Wax vapes are a rather new and unique way to consume cannabis. In places where dabs and wax-like concentrates are becoming more and more common, you might’ve seen wax pens used by others. They’re small, portable, and very discreet. 

 So then, you’re interested in a wax vape and might’ve bought one, and wondering how to use a wax vape for the first time! In this article, you’ll learn how to use a wax vaporizer and we will also explain loading, cleaning, and other tips and trick!

What concentrates to use in a dab pen?

Wax vapes are designed for a special sort of material –waxes! Wax vapes cannot use oil or dry herb, instead, we recommend a dedicated dry herb vaporizer or oil vape for those materials. Some can even use both wax and dry herb!

Concentrates that can be used are those wax, budder, rosin, live resin, shatter, BHO, and more! ‘Classic’ hash can keif cannot be used in a wax vape, lest you want horrible flavor and a huge mess to clean up!

Variations of wax and rosin

How to load dab pen coils?

To load up your wax vape, pulse the power button a few times to warm-up the atomizer slightly, it’ll help a ton when loading wax onto the coils! Next, scoop a small rice-grain or even less amount onto your dab tool and gently transfer that to the coils/atomizer. 

Using too much wax is actually counterintuitive and may even gunk up your atomizer/mouthpiece, making it a sticky mess that’s no fun to clean.

Once the wax is all melted on, you’re basically ready to go, select your power setting and then get ready to go!

Utillian 5 v3 in parts
Dab Tool built into the Utillian 5 V3

How to hit a wax pen?

Let the coil warm up for a second or two before drawing slowly. You can find that depending on your draw technique that the hits will change. Depending on your vape still, a slower draw will result in heavier clouds, and a fast draw in lighter hits. In some cases, this won’t matter anyway.

It’s a good practice to take a short inhale after you’re done drawing to bring the vapor into your lungs, helping with absorption and efficiency. You don’t need to hold your breath in, as THC absorbs very quickly, just a short in and out breath!

Utillian 5 v3 size reference 2

Dab Pen Voltage Settings

Depending on the wax vape you have, you might have a few different power settings to choose from. In general, the lower power settings will give you a lot more flavorful and lighter hits, while high temperatures will give you heavier hits at the expense of flavor. What works best for you all comes down to preference!

We’ve really come to prefer medium/low temperatures when tasting an especially high-quality and nice concentrate. For those hits paired with a bubbler, high temperatures are a good choice if you want to white-wall it and deliver a knockout dab-like high.

Utillian 5 Temp Settings

How to clean a dab pen?

Of course, this depends on the wax vape you have, the amount of material you run through it, and how often you clean. Wax vapes in general get surprisingly messy and gunked up over time, so keeping on top of maintenance is definitely recommended.

We recommend getting a few cotton swabs and some isopropyl alcohol to get started. Check out our herb vapes cleaning guide to find out more tips and where to buy iso alcohol for cleaning vapes!

Once you have your supplies, scrub all the non-coil parts with the Q-Tip until it’s all clean. This means the mouthpiece and atomizer assembly. If your wax vape uses a ceramic plate, then also scrub that with the cotton swab.

If your atomizer uses a coil setup, then just submerge that in a small glass of iso for 10 minutes or so and it should all dissolve quickly. 

Quickly rinse with clean water and dry before re-attaching and firing dry to let everything evaporate. You should have a minty clean wax vape after this!

Utillian 5 Wax Vaporizer Dissasembled

Dab Pens Guide Conclusion

We definitely recommend using smaller amounts rather than huge globs, unless your atomizer is specifically designed to do this. You’ll need up wasting precious wax, it’ll not taste quite so nice, and you’ll have to clean up far more often. Instead, do more small loads for better performance and maintenance.

Isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs are your best friend here and will make quick work of this residue and gunk which builds up super-fast. Cleaning is in our eyes the only real downside of wax vapes and if you stay on top of that, then you’ll have a healthy wax vape to keep you happy!

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