How to Clean a Vape Pen

Cannabis-filled vape pens are an innovative story. Just as growing weeds indoors has changed everything about the way weeds are grown, technology has given us a new, discreet, and efficient way to consume them—a kind of digital pre-roll.

In many states where legal cannabis is legal, you can purchase ready-to-use concentrate-filled pens or pre-loaded cartridges to attach to your own battery. Vape pens can satisfy just about any cannabis consumer – from live resin vapes, with floral flavors and quality; to stripped-down, THC-focused, candy-flavored pens—but only when they work.

Because there are tradeoffs to the overall convenience of vape cartridges and pens: dead batteries, clogged mouthpieces, and split formulas are some of the occasional roadblocks to dragging a puff just about anywhere you like. The pleasures of portable, discreet marijuana are many, but sometimes you need to troubleshoot an incompatible device. Here’s how to do it.

Why vape devices get clogged in the first place

Vapes are a relatively new innovation, and for now, the process of supplying cannabis oil to a heat source poses several challenges for devices such as disposable carts that need to be overcome.

We asked Tanner Terry, product manager for Timeless Vapes, to shed some light on the mechanics and why vapes clog so often. “[Clogging] happens because the coil remains warm after you smoke, which continues to melt the distillate and draw it into the coil and airways,” he noted. “Once the distillate enters the airway of the cartridge, it cools…and solidifies.”

One of the main anti-clogging measures is to perform the last ghost stroke while the pen is still warm from your last stroke, without pressing the button, to make sure that the residual goo is removed before it has time to harden.

While this is a generally reliable method, there are a few caveats to note. First, this is not possible with buttonless vape models that only heat up when you inhale unless you quickly disconnect the cart from the battery, and also not possible with fully assembled disposable models where the parts are permanently connected.

The vaping technology of the future may solve these problems, but until then, if the ghost punch method doesn’t work, you need to get a little more creative.

The easiest way to clean a vape cartridge or pen

Still busy? Terry suggested another low-fi method to induce a stoppered cart to open: “Place the cartridge between your hands and roll it around to create heat and friction so that it eventually enters your airway, allowing the mouthpiece to retract freely.” He said.

Other, faster methods of gentle heating will work, so get a hair dryer, set it to low power, and point it at the cartridge until the blockage clears. Or, as one savvy Redditor suggested , seal it in a sandwich bag and soak it in very warm water for a few minutes. Using a toothpick or other thin object (maybe a SIM card key) to get into the mouthpiece opening is another tried and true method, but it doesn’t always work.

Coin-cell batteries will give you extra protection against clogs – with a button design, you can just hold it down for a few seconds as the higher temperature sometimes breaks down the clog and allows you to clear it the next time you press it.

Still busy? Here are a few more strategies worth trying.

When Your Vape Really Clogged

If the cleaning tips above don’t work, try connecting the cartridge to a different, fully charged battery—sometimes the threads don’t quite match or one model works better with one cartridge than another.

If that fails, some stores will accept the clogged cartridge as a return, depending on government regulations, or you can contact the brand directly. Unfortunately, no matter what you try to do, there will be times when you end up with an almost full and completely uncooperative cart. That’s when you need to take drastic measures: remove the top and scoop out the rest of the concentrate.

You can weigh, decarboxylate, and cook with this sticky mass, or try spreading it on roll paper or coating bowls and knuckles with it. If the pen content is of sufficient quality, try another device such as an electronic nail or a micro pen. (Really want to pinch every penny? You can do it with the remains of nearly empty carts too.)

Switch to micro-dabbing

For some frustrated stoners, re-clogging becomes really tiring, prompting them to go back to the pre-cartridge era method of using a micro pen to dispense self-loading concentrates like an on-demand vape pen – devices like GPen’s Micro+ offer better temperature control . and a design that makes the device significantly cleaner than decades-old models.