Cleaning Issues, Again
First, thank you to
@Kevea and
@phattpiggie for their help.
Second, in reading this thread, so many of you have come up with tremendous ingenuity in mods. Wish I were at that level. Instead, I am still struggling to learn basic cleaning techniques.
Background:
My last vape was so long ago and bizarre you'd laugh. Edibles only since, which means decarboxylation. However, circumstances suddenly required stealth decarboxylation, which led me to fc and the Vapcap.
I think with a little willpower and effort you can do a very credible decarb job with the Vapcap, but I say willpower because if you fall to the lure and capabilities of the Vapcap, and your willpower fails, you will find yourself hitting the Vapcap very hard. Suddenly, edibles rarely, mostly Vapcap. Trouble is, and it's the only Vapcap problem for me, is the cleaning problem. Plant material here is very resinous, coupled with hard hits and within 24 hours there's an astounding amount of resin buildup; a formerly clean piece of glass needs cleaning again, and it's been only a day.
The ceramic disk with the tiny holes are 100% blocked in my favorite tube. I'm so afraid of poking at it to remove it. So far I have a poor track record with breakage of parts. (More on that in a moment.) Will I be able to re-insert it after torching it? And exactly how do I torch it? Hold it with tweezers and flame away?
Since my first cleaning session, with 99% ISO, the following has happened:
1. Even though I considered myself not a klutz and very careful with fragile glass, while rinsing with hot water after soaking I immediately chipped the tip at the end above the ceramic disk. George did great service and replaced the tube as warranty, even though I was the klutz. And the replacement had dual carbs, which I promptly favored over the single carb.
2. The first time I removed the concentrator, I pinched off the glass tip!! I don't know what the hell I thought I was doing, but I didn't realize the tip is that fragile, obviously. I was very glad to learn it's part of George's brainstorm modularity design, and cheap to replace.
3. First time I removed an o-ring I ripped it in half.
4. I'm reading through this huge thread, trying to come up with something to do with this fairly vast amount of continuously-appearing resin in the concentrator, and all the ideas sound great and difficult. I needed something really simple, so I torched the tube itself (spinning it, not too hot, etc.) , way below the ceramic disk but obviously above the carb holes, and that was very nice. After doing that a few times, I looked at the tube and thought, "Oh great, burnt-on carbon deposits. Now what?"
So I've probably made every mistake you can make. However, I don't care, as the Vapcap is an amazing device, in terms of performance. At least if you like hardcore. As a decarb device, it requires willpower, preferably a somewhat larger chamber, and of course a built-in heat source, as the infinite variables of hand-spinning a device with a torch means a perfect decarb will be an accident rather than a repeatable event. So I'd be greatly interested in a non-butane Dynavap product, given the superior performance I've experienced with the Vapcap.
Sorry for the digression. I have a serious problem -- the disc in my favorite tube is totally clogged. My other tube is now gunking up quickly. So, given 1, 2, 3, and 4 above, what are my chances of removing the ceramic disk, torching it, and re-inserting the disk without damage? To top it off, it's the ceramic disk in the dual carb chamber that's completely clogged, and I will be devastated (wish that were an exaggeration) if I screw it up.
I just went to the Dynavap store and see that for $10 I can a get replacement glass tube with screen. That's good to know, for sure. Even that's modular. Thing is, at the rate I am gunking these things up, it is going to get expensive.
And for Omnivap owners, if I graduate to that, how is your cleaning routine different if you previously used the Vapcap?
Thank you for any help and comments!
