Now that I have your attentionā¦ Iām talking about my ruby/zirconia balls in my ball vapes.
Iāve accumulated a few ball vapes/stick vapes over the last couple of years, and it just occurred to me that Iāve never actually taken the balls out of any of them to clean them. I keep the bowls and stems spotless, but the media has never been touched.
Do you ever remove and clean yours? If so, how often, and do you notice any difference in flavour or performance? Or is this one of those āif it aināt broke, donāt fix itā things?
I agree on the desktop side. I always pull the baller head off as soon as Iām finishing my draw, so I canāt see much vapour ever making it back into the media.
What got me thinking about it was the stick vapes. I always notice a bit of vapour coming out the end when they click, or even seeping out just before theyāre fully heated. With something like the Coma when used as a low temp hookah style, Iād think thereād be quite a bit of vapour working its way back into the balls. Same goes for anyone who leaves a baller head sitting on their water piece between hits.
the Simrell Ti is awesome for being easy to take everything apart and clean quickly then reassemble. Same as the Tornadoā¦ no balls required but still perform exceptionally well.
Personally, mostly once, occasionally twice a day. Unless itās the middle of July. Then definitely twice a day.
Ball heads, never. Iād guess that unless you do dabs off the top of the head (is that a thing?) you donāt need to. Well, maybe if you melt plastic all over the head.
Iāll consider Rogue gear as a stick vape. 3 4 or 5mm balls make a nice bed for hashish in the Terpcycle. I clean them when I clean the device. Easy enough.
When I used to do dabs through the top holes on my Tiodw 2in1, I would just crank the heat up to 700 and let it chill for a few minutes when I was done.
Itās valid. I gunk up Frolicās cooling stem in about two days. There are four or five cooling stems with quartz and ruby spheres and they join one another in an isopropyl alcohol bath with a lid. Rinse, stick in the DOA and voila.
I never cleaned mine and if you do not combust I do not believe you need to as the heat on the balls will constantly burn off anything. Even if you do combust I do not think you need to clean them as it will all get burned off when heated.
I clean the Tempest 2 balls every 2-3 months, depending on usage. I never combust but they still get a bit gunky and it does seem to impact taste and airflow.
I never had any issues with the screen so itās no big task and actually quite fun to see them becoming clean within a few seconds when being heated in a sieve.
Do you just let them soak in some iso? Is the iso visibly dirty after soaking? I have been using and really enjoying the Joystick from Vices, and Iām thinking of taking the balls out to give them a soak.
I use the white stock balls for the tempest and they get really brown over time. I use the sieve method as recommended by Mad Heaters and it works great.
Iāve got 3 different Tempests in rotation and I probably clean them every couple of months
I did have few issues with the ball retaining screen when I first got it, but the problem was due to it being overfilled. Brenyoās magic elves had manged to squeeze x44 in my T2, and I couldnāt get it to screw back in. I took 2 balls out and Itās very quick and easy now.
Iāve got a little tea strainer, dump the balls in, give them a blast with a single flame torch, let them cool and then straight back it the chamber. It probably takes 5 minutes in total
Watching the zirc go from resin brown to sparkling white is very satisfying to watch
Thank you for the info about putting the balls back in because that was actually one of my concernsā¦so if Iām having trouble getting the screen back in, I can just take a ball or two out and I should be good to go. Appreciate the feedback, and hope you have a great weekend!
I cleaned the balls in my B2 after doing a double decker 2 timesā¦ after those 2 I really havenāt used it for dabsā¦ I have other better options for dabbing ā¦ havenāt seen a reason to clean them since
Yes, I think most of the people struggling probably have too many balls in the chamber. Make sure the screen is the right thing way up too
When I am putting the screen back in I use a 2.5mm screwdriver, and do a few clockwise / anticlockwise twists. This normally drops the tabs on the screen into the groves, then a short clockwise twist to lock it in place.
There is a video on the Tempest manual page showing the installation
Itās valid. I gunk up Frolicās cooling stem in about two days. There are four or five cooling stems with quartz and ruby spheres and they join one another in an isopropyl alcohol bath with a lid. 
Rinse, stick in the DOA and voila.
