The quick answer
Isopropyl alcohol and coarse salt clean a dab rig faster than anything you can buy. Use 91% or 99% alcohol, pour in enough to cover the worst of the reclaim, add a spoonful of coarse salt, plug both openings, and shake for a minute. Dump it, repeat if the glass still looks cloudy, rinse with warm water, and let it air dry. Most rigs come out looking new in under ten minutes.
how often should you clean a dab rig
What you need
- 91% or 99% isopropyl alcohol
- Coarse salt. Rock salt or kosher salt works. Fine table salt dissolves too fast to scrub.
- Rubber stoppers, corks, or your thumbs
- Paper towels and cotton swabs
- Warm tap water
Skip anything labeled as a glass cleaner or a scented soap. Soap residue sticks to glass and shows up in your next dab.
Step by step
- Pour out the water first. Water plus reclaim makes a sludge that coats the inside of the pipe.
- Add alcohol until it reaches the level of the dirtiest section.
- Drop in a spoonful of coarse salt. The salt is the abrasive, the alcohol is the solvent.
- Plug the mouthpiece and the joint, then shake. Short sharp shakes work better than slow swirls.
- Let it sit five minutes if the reclaim is thick, then shake again.
- Pour the dirty alcohol into a jar you can seal, not down the drain. It smells and it is flammable.
- Rinse twice with warm water. Cold water just chases reclaim back onto the glass.
- Air dry on a paper towel, or push a little air through the joint.
Cleaning the banger
Quartz bangers do not need a soak. Wipe with a dry cotton swab right after each dab while the quartz is still warm, then go back over it with a second swab dipped in isopropyl alcohol once it cools. Reclaim left on a hot nail bakes into a black stain that only comes off with heavy heat or an abrasive. If your banger is already chazzed, drop it in a small jar of isopropyl alcohol overnight, then scrub with a swab and rinse under warm water. Do not clean a hot banger with alcohol, and do not pour cold water on a hot one. Thermal shock cracks quartz, and a cracked banger is a replacement, not a repair.
What not to do
- Do not use boiling water. It can crack thin glass, and it does not dissolve reclaim well anyway.
- Do not use acetone on painted or decal glass. It eats the finish.
- Do not reuse dirty alcohol. Once it turns brown it just smears oil around.
- Do not soak a rig with plastic or silicone parts attached. Alcohol dries out silicone.
How often to clean
I do a full alcohol wash once a week and change the water every day. Dabbing pulls in more oil than flower smoke, so reclaim builds up fast, and a dirty rig tastes like the last five dabs. If your water turns cloudy the same day you fill it, you waited too long.