How To Clean a Weed Grinder

If you consider yourself the modern bud connoisseur, you already know that a weed grinder is one of the most valuable smoking accessories a stoner can own. It just makes the process of preparing your herb seamless while protecting you from sticky fingers at all times. However, even though your hands might not get dirty, your grinder certainly will, and knowing how to clean a weed grinder properly is an advantage you want to have.

Keeping a clean grinder means that you care about what kind of smoke you’re allowing into your lungs. Even though it might seem pretty simple at first glance, the procedure of cleaning your cannabis grinder can vary from one piece to another, depending on the materials used for its creation.

That being said, stick around to find out what’s the best way to clean weed grinder, as well as explore various preservation practices that will help keep your piece timelessly sterile.

What Is A Weed Grinder?

Before we get into the grinder cleaning specifics, there are probably a few of you who are just starting out your smoking adventures and might need to be more familiar with the concept. So, what is a weed grinder, and how is it used?

If we know one thing, it’s that bud is becoming more concentrated and stickier by the day, and crushing it with your bare fingers can certainly be a tedious process. This is where a grinder comes in quite handy, as smokers can use it to turn even the stickiest cannabis buds into a fine-grained, smokable texture that’s easy to roll.

The benefits of grinding weed are quite substantial, especially if you’re a daily user or constantly on the go. Using a weed grinder will halve the time spent between opening your zip lock bag and holding a perfectly rolled doobie between your fingers. Don’t get us started on how fast you can pack a bowl!

Weed Grinder Materials

When asking yourself how to clean a grinder for weed, it’s important to first take into consideration the various materials they are made out of. Each of them is cleaned a bit differently than the other, depending on what the material can withstand. During your search, you might stumble upon:

• Wooden grinders: If you want to go back to the old-school ways, wooden grinders are a great way to do so! However, this type of material isn’t as resistant as the others.
• Plastic grinders: If you're on a tight budget, a plastic grinder is your best bet. It might not be as durable as its metal counterparts, but it can serve you for quite a few years, with regular maintenance, of course.
• Metal grinders: For a couple of bucks, your best option is definitely a metal grinder. These are usually indestructible but can corrode at some point.
• Titanium grinders: If you want to take it up a notch and equip yourself with a conversation piece, there are some titanium alternatives out there that certainly strike the eye. These can last you up to decades, as they don’t corrode.

Grinder Mechanisms

Mainly, a cannabis grinder is categorized by the mechanism it houses within its chambers, and there are quite a few, including:

• Twist-and-turn grinders: The most commonly used weed grinder type. All you need to do is place your bud in the grinding chamber and give it a few twists.
• Hand-crank grinders: Hand-crank grinders lean towards the luxurious side however, they still come at a relatively affordable price. The mechanism works similarly to what you would find inside a black pepper grinder, where you spin a handle on the top and get your ground product inside the bottom chamber.
• Grinder cards: Not your typical daily driver. Think of grinder cards as graters, just place your bud on the designated grinding spot and grate it into tiny pieces.

How Many Pieces Does A Grinder Come In With

On the other hand, you will also see a difference between grinders when it comes to the number of pieces and chambers they are comprised of. You’ll be able to find:

• Two-piece grinders: Featuring a single grinding chamber that can simultaneously store your ground flower.
• Three-piece grinders: These feature a combination of two chambers. You can opt for the grinding and storage chamber or the grinding and kief collection chamber.
• Four-piece grinders: Housing three chambers in total, including a grinding chamber, a storage chamber where the ground bud falls into, and a kief catcher on the bottom.

How To Use A Weed Grinder?

For those who are still new to the game, let’s touch base on how to use a weed grinder and get your bud sorted out as quickly as possible. The process is quite simple, just place your herb in the grinding chamber, close it up, give it a few twists, and let the sharp teeth do their thing.

Depending on whether you are using a two-piece or a three-piece and above, your ground cannabis can be found in either the grinding chamber or the designated storage chamber located in the middle. Open your grinder to access your freshly ground herb and enjoy a delightful smoking experience.

Cleaning Preparations

Now that we’ve gone over everything that you need to know about the concept, it’s time to have a look at how to clean a weed grinder efficiently. Before starting the cleaning process, you would ideally want to equip yourself with a few necessary supplies and familiarize yourself with its structure to take it apart. Let’s have a look.

Equipping Yourself With The Necessary Supplies

Most stoners will resort to giving their dirty, old grinder a splash of water and some gentle rinsing. While warm water might be effective at cleaning some residue and dirt away from your grinder, using that alone will not give you that sparkly, out-of-the-box appearance you might be looking for. Here’s a list of supplies that you can use to keep your grinder clean at all times:

• Water: Even using water goes without saying it is one of the most obvious tools at your disposal. If you have a metal grinder that’s not made of stainless steel or aluminum, we’d advise you to be extra careful with water so any type of corrosion will be avoided.
• Alcohol: Nothing like a good bottle of isopropyl alcohol to get rid of those pesky, gooey residues that somehow always find their way into the tightest spots of your grinder.
• Scraper: If you’re using a three-piece or a four-piece grinder, it’s highly likely that there is a little scraping tool stored in the kief collection compartment. Open up yours and see if you can find one. If not, that’s okay, as any pin or needle will do.
• Toothbrush: It would be advisable to equip yourself with a soft toothbrush to rinse off any bud residue. Be careful not to go for a hard one, as it might damage your grinder, depending on what it’s made of.
• Soft brush: Another extra supply that you can use to dust off any remaining kief residue that you want to get rid of. If you can’t find one, the toothbrush alone will do just fine.
• Zip lock bag: Used to fill up with alcohol and soak your grinder in for a deep clean. A medium-sized zip lock bag should do the trick. If unavailable to you, you can use a pot or a small bowl and fill it up with alcohol for soaking purposes.
• Paper towels: Generally, any non-abrasive towel will do. However, considering their high drying capabilities, we recommend sticking to a paper towel.

Taking Your Grinder Apart

Once you’ve equipped yourself with all the right tools, you’re ready to start the cleaning process. However, you can’t simply throw the whole thing in water or alcohol and expect immediate cleanliness. You will need to disassemble your grinder and clean each piece individually. Whether you have a two-piece, a three-piece, or a four-piece, everything needs to be taken apart and cleaned individually.

Cleaning Methods

There are two types of stoners out there: the lazy stoner and the productive stoner. The category that you identify yourself with will help you determine which cleaning method is your best choice for getting the job done.

You can either choose to take the simple route and risk having some leftover residue within your grinder’s chambers even after cleaning, or you can take the more advanced approach. Let’s examine both of them and determine which is best for you.

Performing a Basic Clean

If you would prefer not to spend too much time cleaning your grinder, the basic method is quite easy and requires as little as a few minutes of your time. Follow our step-by-step instructions below for a quick scrub and get your grinder back to work in no time:

1. Disassemble your grinder: Place your grinder on a clean surface and start taking it apart. All of the individual pieces should come off relatively easily. Some of them might be magnetic, and some of them might need a few twists to pull apart.
2. Soak your grinder in alcohol: After disassembling your grinder, take all of the individual pieces and place them in isopropyl alcohol for soaking. This can be done using a medium-sized zip lock bag or a small bowl that fits enough alcohol to submerge all of your grinder’s components. Take a moment to chill and let your grinder soak in the solution for about 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Scrub your grinder: Using a soft toothbrush, rinse every visible corner of your grinder’s components until you are certain that no residues are left. Make sure to pay extra attention to your grinder’s spikes, as they typically accumulate the most dirt and trichomes.
4. Scrape any leftover residue in the corners: If your grinder does come with a tiny scraper, use it to go over the interior corners, removing any sticky residues that might have gotten stuck.
5. Rinse with warm water: For those who wonder how to clean a weed grinder with water only, unfortunately, that won’t get you very far. However, it is a crucial part of the cleaning process. After you’ve scraped all residue from your grinder, wash the pieces one by one under a tap.
6. Dry your grinder: If you’re eager to get your grinder back in action, take some paper towels and ensure that you remove all moisture from the pieces, as you don’t want your cannabis getting wet. If patience is one of your virtues, place all of the individual pieces on top of a few layers of paper towels and let them air-dry for about an hour.
7. Grind away: Congratulations, your grinder is now squeaky clean and ready to be used!

Performing a Deep Clean

They say that there is no point in doing something if you don’t give it your best. In order to achieve that brand-new look, we recommend giving your grinder a deep clean now and then to ensure utmost efficiency during your weed preparation processes.

While this method might take a bit longer to perform than the basic one, you will rest assured knowing that your smoking experience is as clean as it can get. Let’s take a look at the steps necessary:

1. Disassemble your grinder: By now, you’re probably already familiar with the disassembling process. Make sure that all of the individual pieces that shape your grinder are disconnected from each other, and place them on a clean surface. Be careful of spilling any ground bud you had saved up, though!
2. Scrape off any visible residue: Using the scraper that comes with your grinder, collect all of the plant matter into a grinding tray or a small plate. You don’t have to put too much effort into this, as in this step we are only focusing on the visible residue that’s easy to remove.
3. Freeze your grinder: Here’s where most cannabis users get confused, freezing your grinder? Considering that most of the plant matter that tends to build up on the edges of your grinder is gooey resin, freezing it makes it significantly easier to scrape off. Place all of your grinder’s components inside your freezer, sitting in an upright position, and leave them inside for at least 30 minutes.
4. Scrape frozen plant residue: Once the trichomes have frozen, you can easily remove the sticky residue from your grinder by taking it out of the freezer. Instead of scraping every little bit for hours, this will shorten the process to a few minutes. You'll see big chunks separating from the interior corners as soon as you make a single scrape with a toothpick.
5. Soak your grinder in alcohol: Place your grinder in an isopropyl alcohol solution and let it soak for about 20 to 30 minutes. Again, you can either use a zip lock bag or a tiny bowl capable of fitting all the individual grinder pieces.
6. Brush off any remaining residue: As you remove your grinder’s components from the alcohol solution, scrub them thoroughly using a soft brush. The amount of effort you should put into this purely depends on the material your grinder is made out of. 
7. Rinse with warm water: Once you are certain that all residue is removed, rinse all the individual pieces under the tap with warm water.
8. Dry your grinder: For the impatient ones, you can use a couple of paper towels to dry your grinder manually. If you don’t mind waiting for an hour, place the individual pieces on a few layers of paper towels facing downright and let them air-dry.
9. Smoke: Assemble your grinder to its original shape and let the sesh begin!

Cleaning Different Grinder Types

As previously mentioned, the material your grinder is made out of determines which practices you should utilize to clean it. You don’t want to find yourself using harsh methods to clean a delicate piece, as it will damage its integrity and even affect the grinding capabilities it bears. Generally, the cleaning process is the same for all grinder material types, however, some steps should be skipped every now and then. Let’s have a look.

Cleaning Metal Grinders

Metal grinders are the easiest to clean, considering the strength and resilience of the material. If you want to know how to clean a metal weed grinder, you already have the answer! Both the basic and deep clean methods should do the job just fine if the metal is not corrosive.

The same rules apply if you own a stainless steel, aluminum, or even titanium grinder. However, if you have a regular metal grinder with no corrosion resistance, we advise you to reduce contact with water as much as possible to avoid rust accumulation.

Cleaning Plastic Grinders

If you’re asking yourself how to clean a plastic weed grinder, there are a few things that you should avoid, with alcohol being the first one on the list. Even though lower percentages of alcohol are deemed harmless for plastics, higher percentages have a different effect. If left soaked in alcohol for an extended period of time, plastic grinders can release a chemical that you want to avoid at all costs. Water rinsing, however, will do wonders.

Another thing that you should avoid is scraping or brushing too aggressively, as you might damage your grinder and release tiny bits of microplastics. Even though rinsing should remove these, they are microscopic, and some can linger around even after a wash.

Cleaning Wooden Grinders

Considering that we are in the 21st century, owning a wooden grinder is highly unlikely. If you do have one, however, there are a few things that you should keep an eye on. Alcohol is a no-go, as it can tear off any polish or wood residue that might find itself in your weed and, ultimately, into your lungs. Stick to water on this one unless it’s made out of cheap wood that might inflate.

Similarly to plastic grinders, scraping wooden grinders too hard is a no-go as well. Wood is even lighter than plastic, so wooden microparticles can be unintentionally extracted if not careful.

Ensuring Grinder Efficiency 

This goes for pretty much everything in life. However, if you want your grinder to last, you have to be willing to put in the work regularly. Let’s look at what you need to do to ensure an elongated lifespan.

Cleaning Schedule

It is preferable to perform a deep clean on your grinder at least once within a period of 6 months. This will help you ensure that what you are smoking is always on the clean side, as well as maintain the sharpness of your grinder’s teeth.

Common Cleaning Mistakes

You should always do some amount of research before cleaning your grinder. This way, you will keep your grinder’s integrity intact at all times. There are a couple of things that you should always avoid, including:

• Using harsh chemicals: Do not use any other chemical solution to soak your grinder. Isopropyl alcohol is generally safe because it doesn’t release any chemicals unless the material itself reacts upon contact.
• Over-soaking components: Restrain yourself from letting your grinder components soak in alcohol for a period longer than 30 minutes.

Cleaning Your Grinder: Final Thoughts

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you have now learned how to clean a weed grinder properly. Considering that most of the supplies required for both the basic and the deep clean methods are typical household items, you shouldn’t run into too much trouble finding them.

Remember that regular cleaning is key to a safe smoking experience, as well as an elongated lifespan of your grinder in general. If, in any case, you forget the steps after 6 months, you can always come back to our guide and remind yourself. Happy smoking!

FAQ

1. How long does it take to clean a cannabis grinder?

Depending on how you clean your weed grinder, the entire process shouldn’t take more than an hour. This includes leaving your grinder to soak in alcohol and freezing it, so realistically, you’re looking at about 10 minutes of manual labor.

2. What is the best method to clean a cannabis grinder?

There are two types of methods that you can use to clean your grinder efficiently: the basic method and the deep clean method. Both are going to do the work just fine, however, the deep clean method does pay more attention to the details and is generally safer.

3. How often should I clean my cannabis grinder?

You should thoroughly clean your grinder at least once every six months. If you are a heavy smoker and constantly battle with a dirty grinder, you can do it once every three months.