Dab straws are small, handheld vaporizers designed for use with cannabis concentrates such as wax, shatter, and oil. They typically consist of a glass or quartz tube with a narrow opening on one end and a heating element on the other.
Dab straws have become popular among cannabis users. They are relatively easy to use, affordable, and portable.
People love dab straws because out of all the different types of concentrate vaporizers, they’re among the easiest to use if portability isn’t a concern for you. To use one, all you need to do is turn the device on and touch the heating element to the material that you want to vaporize.
Unlike other types of concentrate vaporizers, a dab straw doesn’t require you to reload or replace your cartridge constantly. It’s also a very clean way to vape because you don’t have to worry about leaks.
With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder that top vaporizer makers like Rokin Vapes sell plenty of dab straws. No matter what type of vaporizer you use, though, maintaining your device is incredibly important – and your biggest maintenance task will always be keeping your device clean.
If you don’t clean your dab straw periodically, you’re not going to have a good experience. Reading this article, you’re going to learn everything you need to know about cleaning a dab straw. First, though, why is it so important to keep your device clean?
Why Is Cleaning a Dab Straw So Important?
You can use a dab straw for quite a while without cleaning it, but you’ll find that the experience will be much better – and the device will ultimately last longer – if you clean your dab straw after every few sessions.
Over time, resins and other contaminants collect on every part of your vaporizer – and if you don’t remove those contaminants, it’ll hurt the device’s performance in a few ways.
The residue will collect on the device’s heating nail. Since it’ll eventually cover much of the nail’s surface, the nail will become less efficient and will draw more power from your device’s battery when you vape. Ultimately, it’ll shorten your device’s life.
The residue on your dab straw’s nail won’t just make the nail less efficient – it’ll also hurt the device’s flavor quality because the residue will smolder every time you vape. Instead of tasting the delicious terpenes in your expensive oil or wax, you’ll just taste the burnt flavor of the residue.
The residue will also collect in your dab straw’s vapor path. Over time, the residue will become so thick that it blocks the airflow and makes it difficult for you to inhale through the device.
Most importantly, cleaning your dab straw periodically is important because it prevents cleaning from ever becoming too difficult.
If you use a dab straw for several months without cleaning it, it’ll become so dirty that restoring the device’s original performance and flavor will require extensive work. On the other hand, if you make cleaning your dab straw a regular part of your vaping routine, your device will continue to work and taste like new as long as you own it.
How to Clean Your Dab Straw’s Heating Nail
When you want to clean your dab straw, the first thing that you should do is disassemble the device completely. An electronic dab straw can have many different designs, and we’ll attempt to cover every possible scenario in this guide.
The heating nail is the key component of your dab straw because it’s the component that actually heats your concentrate and generates the vapor. As we mentioned above, a dirty nail is a serious problem because it affects your device’s flavor quality and performance – so it’s important to keep it as clean as possible.
If your dab straw has a removable metal or ceramic nail, it’s very easy to clean it – you can simply soak the nail in a bowl of rubbing alcohol for an hour or two and then rinse away any remaining residue.
Alcohol is an extremely effective solvent and will quickly dissolve the sticky residues from your herbal extracts. Save the alcohol because you may also want to use it to clean your device’s other removable components.
If your dab straw’s nail isn’t removable, it’s helpful to have some alcohol-cleaning wipes handy.
With a wipe, you can simply rub the residue off of the nail. Many vape shops sell cleaning wipes for exactly this purpose. If you don’t have any cleaning wipes handy, you can clean your device’s nail with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.
If you use alcohol or any other liquid to clean your dab straw’s nail and other components, allow those components to dry completely before you use your device again.
How to Clean Your Dab Straw’s Vapor Path and Bubbler
If your dab straw has a vapor path and/or bubbler made from glass, there’s a good chance that those components are removable.
If that’s the case, cleaning those components is easy because you can soak any glass component in a bowl of rubbing alcohol, just as you’d do with a removable heating nail. After an hour or two, rinse the components in fresh water to remove any remaining residue.
The cleaning process is a little different for your dab straw’s non-removable components because you can’t immerse an electronic device in liquid. In this case, you can clean those components with a cotton swab or pipe cleaner dipped in alcohol.
Your dab straw may also include a cleaning brush that fits into your dab straw’s vapor path.
How to Clean the Body of Your Dab Straw
When it’s time to clean the main body of your dab straw, we must stress again that you should never immerse any electronic device in liquid – so you can’t dip or soak your device in alcohol as you can with removable glass, metal, and ceramic components.
If your device’s vapor path is entirely removable, that’s not a problem because the main body of your device shouldn’t have any residue on it. You can simply remove any stains and fingerprints with a soft cloth.
If your device uses threaded attachments, you can clean the threading using a cotton swab dampened slightly with rubbing alcohol. After cleaning the threading, use a dry cotton swab to remove any remaining alcohol.
Make sure that the threading is completely dry before using the device again.