The Truth About Dirty ISO (And How It Low-Key Messed Up My Glass)” By Queenee Da Kritic
Let me start by saying this:
I am NOT perfect with my dab tools — and I’ve done some damage because of it.
People think because I’m a dab educator that I know everything. Nope. My education comes from the patient perspective of someone who is still learning. I aim for constant education and not perfection. I learned a LOT of this the hard way, and dirty ISO was one of my biggest mistakes that I was making as a medical dabber.
I remember the first time someone at a sesh pointed it out to me. I was not properly cleaning my banger before dunking it into my dunk tank and my ISO was quickly going from crispy clear to brown and dirty.
I was dabbing with someone who had way more experience than me, and we were using my tank. When he noticed I was dunking right after I dabbed he looked at me and said, “Queenee, your ISO is getting dirty faster because you’re not swabbing off the excess reclaim before dunking. You’re doing this glass wrong and you are probably going through your iso supply quicker.”
And honestly? He was right.
I had been dunking my hot quartz into the same ISO over and over, not pre-cleaning, not paying attention, and the residue started building up so bad that my slurper plate literally disconnected from the base at a sesh.
It wasn’t the glass.
It wasn’t the maker.
It was me not taking care of it.
I was treating high-quality glass like it was replaceable — and with how much we spend on this stuff? It’s not.
Apex Ancillary XL ISO Station
Why dirty ISO messes up your tools
Here’s the thing nobody told me when I started:
When you dunk a hot banger into dirty ISO, all the burnt oil, reclaim, carbon flakes, and tiny particles get pulled right back onto the quartz.
It cools unevenly → thermal shock
It scratches the surface → chazz/cloudy quartz
It sticks to the joints → broken slurper plates
And it’s not just me saying it.
Glass blowers and quartz companies have been saying the same thing:
Hot → cold dunking causes stress fractures
Dirty ISO can re-deposit gunk instead of removing it
Residue buildup can weaken the connection points on slurpers
Milky ISO = milky quartz
The pre-clean:
Once I realized the problem, I changed one thing that made ALL the difference:
I started pre-cleaning with a Glob Mop before dunking.
Here’s my exact routine now:
Mop out the banger (while it’s warm but not hot)
→ gets rid of oil, char, and leftovers
THEN dunk into ISO
→ clean ISO actually stays clean longer
Replace ISO when it’s cloudy — not every hit
→ realistic AND good for the glass
This one little step keeps my dunk tank from turning into a muddy tank of burnt oil and reclaim — and it’s the reason my quartz looks so much cleaner now.
Why this matters (especially for medical dabbers like me)
Clean tools = clean medicine.
And for me, this isn’t about being “bougie” or looking aesthetic on Instagram.
It’s about managing:
endometriosis pain
fibromyalgia flare-ups
inflammation
anxiety
sleep
Dirty glass gives you harsh hits, more coughing, more irritation, and honestly? Less relief.
I need every sesh to count — and clean tools make a HUGE difference in how I receive my medicine.
Tips to keep your ISO cleaner, longer
Here are realistic ways to stretch your ISO WITHOUT destroying your glass:
Pre-clean with a Glob Mop every time
Don’t dunk when the banger is too hot
Keep your ISO covered so it doesn’t evaporate
Switch it out as soon as it gets cloudy
Use a smaller dunk tank so you waste less
Pour old ISO through a coffee filter to remove particles
These are things you can do without going through a bottle a day.
If nobody’s told you this before, let me be the one:
MAKE SURE YOU PRE CLEAN YOUR GLASS BEFORE DUNKING!
Because we dab smarter over here, not harder.