Quartz Banger Cleaning: Clean Nail Fresh Dabs!

How to Keep Your Dab Nail In Pristine Condition!

Please note that these instructions will work to clean and maintain titanium nails.

New/Clean Banger Instructions

[Q-Tip & Isopropyl Tech]

Isopropyl Alcohol, and its fumes are very flammable! Keep large amounts of isopropyl alcohol far away from your dab station and torch! Keep any open amounts of ISO under a lid to prevent fumes from floating freely. Also, torches and their flames get very hot! Proceed with caution and attention.

Clean Your Dab Nail After Every Dab!

Yes, you should clean your quartz nail after every dab! This seems like a big commitment, but it’s one of the best changes you can make in your dabbing game if you don’t already do this. Trust me on this. You deserve to make the most of your time, effort, and money with every dab! We've all dabbed from dirty nails before, but it's no way to live. So, here’s how to make this improvement, quickly, every time. Your banger, lungs, and terpy taste buds will thank you!

1. Q-Tip Tech [Method 1]: Use a combination of clean and isopropyl
   
   alcohol-soaked cotton swabs to clean out the interior surface of your banger after each dab. It may take several swabs to get the job done well. Begin with clean, dry swabs to remove any residual oil left over, work the bottom edges and the inner surface area well, and then follow up with multiple swabs that have been soaked in isopropyl alcohol. Let the banger cool down before you begin this process, but not too much. This works best when the quartz nail is still pretty warm. Method 1 alone is often enough to keep your quartz banger nice and clean. These instructions suit standard bucket-style quartz bangers, but if you have a quartz banger terp slurper, you may want to use Method 2, below.
2. A Quick Swabbing & Immediate ISO Dual-Stage Bath Technique [Method 2]: If you want to use fewer swabs, prevent waste, and don’t mind using more isopropyl alcohol, you’ll want to try this dual-stage soak technique after every dab. After your dab, use one swab to clean any residual wax left in the quartz nail. Have two previously prepared clean containers filled with enough isopropyl alcohol to soak your quartz banger. You can place something under the container to pool the ISO into one side to make it deeper, using less overall. Let the quartz banger cool before you quickly swab it and then dunk the quartz nail into the waiting pool of ISO. Make sure it is completely submerged. After being in that first bath for some time (longer for great results, less if you’re in a hurry), place the now precleaned quartz banger into the second waiting ISO bath. After the second soak, a good rinsing is necessary. Then, dry your quartz dab nail with swabs until it’s mostly dry. Ensure you haven’t missed large water droplets before torching the rest to finish drying.

Periodic Maintenance

1. Long Isopropyl Alcohol Soak: If you’ve kept up on your quartz banger’s maintenance by swabbing it out after every dab, you may still find a slight brown haze creeping up over time, but never fear, do a maintenance soak in Isopropyl alcohol and then dry your nail thoroughly. Use cotton swabs to dry out most of the water, then lightly torch it here and there to finish it up so it’s ready for use! If the desired effect was not achieved, proceed with step #2 below.
2. Controlled Burn-Off: If you've been keeping your banger clean after every dab, but you still notice that there is a light, creeping, brown color appearing on your quartz, it's time to burn it off gently. Torch those spots and keep the end of the flames on the spots you see. Let them get torched off and you'll see clear quartz again. Be light on the torch, move often, come and go, and do this in rounds to be gentler on the quartz, trying to not overheat it.

Emergency Cleaning—There's Patches of Black!

1. Carefully Scrape Out Crud: Use a metal dab tool to scrape off black accumulation carefully. We don’t want to heat this crud and inhale whatever is produced, so getting rid of it and maintaining a clean nail for every dab is desirable and highly recommended!
2. Controlled Burn-Off: If a cleaning, or many, are forgotten or go wrong, or if the residual residue is already chazzed (been heated up and adhered to the quartz—looks dark/black) into the interior surface, you need to heat your banger to around 600-800, gently, moving around and aiming to get the stained areas piping hot, but not too hot. You’ll see the crud get red as it reaches its burn-off temperature. Vary the angle of the flame and distribute the heat around the surface area, returning to areas that need more time under heat to be cleaned. It’s better to do multiple rounds of this step until the residue is completely burned off to protect your banger from overheating. Overheating your banger can cause it to be cloudy looking afterward. Our goal is to do this only once or occasionally as needed.

Also in How To Dab | Dabbing 101 Blog