If you have a good vape mod, then the world of flavors you can experience is virtually endless. There are literally thousands of different vape liquid flavors to choose from, everything from herbal flavors and sweet fruits to candy and even regular tobacco flavors.
Depending on who you are, you might enjoy one over another, but what nobody enjoys is when multiple flavors start to mix together and when a vape starts to taste like it’s old and burnt.
Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest problems that vape mods suffer from. Flavor starts to get a little muddled, muddy, and even burnt, which means that you need to clean it regularly. Although it might sound like a daunting task, cleaning a vape tank for a new flavor experience is actually fairly easy.
Depending on how bad the situation is and how often you clean your vape tank, you may need to do a thorough clean, or in some cases, a quick rinse might be enough. Let’s talk about how to clean a vape tank so you can get the exact flavor you’re looking for.
Key Takeaways
- Vape tanks require regular cleaning because flavors mix together, and E-liquid can get burnt.
- There are three main methods of cleaning a vape tank, including a quick rinse, a thorough clean, and a deep clean.
- There are important distinctions between replaceable and buildable coils that you need to be aware of.
Looking for new vape flavors? See what people have to say about this tobacco flavor and this clear flavor.
eightvape.com Why Cleanliness Counts: The Impact of Your Vaping Experience
Unlike cleaning your car, cleaning your vape tank is not just about appearances but rather about functionality and flavor. The issue with vape tanks is that often users try many different flavors in the same tank.
If you’re someone who keeps changing up the flavors so you can experience something new every time, cleaning your vape tank regularly becomes very important. All of those flavors start to muddle together after a while. If you don’t clean out your vape tank in between different flavors, they’ll likely mix together and create a less-than-enjoyable taste. Even a single drop of the previous E-liquid can ruin a whole new tank.
If you go too long between cleanings, the vape might start to taste really old and burnt, caused by E-liquid that is left over and continuously heated up, resulting in it burning.
It goes even further than that, because if you’re experiencing a burnt taste, it could also be the coil. All of that old residue becomes really thick and viscous, builds up on the coil, and eventually starts to burn as the coil heats up repeatedly. You’ll be able to recognize a burnt E-liquid taste immediately.
Even worse, this build-up of burnt E-liquid on the coil eventually starts to affect how well the vape functions. You might notice that you don’t get as big of clouds anymore or that you have to pull much harder to get the same size of cloud. Your vape coil just isn’t heating the E-liquid up in the same way as it used to.
The longer you leave your coil with residue on it, the quicker it degrades. Not only does this mean that the flavor experiences decreases rapidly, but so does the lifespan of the coil. If you clean the coil on a regular basis, it should last a lot longer than it otherwise would.
As you can see, with regular maintenance, you can not only preserve the flavor experience of your vape, but you can also extend the lifespan of the coil, and that’s something that affects your wallet.
Knowing When It’s Time for a Clean
There are a few clear indications that tell you it’s time to clean your vape tank, with the first one being muddied flavors. If you are someone who never switches E-liquid flavors, then this won’t be as much of an issue.
However, if you’re constantly trying different flavors, you’ll probably notice that they start to blend together a little bit, and not in a good way. Even if the two flavors might theoretically sound like they mix well, old E-liquid that’s been in the tank for a while never has the freshest of flavors and just won’t mix well with something new.
If you can still taste the old E-liquid in your new flavor choice, then it’s time for a clean. Furthermore, if you notice a distinct burnt taste, this is also a sign that it’s time for a clean, and this means that you’ll need to clean the actual coil, not just the tank itself.
Finally, if you notice that your vape isn’t pulling right anymore, you have to suck on it really hard, and it’s not producing big clouds, and it might also be time for a very thorough clean. This generally also involves having to clean or even replace the coils.
Methods of Cleaning Your Vape Tank: From Quick Fixes to Deep Cleans
Depending on your needs, there are three main methods of cleaning a vape tank, starting with a very quick rinse, followed by a more thorough approach, and finally, the deep clean. Let’s take a quick look at each one and who they’re ideal for.
The following cleaning methods assume that you are using a vape that has replaceable coils. If your vape has buildable coils, these need to be handled differently. To clean buildable coil setups, refer to the following section entitled “A Note on Replaceable vs Buildable Coils.”
Quick Rinse: For the Vaper on the Go
If all you want to do is switch E-liquid flavors, then a quick rinse is probably enough. A quick rinse is also ideal if you notice a very white, burnt, or muddled flavor, as long as the coil is still in relatively good condition. If you clean your vape tank on a regular basis, then doing a quick rinse might be enough. Here’s how to do a quick rinse on your vape tank.
- Take the vape tank off of the mod and pour out any E-liquid remaining in the tank.
- Completely disassemble the vape tank and remove the coil from the interior.
- Take a small bowl and fill it with warm water, and then put the tank and the coil in the water.
- Let this soak for just a couple of minutes, and then rinse everything off.
- If your tank has a lot of old residue in it, a few drops of dish soap should be more than enough to take care of the issue.
- If you use soap, thoroughly rinse the tank, and then remove everything from the water.
- Put all of the components on a dry cloth or some paper towel and let them dry completely. This shouldn’t take more than 15 or 20 minutes.
- You can now reassemble the coil and the tank and then add your new E-liquid, such as this Candy King Strawberry Watermelon E-liquid.
The Standard Clean: A Thorough Approach
If you’re someone who only cleans your vape about once per week, then doing a slightly more thorough clean is likely ideal for you.
If you notice that the flavor of your vape is quite muddled and fairly burned, or if you are switching flavors and the two flavors are extremely different, then it’s time for a standard clean.
You might also notice that your coil has a good deal of residue on it, and that it’s not performing as it once did. Follow the instructions listed below to execute this cleaning method.
- Remove the tank from the vape mod and empty out any remaining E-liquid.
- Disassemble all components of the tank and remove the coil.
- Take the components, including the coil, and soak them in relatively hot water for anywhere up to an hour.
- Take some high quality paper towel that won’t shred as you work with it, and slightly dampen it with some cheap vodka or rubbing alcohol.
- Take your alcohol or vodka-soaked paper towel and wipe out the inside of the vape tank, especially in the corners and crevices where old residue could have built up.
- Once you are satisfied that the inside of the tank is clean, thoroughly rinse it with very warm water to remove any remaining alcohol residue.
- Take the coil out of the water and then rinse it under running water for at least two or three minutes continuously.
- Take the components and place them on a paper towel and allow them to dry completely, which could take anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes.
- You can now reassemble your coil and tank, and put new E-liquid on the inside.
Deep Clean: Resetting Your Flavor Palette
If you are somebody who rarely cleans your vape tank, then you might want to do a deep clean. This is ideal for people who clean their vape tanks less than every two weeks.
This method is ideal for those who notice an extremely burnt and muddled flavor, to the point where the vaping experience is very unenjoyable.
You might also notice that the vape coil isn’t performing well at all anymore, that it doesn’t pull right, and that it’s covered in gunk. To do a deep clean on your vape tank, follow the steps as listed below.
- Remove the vape tank from the mod and pour out as much of the remaining E-liquid as possible.
- Take the tank apart and remove the coil.
- The big difference here is that instead of soaking the vape tank and the coil in warm water, with this deep clean method, you’re going to soak them in rubbing alcohol, ethanol, or even some high quality vodka. Let the vape tank soak for up to an hour, and the coil can soak for up to two or three hours.
- Take a paper towel that is also soaked in some alcohol or ethanol, and thoroughly wipe out the inside of the vape tank. Clean the inside of the tank as thoroughly as possible.
- Rinse the coil to remove any remaining ethanol or alcohol. You don’t want to vape any of those substances. Take a few minutes and rinse out the coil using warm running water, and then follow that up with a distilled water rinse.
- Place all of the components on a paper towel and let them dry completely.
- Once everything is dry, you can then reassemble the tank and fill it with new vape liquid.
A Note on Replaceable vs Buildable Coils
There are both replaceable and buildable coils. Replaceable coils are those that you use for a certain period of time and then throw out and replace with new ones. You can clean these a few times, although they will eventually need to be replaced.
No amount of cleaning will allow you to use a replaceable coil indefinitely. Eventually, you’ll see that they just don’t perform well anymore and that the flavor is bad no matter what. If you notice this happening, then it’s just time to replace the coil with a new one.
If we’re talking about rebuildable coils, things look a little different. If the flavor contamination with a buildable coil is only light, simply remove the wick, press the fire button to do a quick dry burn, and then replace the wick. Doing a quick dry burn on the coil should be enough to remove any remaining E-liquid. However, this only goes so far.
If the issue is more severe, you’ll need to remove the wick from the coil and then dry burn the coil. Follow this up by removing the atomizer from the rest of the vape, run it under some warm water, and use a coil cleaning tool or a soft toothbrush to clean it. Rinse the coil again and do one final dry burn before replacing the wick.
After the Clean: Preparing for a Fresh Vaping Experience
The most important thing to do once everything is clean is to let it dry properly. A good way to allow for the best flavor experience when adding new E-liquid is to first prime the coils. Whether you have replaceable or buildable coils, take some of the E-liquid and drop it directly onto the wicks.
If you have replaceable coils, you’ll notice little holes that look like there’s white fabric inside of them, which is the wick.
Do this before putting the coil back in the tank and filling up the rest of the tank with E-liquid. You also want to allow the E-liquid to soak into the coils for about 5 or 10 minutes before vaping. This will ensure that the coils and Wicks are thoroughly saturated so you don’t dry-burn them by accident.
Pro Tips: Maintaining a Flavor-Ready Vape Tank
Here are some quick tips so you can continuously experience great flavors when vaping.
- Before switching E-liquids, always do a quick rinse at the very least.
- If you’re not planning on doing a quick rinse, drain out as much of the old E-liquid as possible, and then, using a very low wattage, hit the vape dry just a couple of times. There is a fine line here because you need to hit it enough to vaporize the old E-liquid so there’s none left without the dry hitting it so much that you end up burning the coil. If this happens, you’ll need to replace the coil. This way, even if you don’t clean the vape tank before switching E-liquids, at least there won’t be much of the old residue left.
- If you keep switching flavors and you don’t want to clean the tanks all too often, it’s good to use similar flavors in the same tanks.
- Never hit a vape on a very high wattage for a long time because the hotter the coil gets, the more likely it is to burn itself and the surrounding E-liquid. If you burn the E-liquid and the coil, the whole tank will be ruined and need cleaning, followed by a prompt coil replacement.
Read on here to find out how to make your own vape juice and how to fill a vape tank for the first time.
Final Thoughts
As long as you follow the tips provided above and clean your vape tank on a regular basis, you should be able to maintain consistent and enjoyable flavors. Remember, the more often you clean your vape tank and the coils, the less intense the cleaning process needs to be.
How to Clean a Vape Tank for New Flavors: Frequently Asked Questions
Let’s quickly answer some of your most pressing questions about cleaning your vape tank.
How Often Should I Clean My Vape Tank for Flavor Changing?
Ideally, you should clean your vape tank every time you change the flavor.
Can I Use Tap Water for Cleaning My Vape Tank?
Yes, tap water is fine for cleaning your vape tank.
Is It Necessary to Disassemble the Tank Completely Every Clean?
For the best results, you should disassemble your vape tank completely every time you clean it.
How Long Should I Soak My Vape Tank in Alcohol?
If you are doing a deep clean, allow the baked tank to soak in alcohol for around an hour and a replaceable coil for up to two or three hours.
A self-proclaimed cannasseur and avid frequenter of local mid-west dispensaries in vape shops, Dorothy has been a guest writer and contributor for many cannabis and nic brand sites for the past 5 years.
