How to Get Reclaim Out of a Rig
Your rig’s looking gross and doesn’t hit as smoothly as it did once before. Time to get all that wax residue out of your rig and back into a usable form!
Getting reclaim from your bong is fast and easy with just a few short steps. Not only does collecting reclaim make your rig sparkle like new, but you also get plenty of reusable wax out of the process.
Let’s jump into the topic of how to get reclaim out of your rig!
What is Reclaim?
Similar to resin from smoking, reclaim is the residual wax stuck to your rig after taking a dab. Unlike resin, which is a totally altered form of smoke residue, residual wax is just… wax.
It’s been heated before, burning off terpenes and causing the wax to become decarboxylated. There’s still, however, plenty of usable wax in reclaim and no ash or tar.
Reclaim tends to collect in the joint, around percs, and up the neck of your rig. Too much residual wax makes your rig look, smell, and taste bad, so it’s smart to clean it regularly or use a reclaim catcher.
Thankfully, it’s easy to both clean your rig and collect the reclaim.
Is it Okay to Smoke Reclaim?
Although reclaim can have up to 60% of the potency of the original wax, it’s not the best dabbing experience.
That’s because reclaim is void of the terpenes that make fresh wax taste so good.
Instead, reclaim has a harsh taste and only half the potency of fresh wax, meaning you need to smoke twice as much.
That said, smoking reclaim is relatively safe considering we’re talking about dabbing.
In fact, it’s much tastier than smoking resin. Instead of smoking reclaim, however, we recommend an alternative: eating it.
Since reclaim is decarboxylated from its first pass through your rig, the wax is already activated and ready for processing through your liver for a long, heavy high.
This effect, however, is only possible through ingesting reclaim orally.
Reclaim doesn’t taste very good, so be sure to mix it with something strong. Chocolate, icing, and other baked goods are common favorites.
Remember not to heat reclaim over 314F, either, as the wax begins to evaporate at that temperature.
Whether you want to smoke or eat your reclaim, it’s safe to do so. Now the next question is, how do you get reclaim out of your rig?
How to Collect Reclaim Out of a Bong
Before cleaning your rig and collecting the reclaim, it’s important to know what you plan to do with the reclaim.
If you plan to smoke it, feel free to use high-percentage ISO alcohol that is pure alcohol and water. If you plan to eat your reclaim, use a high-percentage grain alcohol (like Everclear) instead.
Although both alcohols should evaporate completely from the reclaim, it’s always wise to use edible solvents when producing edible reclaim.
With that out of the way, here are 4 easy steps to collecting reclaim from your rig:
- Remove your nail and fill the rig’s chamber half-way with either ISO alcohol or grain alcohol. The less alcohol you use, the quicker it will evaporate later, so start small and add more if needed.
- Plug the mouthpiece and joint of the rig with your fingers, paper towels, or something similar. Begin carefully shaking the alcohol around your rig. You don’t need to be as vigorous when cleaning a rig as you would a pipe. The wax dissolves relatively quickly in alcohol, peeling away from the sides. For stubborn reclaim, let your rig soak for 10-30 minutes. NEVER use salt when collecting reclaim to use later. Employ cleaning tools, like pipe cleaners, as needed.
- Pour the alcohol-reclaim solution into a glass cooking dish. From here, you may simply let the reclaim evaporate naturally or may speed up the process by adding heat. BE VERY CAREFUL when using heat to speed up evaporation, however, because alcohol is highly flammable. Never use an open flame. Instead, setting the dish on an electric hotplate on low setting, or setting the dish on a sunny window, are both better alternatives.
- The alcohol should be fully evaporated after a day or two left out. Scrape the remaining reclaim off the bottom of your dish and store in wax paper or silicone container.
That’s it! You’re done! The whole process takes 15-30 minutes and leaves your rig looking great.
Looking for an even quicker way to get your reclaim? Attaching a drop down to your rig helps keep it clean the way an ash catcher keeps bongs clean.
Reclaim gathers in the drop down, not the rig, so it’s easier to collect and your rig stays cleaner, longer.
Happy Reclaiming!
Though some high-and-mighty dabbers may look down on using reclaim, they’re the ones missing out. Unlike flower resin, which is essentially tar, dab reclaim is extremely similar to fresh wax.
It retains many of its psychoactive and therapeutic effects, just without the tasty terpenes. Whether you smoke it or eat it, using reclaim just makes good sense!