One of the things that surprises me about vapers is that many of them use their gear right out of the mail or straight from the store. I’m talking about drip tips, clearomizers, and rebuildable atomizers, specifically. These are all parts you’re using to ingest vapor. Shouldn’t you give them a good cleaning before using them? That seems logical and reasonable to me, yet many vapers I know are happy to use a clearomizer straight from the mailbox or use a drip tip right from the store. I think that’s kind of gross a little bit unsanitary. I’m puzzled as to why cleaning new vape gear is unimportant to many vapers.
Let’s look at clearomizers for a minute. The vast majority of clearos are made in China in Chinese factories (duh). You have no idea what factory conditions are like, let alone packing conditions and anything that happens during shipping. There are many opportunities for grime and germs to latch onto the clearo before you use it. Shouldn’t cleaning new vape gear be a priority with clearomizers? The clearomizer is, after all, the receptacle that holds your juice before it enters your body.
Then there are drip tips. You’re putting these things on your lips and in your mouth. I’m amazed by people that use drip tips that are on display on store shelves (for god knows how long) right in the store. Recently, I picked up a beautiful drip tip from a top manufacturer. It took five Q-Tips to get all the machine oil and grime off. Imagine if I inhaled that stuff?!? Gross. Cleaning new vape gear is important!
Compare clearomizers and drip tips to tools that you use to ingest drinks or food. Would you buy drinkware
My personal suggestion is to give any atomizer, clearomizer, or drip tip a thorough wash with light soap and warm water. After that, give it a healthy rinse (soap residue sucks). Before using it, give it an overnight soak in vodka (ingestible alcohol is safer than rubbing alcohol). It’s a really simple process that I wished more vapers followed. If you haven’t made a New Year’s resolution yet then think about cleaning new vape gear in 2014. Better yet, start now.
I heard a suggestion a while back to use toothpaste, and I feel it has worked well. It’s non abrasive and has cleaned many an atty or drip tip for me. I use my fingers to apply and rinse it off. I think this step is especially important if you are buying anything “cloned” or of the fasttek variety.