When was the last time you cleaned your rig or wax-vaporizer? Is it dark and murky, with globs of leftovers bobbling around? The brown, gooey, sticky, resin-like residue building up inside your rig is called reclaim. It is often mistaken for waste, but it can contain up to 60% THC. Not bad considering dispensary-bought oil and shatter contains around 70-90%. Reclaim has already been decarbed (heat activated) too, meaning that you can eat it to obtain desired effects if you so choose.

It’s Sticky, But Simple

There is no preparation other than to remove the reclaim from the device it is in, and consume it. Keep it simple, it is sticky and messy work, but well worth the effort. Don’t be wasteful! Give it to a friend in a need if you do not want it. The Gods will one day shine down upon you with gratitude.

There are two basic techniques to remove the residue from your rig. You can use alcohol as a solvent or the solvent-free alternative: heat. Some people use a combination of these methods. What works best will depends on your rig, the build up of residue, and your patience!

Using Alcohol to Extract Reclaim

Remember to be careful using high proof alcohol near an open flame, stove or oven!

Fill your rig with high proof alcohol, such as Everclear. Everclear is made for human consumption, unlike Isopropyl (ISO) that you buy from the pharmacy. Standard vodka or liquor is not strong enough – get the highest proof you can find for best results. Mix the alcohol through the rig and let it sit for 10 minutes, or longer if there is a lot of build up, then shake it. Give it a good shake…shake hard! Pour the contents into a Pyrex or glass dish. You can leave the dish somewhere (covered in foil) and wait a day for the alcohol to evaporate, or you can sit the glass dish in another dish of water, and heat it. This will cause the alcohol to evaporate quicker. Then, simply scrape out the sticky reclaim and put it in a small silicon puck.

Using Heat to Extract Reclaim

Heat will remove most of the residual remnants, if you prefer a solvent-free method. It is harder work, using water as your lubricant. Run some boiling (be careful, friends) water through your rig and let it sit. Give it a good thorough shake to loosen as much of the reclaim as possible.

Pour the water into a square Pyrex dish, and repeat as many times as needed to remove as much residue as possible. With a dabbing tool, grab the globs of reclaim and stash them in a silicon puck. Let the reclaim settle at the bottom and pour the water out of the Pyrex dish, down the drain. The smaller bit of reclaim will stick to the glass dish.

After the initial day or so it takes for all alcohol and/or water to evaporate, the sticky (icky) concentrate left behind is safe to reuse in any dab rig or any portable or desktop vaporizer.

Consider purchasing a reclaim collecting attachment for your rigs to make cleaning even easier!

**Reclaim is the brown, sticky, resin-like residue left-over in your rig, which can be up to 60% THC. Don’t let your residual shatter, budder, or hash oil go to waste. Find out 10 creative ways to use reclaim here!