Dab Reclaim: What It Is and What To Do With It

Dab reclaim is the amber or golden material that collects in your drop down and the bottom of your rig after enough sessions. It is not the same as ash or resin from flower, and it is not a sign you are doing anything wrong. It is simply what did not make it into the vapor.

This guide covers what reclaim actually is, how to get it out of your rig, how to get the water out of it, and how to stop it collecting in the first place.

What is dab reclaim?

When you take a dab, not all of the material vaporizes and reaches you. Some of it cools on the way through the rig and condenses on the glass, usually in the drop down or the downstem where the vapor first hits cooler surfaces. That condensed material is reclaim.

It is typically gold, amber or dark brown, and it thickens as it builds. Left long enough it separates from the glass and floats in the rig water in small beads.

Reclaim is already spent material. It has been through heat once, most of the terpenes that carried the flavor are long gone, and what is left has been changed by that heat. It is not a second serving of what you started with, and it will not behave like it.

Why reclaim buildup is a problem for your rig

Reclaim is sticky, and it compounds. Once a layer of it coats the inside of your glass, every session adds to it faster than the last, because there is more surface for vapor to condense onto.

What that costs you:

• Airflow. A rig with buildup is noticeably harder to pull through.
• Flavor. Vapor passing over old material picks up its taste.
• Vapor. More of every dab gets captured in the reclaim instead of reaching you.

Clean water and clean glass are most of the difference between a rig that works and one that does not.

How to get reclaim out of your rig

Which method you use depends on how much has built up and whether you plan to keep it.

Pour and collect

For small amounts, pour the water out slowly and catch the beads of reclaim as they come. Go slowly or they leave with the water. Easiest method, least thorough.

Hot water

For heavier buildup, pour boiling water through the rig. It softens the reclaim and carries it out. Again, pour slowly into a container if you intend to keep what comes out.

Gentle heat onto parchment

Once the piece is dry, hold the rig or drop down over parchment paper or a non-stick mat and apply gentle warmth, a hair dryer is enough. The reclaim softens and runs onto the paper.

Keep the heat low and patient. Overheating it here degrades the material further, and you are trying to move it, not cook it.

Isopropyl alcohol

For a rig you simply want clean, isopropyl alcohol breaks reclaim down quickly. Use this when you are discarding the reclaim rather than keeping it, because you cannot fully separate the alcohol from what is left behind.

If cleaning is the whole goal, the same principles apply to the rest of your setup. See How to Clean a Quartz Banger and How to Clean an Enail.

How to get the water out of reclaim

This is the part most people get stuck on. Reclaim pulled out of a rig comes out wet, and water and reclaim do not want to separate on their own.

Two things work, and both come down to patience.

Let it evaporate

1. Spread the wet reclaim thinly on parchment paper or a non-stick mat. Thin matters more than anything else here, because surface area is what drives evaporation.
2. Leave it somewhere warm, dry and out of the way. A day or two is normal.
3. It is done when it stops looking wet and starts behaving like a solid rather than a syrup.

Low, gentle warmth

You can speed evaporation with very low heat, a warm surface or a hair dryer on its lowest setting held well back. The water leaves before the reclaim does.

The mistake to avoid is heat. Rushing this with high heat drives water off quickly but degrades what you were trying to keep. If you are in a hurry, spread it thinner rather than turning the heat up.

Reclaim that still has water in it will sputter and pop, which is the usual reason people go looking for how to dry it in the first place.

Can you smoke reclaim?

Yes. Plenty of people do.

What to expect:

• The flavor is gone. Terpenes are the first thing driven off by heat, and reclaim has already been heated. It tastes of the process, not the material.
• It is spent material. Whatever made the original dab good is largely what already reached you the first time.
• Quality in, quality out. Reclaim from clean material in a clean rig is a different thing from reclaim scraped out of glass that has not been cleaned in months.

One thing we will not recommend: if you cleaned your rig with isopropyl alcohol or any other cleaner, that reclaim is for disposal. You cannot reliably separate a solvent from it afterwards, and there is no good reason to try.

Beyond that it is your call. A lot of people just throw it out and stick with fresh material.

How to stop reclaim reaching your rig

Everything above is easier if less reclaim gets into the rig to begin with. Three pieces of hardware do that job, in ascending order of how completely they solve it.

Glass Drop Down

The 14mm Glass Drop Down sits between your rig and your nail and lowers the position of the enail and banger. It protects the glass joint from heat, and because it is the first cool surface the vapor meets, it is where the reclaim collects instead of in your rig.

That makes cleanup a matter of emptying one small removable piece rather than stripping down the whole rig. At $34.99 it is the cheapest fix on this list and the one most people should start with.

Silicone Reclaim Catcher

The Silicone Reclaim Catcher is purpose-built for this and nothing else. It catches reclaim before it reaches the water, and because it is silicone, the collected material releases cleanly rather than needing to be scraped or soaked out.

Glass Reclaimer Rig

The Glass Reclaimer Rig builds the solution into the rig itself: handcrafted borosilicate with a built-in reclaim catcher, a six-slit perc and a bent neck. Made in Washington with Jeff Glass Art. If you dab daily and reclaim is a recurring chore rather than an occasional one, this is the version that stops it being a chore at all.

The rest of the range is in glassware and dab rigs.

Frequently asked

What is reclaim from dabbing?

Reclaim is the material that condenses inside your rig and drop down after a dab instead of reaching you as vapor. It is usually gold or amber, gets darker and thicker as it builds, and it is already spent material rather than a second serving of what you started with.

How do you get water out of reclaim?

Spread it thinly on parchment paper or a non-stick mat and let it evaporate somewhere warm and dry, which usually takes a day or two. Very low heat speeds it up. Do not use high heat, because it drives the water off but degrades the reclaim with it. If it is still wet it will sputter.

Can you smoke reclaim from a dab rig?

Yes, people do. Expect very little flavor, because the terpenes were driven off the first time it was heated. Reclaim that was removed using isopropyl alcohol or any other cleaner should be thrown away rather than used.

How do you get reclaim out of a dab rig?

Pour the water out slowly and collect the beads, use boiling water for heavier buildup, or dry the piece and apply gentle warmth over parchment paper so the reclaim runs off. Isopropyl alcohol is fastest but makes the reclaim unusable.

How do I stop reclaim building up?

Use a drop down, a reclaim catcher or a rig with a catcher built in, so reclaim collects somewhere removable instead of coating the inside of your glass. Changing your water regularly does the rest.

Is reclaim the same as resin?

No. Resin is the byproduct of combustion, from burning flower. Reclaim comes from vaporizing concentrate and never involves combustion, which is why it looks and behaves differently.

The short version

Reclaim is spent material that condensed before it reached you. Get it out with slow pouring, hot water or gentle heat over parchment, dry it thin and slow rather than hot and fast, and skip anything that has been through a cleaner. Better still, catch it before it reaches the rig with a drop down and change your water more often than you think you need to.