What are some key indicators that make you think it's time to clean? I've been using a Cera for a while so maybe it seems like this should all be obvious to me by now but I'm not cleaning it nearly as frequently as others seem to be so I'm concerned that maybe I just don't know what to look for.
I tend to go by start up from cold and taste and 'thickness' of the first few solid hits. This means staying conscious of the battery state (substitute in a 'known good' if in doubt) so I know what to expect normally. The major task here is to judge the fill, the cleanness is judged over several loadings generally.
Also knowing the concentrate gives me a clue, I know how fast it normally sinks in on loading, as it fouls this gets slower and sometimes 'spotty' even.
This is also backed up by weight. They seem to pick up .2 or so at the first loading (best cleaning gets about this close to new) and need about .25 to fill the reservoir enough so the surface is wet and the action on heating fast and easy to control. When you have to hang on the heat to bake out the stuff in the bulk ceramic because the surface is dry and has not had time to recover is when you make the big messes I think. Not waiting too long to top up is a good practice. At the first sign of 'is this getting low' I look at the plate for more clues.
Clogs around the vent holes can be normal depending on fill level and concentrate. But when I know the fill level is OK and it crops up with concentrate that never did before at that level I consider fouling and cleaning.
I try to ride the early side of the (highly subjective) line since effective cleaning is much easier if you don't cook the junk over and over trying to get to the remaining THC under it.
In a single word, "experience"? I know that's not what you wanted of course, but those are the things I think I look for. I question when the results aren't as expected based on experience I guess.
So I let my core sit in some 99% iso that I had all morning. I got home and damn its damn near white the ceramic. Pretty clean with reclaim if I want to save it (and I'll definitely try this time).
Then I'm going to use a scale and try to load .3 in the cart and see what kind of usage that gets me. I have a cheapo scale so it doesn't get more accurate. I'll upgrade it eventually, I'm just wondering if I can get multiple days out of .3? I still have no idea how efficient concentrates are FOR ME.
Well done. As I just said, cleaning before you bake it on good and hard is much easier.....kind of like the kitchen oven I guess.....
I think you should consider that most of that .3 grams will go to filling up the reservoir enough to get it to work at all. You'll get a lot more out of the next .3 than this one.
As to dose I suggest you go by the numbers as a base point. Use top shelf bud at say 18% where you leave say 3% behind in ABV? Against that you have BHO at something over 60% most likely (to be conservative), four times the THC delivered gram for gram. So if you now use half a gram of top shelf a day expect something like .125 grams (1/8 gram) of 'medium grade' BHO. Less if your extract is stronger of course.
Sure there may have been some confusion on clog-free but I shouldn't have to dig through mountains of forums for cleaning info.
Aside from the fact you agreed to just that when you 'signed up' (check the rules.....) it's not really all that hard. Entering 'cleaning' in the search for this thread alone found nearly 200 times it's been mentioned here.
And for sure it's not our responsibility here to hand it to you.
You should by now have picked up the basics? Unless you reclaim, boiling is more effective as a first step. Cleaning before it gets real bad is better. While you don't have to, most I think remove the rings before boiling or soaking. If you don't have spares or aren't comfortable with it, by all means leave them be. Be sure it's dry before adding oil again (they don't mix well.....), some guys bake theirs (stay below about 250F).
If it's gone too far to wash out the junk, try a '20/20/20' burn or two. Dry core, fresh battery, 20 seconds on, 20 off, 20 on for a total of 20 cycles. Back to back, don't let it cool off. Use a clock, don't 'count'. This seems to be more important in the Revolution/DART where the reservoir and working element is much smaller. I always follow such a burn run with a good washing, hoping to flush the ash out rather than get it stuck in the fresh oil.
In the old days we used to recommend Ultrasonic cleaners on Revolution/DART cores. Works great, but also breaks leads in core heaters sometimes.....so best avoided I think.
I've no doubt missed a few things, and for sure my way is not the only (or even the best) way. It's just what I've found to work best so far (and why). As it usually is it's up to the individual to make the call, hopefully an informed call?
i've actually wondered if i can break the ceramic disk and get the bits out to increase air flow
Sure you can, but it won't increase the flow. The gap around it is very much bigger than the
vents, that's where the choke point is. By design, actually.
OF