Chazzing: How to Clean a Chazzed Nail and Prevent It Happening in the First Place

If you’re an avid dabber, you know about the dreaded chazzing effect that can occur after partaking in your favorite pastime. Sure, it’s all fun and games when you’re dabbing it up, but the true test of high-quality quartz and a responsible user is how well they can stand up to the chazz effect.

If you’re anything like us, you despise any mark or nick in your quartz setup, especially in our nails. After much trial and error, and we’re talking about a lot of scorched dabs, we’ve assembled a comprehensive guide featuring tips to help you stay chazz-free.

What is chazzing?

Chazzing – or chaz – refers to the burnt-on resin that can accumulate on the bottom and sides of your quartz nails. This harsh and grimy surface is not very welcoming for your tasty terps. Imagine eating a Michelin-quality meal on a dirty plate. If you want the best and most flavorful dabs you can get, keep reading for an expert’s guide on how to clean a chazzed quartz banger.

How to clean a chazzed dab nail

Wondering how to clean a chazzed banger? We detail routine maintenance you can implement to keep your banger clean, as well as instructions for deep cleaning nails that are so chazzed you can’t see through them.

Clean your dab nail routinely

We know it can be a pain to clean up after ourselves every single time but that is the only proven way to keep the chazz away. Repeat after me: the only proven way to keep the chazz away. Apart from the rig, carb cap and fancy terp nails, one of the most essential dab tools to prevent a chazzed quartz banger is the humble cotton swab.

This soft and absorbent cleaning tool does more than keep your ears clean. Keep a handful of these bad boys around during your session to wipe the nail’s base after every dab. A clean cotton swab can easily wipe up that hot and sticky resin without giving it time to permanently settle into the quartz’ pores.

Check out our useful dab nail cleaning video below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more instructional videos, reviews, and lessons from our Dab University course.

Use isopropyl for deep cleaning

For a deeper clean of your chazzed banger, bust out the isopropyl alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is the ultimate cleaning agent for long-term care. Simply soak your rig, nail and all, completely into isopropyl alcohol. Think a few hours to an entire day, depending on the level of chazzing. Keeping it submerged for extended periods of time breaks down the impurities that cause the chazz.

Sometimes, the chazz can completely go away after this method of saturation, but it’s best not to let it get to this point unless you want tears on your dab rig.

What you need

• Isopropyl alcohol
• Rock salt
• Ziplock bag
• Warm water
• Scraper

Tutorial

1. Start by allowing your quartz banger to soak in isopropyl alcohol inside a ziplock bag. Use the strongest ISO you can find – anything over 99% will do the trick. We recommend leaving it to soak overnight to allow the alcohol to work away at that burnt-on resin.
2. Once soaked, add some rock salt to the ISO and securely zip up the bag. Shake the ziplock bag to allow the alcohol-salt solution to scrub the sides of the banger.
3. Remove the banger from the alcohol solution and rinse it thoroughly with warm water to remove any alcohol residue.
4. Use a scraper to work away at the chazzing. It may take a little elbow grease, but it does usually come off.
5. Rinse again with warm water.
6. Please the banger back on your rig and use a torch to get it really hot. Heating it to 600-800 ° Fahrenheit can help to burn off any remaining marks.

How to avoid a chazzed dab nail

There are a number of things you can do to reduce how chazzed your dab nail gets over time. We’ll break them down below.

1. Stick to low temperature dabs

We know the rush of taking a high-temp dab can be exhilarating like a roller coaster on drugs. However, lighting up your nail until it glows like the depths of the Earth isn’t good for your gear, your extracts or your lungs.

Instead of burning up your insides with devilishly hot temperatures, let your quartz banger do the heavy lifting. Quartz is renowned for its ability to retain heat longer than titanium. Now, you don’t have to burn down the house to take a flavorful dab.

Instead, rely on low-temperature dabs to get you where you need to be. Low-temp dabs not only lower the risk of you burning your fingers off but also decrease the chance of chazzing up your quartz. Instead of 800+ degree action, 500 to 650º F is all you need to for lift-off.

2. Know your dabbing setup

Part of the logic behind torching up the nail is to get the surface hot enough to vaporize your gooey extracts. Less-than-experienced users may torch their nails for minutes on end. Ultimately, how long you need to heat your nail depends on the quartz quality, thickness of the base and torch strength.

After the initial heat up, how long do you have to let it cool down? Everyone’s answer is different. Waiting too long after heating up the nail can lead to a clump of resin sitting idly at the base, while heating it too much can scorch your dabs for a harsh hit and a caked-on mess.

For a less crude way to enjoy your dabs, use a basic timer on your phone or watch and test out different cooldown times to determine the perfect heat up and cool down time for you. Doing this little experiment, in the beginning, will save you time and money in trying to replace a chazzed dab nail.

For an easy and convenient way to get rid of the guesswork, invest in an electronic nail, also known as an eNail. eNails provide a continuous heat source to your nail so you always know what temperature you’re dabbing at. No need to waste time with counting heat-up or cool-down times. With eNails, it’s always dab time.

3. Try reverse dabs

It’s not opposite day, it’s reverse dabs time. Simply put, reverse dabs, also known as “cold start dabs,” involve placing your extract first on your nail and then lightly kissing the tip of your torch flame to the bottom of your banger until the dab starts to bubble up.

This new technique does require a bit of fancy handwork to maintain a steady and precise source of heat. However, using this technique won’t leave you vulnerable to chazzing your quartz banger.

Feel free to add quartz inserts into the mix to further reduce the chance of chazzing. Quartz inserts add a second layer between the dab and the bottom of your nail for a chazz-free experience.

4. Only use quality quartz

Save yourself the headaches and buy high-quality first. Bangers come in all shapes and sizes but regardless of the style you choose, go with trusted quartz brands like Yo Dabba Dabba. Shop a range of styles to fit your personality. Explore opaque seamless flat tops, round bottom flat tops, quartz thermal nails or sumo bangers for those extra dank dabs.

Now that you’re an expert chazzbuster, use your knowledge to educate your fellow stoners to make the world a better and happier place.