How to Properly Maintain and Clean Your Vaping Device

If you want any electronic device to work as well as it can, you’ve got to maintain it and keep it clean – and that’s as true of your vaping device as it is with the other gadgets and appliances that you use. If you want your vape to last as long as it can and deliver top-quality flavour with every puff, you’ve got to keep it in good condition.

Cleaning your vaping device periodically is also important for hygiene. If you’re a full-time vaper, your vaping device probably spends more time in your mouth than any other item you own. If you don’t keep the tank or pod clean, it could begin to harbour microbes. Keeping your vape clean will help to prevent that from happening.

There’s an incredibly wide variety of different vaping devices on the market today, ranging from tiny cigarette-shaped cigalikes to large and powerful vape mods. Each type of device requires a slightly different cleaning procedure – and in this article, we’re going to explain them all.

This is your complete guide to cleaning and maintaining any type of vaping device.

How to Clean a Disposable Vape

One of the great things about using disposable vapes is that they’re incredibly convenient and typically require no maintenance; disposable vapes generally don’t last long enough to get particularly dirty. If you do need to clean a disposable device, you can simply wipe away any dust or fingerprints with a soft cloth.

If your disposable vape is rechargeable, the charging port may occasionally become contaminated with lint. You can clean the charging port on a disposable vape – or any other type of vaping device with USB-based charging – by removing dust and lint with a toothpick.

How to Clean a Cigalike

Since a cigalike has a battery that’s rechargeable and reusable, it requires a little more maintenance than a disposable vape because you can conceivably continue using the same battery for many months before it stops holding a charge. Cleaning an e-cigarette is easy, though – and you generally don’t have to worry about cleaning your refill cartridges because they’ll only last a day or two.

Like any other vaping device, you can clean the outside of a cigalike by wiping it gently with a soft cloth. You may also want to clean your device’s threading periodically – especially if a cartridge has leaked. You can clean your e-cigarette’s threading by inserting a dry cotton swab and pushing the swab down gently while twisting it. If the cotton swab looks dirty when you remove it from your device’s threading, repeat the process with a fresh swab.

If you have a refillable e-cigarette with a tank, scroll down for instructions explaining how to clean that component of your cigalike.

How to Clean a Pod System, Vape Pen or Vape Mod

If you have a refillable device such as a pod system, vape pen or vape mod, cleaning your vaping device will be slightly more complicated than it would be with a cigalike or disposable vape. That’s because advanced vaping devices tend to have more components. The lengthiest aspect of maintaining an advanced vape is cleaning the tank or pod, and we’ll address those components separately. Cleaning the body of your device, however, requires much the same procedure as what we’ve already described above.

• Remove fingerprints and other stains from the outside of your device by gently buffing with a soft cloth.
• Remove dust and lint from the charging port with a toothpick. Don’t ever use a metal tool to clean your device’s charging port because doing so might scratch the port’s soft gold plating.
• Remove grime from the threading or chamber at the top of your device with a dry cotton swab.

Don’t ever use alcohol or any other liquid to clean the main body of your vape. No vaping device is perfectly sealed, and any amount of liquid inside your device has the potential to cause a dangerous short circuit.

How to Clean a Vape Tank

If you have a vaping device with a detachable tank, this is the most important part of your device to clean because the tank spends a great deal of time inside your mouth. If you’ve been using your vape tank for a while and have never cleaned it, we’ll provide instructions for giving your tank a deep cleaning. Once you’ve done that, you can maintain your tank by simply rinsing and drying it each time you replace the coil.

To clean your vape tank, disassemble it and soak every component except the coil in a bowl of warm water with a drop of mild liquid soap. Use cotton swabs to scrub hard-to-reach areas such as the tank’s base and the interior of the mouthpiece. Rinse and dry the components before reassembling the tank.

Don’t use boiling water or solvents such as alcohol when cleaning your vape tank. Boiling water can crack the glass, and alcohol can dissolve the rubber gaskets.

How to Clean a Vape Pod

You can clean a vape pod by opening it and soaking it in warm water as described above. However, you should omit the soap. Since vape pods aren’t designed for complete disassembly like tanks are, you’ll have difficulty removing the soap from the pod after cleaning it. After soaking the pod in warm water, shake out the excess water and allow the pod to dry completely before using it again.

If your device’s pods have permanent built-in coils, it’s important to understand that cleaning a pod probably won’t restore its original flavour because there’s no way to remove the coil from the pod for separate cleaning. Pods with non-removable coils are really meant to be discarded when their flavour quality is no longer acceptable. If you need a device with longer-lasting components, consider a pod system with removable coils instead. Read our list of the best pod vapes on the market to learn more.

How to Clean a Vape Coil

If you want to fully restore the original flavour of your vaping device, you should always install a new coil when you clean your vape tank. It’s also possible in some cases to clean and reuse your vape coils, though, instead of throwing them away. To clean a vape coil, place it in a bowl of very hot water and soak it for several hours, swishing it periodically to provide agitation and dislodge the residue on the coil. If you’re cleaning several coils at once, the water may darken as it dissolves the residue. If that happens, pour the dirty water out and replace it with fresh water. After cleaning a vape coil, allow it to air dry overnight before using it again.

When you clean a vape coil, it’s important to ensure that your expectations are realistic. Cleaning a coil won’t fix burnt cotton, and it can only go so far in removing residue from the coil’s heating surface. In other words, it won’t make an old coil taste like a new one. However, it can potentially give you a bit more usage from a coil that you would have otherwise thrown away – and that can help you save a bit of money on vape supplies in the long run.