Keep Your Vape Gear Clean!

We all know that keeping your vape gear clean can be a pain sometimes. From the tips that need regular scrubbing to the tanks that constantly need to be checked for cracks and leaks, it can be pretty easy to lose track of what needs to be cleaned and when. But it cannot be stressed enough that keeping your vape gear clean is the best way to make sure your favorite pieces stay usable and functional for their full, intended lifespan.

Vape parts are meant to be kept clean. Even though designers and creators attempt to make parts in such a way that they mostly stay clean, it usually ends up that at least some parts must get dirty. For example, take the tanks of more expensive vaproziers and MODs. Many of them are clear so you can see the level at which your e-liquid is. But fairly quickly, e-liquid can start to stain and fog up the surface. It’s not as if companies purposefully design their tanks to fog up like this - it’s simply a chemical reaction that cannot be avoided with current technology. While this example may just be a cosmetic one, there are many more practical benefits to cleaning out various parts of your vape. Excess amounts of buildup on certain parts of your device can actually damage the device over time. 

Think of this like rust on your car. A tiny bit of scratched-off paint from your car is just a minor inconvenience. However, over time that tiny scratch will develop rust. That rust will spread, and become rampant. This ultimately causes more damage than you can deal with, and it would have been significantly easier if you had just dealt with the scratch in the first place. Cleaning early and often is equivalent to maintaining your car’s upkeep. 

One of the most critical components of your device that should regularly be cleaned, no matter what type of device you have, is the atomizer. This also pertains to clearomizers, or any other design that can have water run through it to clean it. Simply run hot water over and in the atomizer to remove excess stickiness. This stickiness is caused by one of two chemical processes inherent to e-liquids. The first is sugars crystallizing out of liquid. Since many juices are designed to be sweet, these flavors include many sugar molecules. As sugar molecules heat up and then rapidly cool down, they have a tendency to start forming into a latticed shape. This shape forms large crystals, and the process is exponential. As crystals get larger, more sugars will be attracted to the lattice. Therefore, these crystals build up quickly and form fairly large and sticky masses. The other reason stickiness tends to occur is due to excessive heat on the coils. This can cause liquid to char on the coil itself, and this will be simultaneously sticky and damaging to the coil itself. It’s imperative that you regularly clean both your coils and your tank, as stickiness on either of these can be potentially damaging to your device.

One other part you always want to keep clean is the tip. Tips will harbor potentially nasty bacteria due to your mouth or fingers constantly being on or near it. Though bacteria are generally helpful or at least neutral, there’s always the chance that something absolutely terrible could just hop onto the tip just by happenstance. Your mouth harbors seven different species of Streptococcus, each kept in a specific balance to be helpful to your body. When in a different environment, one species could outcompete the others. Then these could re-enter your mouth, causing a total shift in the bacteria in your mouth. While this is extremely unlikely to happen, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. To clean off a tip, just remove it from the rest of the device. Run hot water over it, and wipe down with a soft cloth while making sure you scrub all the nooks and crannies. If you want to be extra careful, dab a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol on a cloth and apply gently, then rinse with water. The ethanol will kill off almost all bacteria, and you’ll be good to go.

Keeping your vape clean will ensure both safety and comfort. It’s healthy for you and healthy for the device, as keeping parts clean will definitely help to increase the lifespan of your device. Don’t slack on cleaning, and your device will make sure that your vaping experiences stay as good as they can possibly be.