest way of separating a jammed vape tank from your mod. Here, you can use a non-stick piece of cloth, even a chamois cloth will do a good job, grip your vape tank and twiddle it off. Additionally, a pretty old, rough, and stiff cloth has a better “grippiness” as newer ones might be a bit sleeper.

While it may appear strange and irrelevant to use computer devices in a completely different environment, a mouse pad can do an exemplary great job when opening a jammed vape tank. What’s of much importance is its sticky bottom which aids in holding the vape tank firmly. Besides, the pad protects your hands from all sorts of pinching or friction when opening the stuck tank. These pads come in handy, particularly for people who spend much of their time on the computer.

Whereas you might have been thinking cleaning gloves are only meant to protect your hands when cleaning, they can equally work in a much similar way as a mouse pad to open your jammed vape tank. In these cases, they enable you to firmly hold your tank, with a tighter grip. In fact, they allow you to open and unscrew the tank very quickly. Besides, cleaning gloves offer you a great deal of motion as their material (rubber) is built with manual dexterity.

Also known as a vape band, a rubber band is a great option as it’s ultra-portable. It works similarly to cleaning gloves and mouse pads to prevent unnecessary friction from being exerted on your hands. Also, you can try rubberized jar openers to unscrew jammed tanks.

When you’re out and about and you would like to take your vape tank off the mod to clean it or replace it and fit it jammed, obviously you won’t have a non-stick, a mouse pad, nor a pair of cleaning gloves. In such a situation, you’ll be forced to use an archaic tap trick. Can you recall how mothers used to open jammed bottle lids, slightly hitting the cap against the edge of a table? That’s what we mean by ”Ol Tap and Twist.” You give the vape tank some hits against whatever solid surface you find and twist it. But you must do it carefully. Don’t hit the glass or use extreme force when tapping. You’re trying to solve a problem, not to create another one. Although the Ol Tap and Twist isn’t an effective way, it works when done properly.

Some people use Channellock pliers to unstick their jammed vape tanks. These pliers come in handy and do a pretty good job. However, it’s recommended to only use these kinds of tools if you truly understand how to use them. Otherwise, you may end up messing with the grip and breaking the precious glass, making the whole process wasteful. Here, understanding or calculating how much force should be used is extremely important. But it’s worth noting that the pliers’ method is probably one of the best and most effective solutions because there are only a few things a pair of pliers can't pry twirl.

For critically jammed vape tanks, where all the above-mentioned methods/tools fail, you might be forced to whip out a WD-40 can. Here, all you need is to spray some aerosol between the vape and tank to remove the dried vape flavor that most likely causes the jamming. Leave it for fifteen minutes, use a clean piece of cloth to dry it off, and then use any of the above methods. Chances are it will work this time.

If your vape tank is jammed from being stuck by sugary vape flavor residue that has grown into a crust, the hot water method can be a formidable solution. All you need is to run the vape tank under falling hot water for some minutes, two to five at most. If you’re using a mechanical mod (mech mod) remove the batteries and submerge your mod in a mixture of hot water and vinegar. Now, don’t mistake “hot water” for boiling water. The latter can break your vape tank. With the hot water, you could still use your hand under the water. Theoretically, the hot water should melt the sugary crusts formed by vape flavor leaks making your vape tank and mod non-detachable.

After five or so minutes, you should be able to unscrew the tank from the mod. If hot water fails to solve the problem, we can associate the jamming with sources other than vape flavor residues.

Note: Always ensure the vape tank is wiped up to dry before opening. Otherwise, it may slip off your hands and break. All that investment would be gone!

In some cases, the vape may not only be stuck to the mod but also the batteries. This is way riskier because any botched solution would mean replacement with an entirely new tank. When trying to open a vape tank stuck to vape batteries, be extra careful not to destroy the tank and the mod altogether.

Now, before grabbing your vape tank with that rough piece of cloth, mouse pad, cleaning rubber gloves, or pair of pliers among other methods, there are steps you need to follow:

1. Switch off your vape
2. Remove the batteries (for vapes with external batteries)
3. Check whether the vape tank and mounting plate are intact. If the tank is broken, that might be the cause of the jamming. Also, if the mounting plate is damaged, it could have caused the tank to rotate as if it was being unscrewed, without actually disconnecting it from the mod. The damage could have caused huge breakage within the device, a problem that should be fixed by replacing the whole system with a new vape.
4. If your device is intact, wipe it with a clean piece of cloth to dry. Sometimes the vape tank requires little extra force to unscrew it from the mod. Use either a rubber band or mouse pad to enhance the grip. Only resort to hard (metallic) tools like pliers as a last-case scenario, since they can cause larger breakage to your mod.
5. Prepare to restore or repair some parts. If your vape tough is tightly jammed, it will require more extra torque to release it from the mod. So prepare for the fragile parts to shatter in the process of detaching the tank. If the problem is irresolvable, you may be torn between acquiring an entirely new vape and breaking some part(s) to separate them.

Take note that when you’re opening a stuck vape tank, you’re handling glass. Therefore, you must be extra careful. Also, wearing some kind of protective gloves is recommended to avoid breaking your skin or cutting your hand should the tank break. If all of the described methods fail, you can seek assistance from experienced mates, or visit the nearby vape store to find if someone can help you.

It is advisable to choose the right tank for your vape for a better vaping experience. Opening a stuck vape tank can be a disgusting experience, but, luckily there are simple ways of doing it that have a high probability of working. Therefore, a stuck vape tank does not automatically mean that you should buy an entirely new tank.