I’m no stranger to a yellow tinted bubbler. With regular usage, your E-Rig is bound to collect excess wax. This built up wax can degrade the components of your E-Rig, reducing the shelf life of your precious device.
This guide will dive deep into how you can make cleaning your E-Rig a total breeze! While the process can seem daunting, if you know what you’re doing and have the right tools, it’s not nearly as hard as you would think!
What you need:
- Zeus Purify Solution, or Isopropyl Alcohol
- Warm Water
- Zeus Grime Sticks, or cotton swabs
- Wire Cleaning Brush
- Two Containers
- Paper Towels
How to Clean an E-Rig:
Before you begin, I recommend reading the entire post, as it contains several warnings about cleaning methods that could potentially damage your unit. At all costs, avoid getting water anywhere near the base of the unit, or the battery connectors
To start, disassemble your E-Rig. This typically involves removing your atomizer and bubbler from the base of the unit. Fill your container with 60% ISO, and 40% warm water, and saturate your cotton swab with this solution. Let the ISO dry off completely for ten minutes, and your atomizer is good to go! WARNING! DO NOT SCRAPE YOUR ATOMIZER WITH A HARD TOOL. Doing this can potentially crack the ceramic on your atomizer, rendering it useless. If your bucket is particularly caked up, running your dab rig on empty at the lowest temperature will loosen up any hardened material. After waiting for it to cool for about a minute, you can scrunch up a dry paper towel and wipe away the excess. DO NOT SOAK YOUR ATOMIZER , as this can damage electrical components. If your device has a dry herb atomizer, like the Focus V Carta 2, you can kill two birds with one stone!
To clean your bubbler, fill it with your warm water ISO solution, and allow it to sit for anywhere from ten to thirty minutes. Once the caked on wax is loose, you can use a wire cleaning brush to get into all the nooks and crannies. A wire cleaning brush is very handy for E-Rigs with smaller openings, like the Focus V Carta 2.
AVOID USING HOT/BOILING WATER! Hot water runs the risk of cracking your bubbler, rendering your E-Rig useless. Some of you might be wondering: what about the salt method, like you would with a water pipe? The problem is that it’s not a one size fits all solution. Devices with small openings, like the Focus V Carta 2, aren’t big enough for large granules of salt.
All that’s left is your carb cap, which can be wiped down the same way as your atomizer was. Rigs like the Crossing Core 2.1, allow for the carb cap to be easily removed and replaced, making clean up less of a hassle, something worth considering when choosing an E-Rig.
Rinse and Dry:
While it seems obvious, rinsing and drying is essential to cleaning and your personal safety.
To rinse your dried atomizer, wet a paper towel with water and wipe your bowl before leaving it to dry on a new paper towel.
To rinse your dried bubbler, simply fill and empty the glass before placing it upside down on a dry paper towel to air dry. I usually do a few rinses under the sink, to be absolutely sure.
Enjoy!:
You are now ready to reassemble your now sparkly E-Rig! We recommend running a session with your bowl empty, to burn off any leftover residue. You only get two lungs, so we seriously advise taking any and all measures to protect them!
Why Clean at All?:
We get it, the last thing you want to think about after ripping a bowl is cleaning. While admittedly daunting, cleaning your E-Rig regularly has a myriad of benefits.
For starters, your E-Rigs components will last far longer, saving you money. Waxy gunk and small electrical components don’t get along well, and enough built up gunk can sneak up on you to render your rig useless.
Regular cleaning of your E-Rig will also help in keeping the good flavors in, and bad flavors out. Built up residue, or “reclaim”, is left over wax that gets left in your device. Enthusiasts are advised against using reclaim, as the already burnt materials create a more harsh hit.
It also makes sharing your E-Rig with friends a better experience for everyone! We all know that feeling of despair when handed a crusty brown water pipe. I’m no water pipe snob, but I have felt my fair share of guilt when handing friends MY crusty brown water pipe. Some e rigs come with features that remove some of the hassles of cleaning your device. The Utillian 8 went above and beyond by reducing the amount of cleaning needed as well as providing features that help your e rig look clean for longer. They added features like a tinted bubbler, terp pearls that reduce wax puddles, and a multi-tool that removes the need for multiple sticky tools.
And that’s our guide on how to clean an E-Rig! If you are a wax enthusiast like myself, chances are you also own a wax pen. If that needs cleaning, check out our how to clean a wax pen post.
