How To Clean a Grinder: Step-by-Step Guide

Cleaning your grinder, like cleaning anything, can be easy to forget about (especially for cannabis enthusiasts).

From sweeping up valuable kief to avoiding the struggle of breaking up buds with a sticky, dirty grinder — there are many benefits to regular grinder cleaning and maintenance.

From identifying the time to clean to the cleaning process that works best, we’re going to break down how to clean the most popular types of grinders in this guide.

Too Much Build-Up: When To Clean Your Grinder

Do you find yourself working extra hard to turn your grinder when sitting, trying to break down cannabis for a session?

If you’re working with a grinder that’s sticky, caked in gunk and residue — then you probably need to tell the pipe or papers to wait while you get down to some deep cleaning.

Your approach should, of course, depend on the type of grinder you use and the material it is made of.

Different types of herb grinders:

• Electric grinders can speed up and simplify the process of breaking down cannabis. They’re not as easy to clean as manual grinders and not as portable for the

  traveling stoner.

• Two-piece manual grinders are entry-level, standard, and most affordable. They possess two sides with interlocking sets of teeth for grinding.

• Three-piece manual grinders feature a similar design as two-piece grinders but one of the sides is filled with holes. Beneath the hole-filled side, the third piece acts as a receptacle for fallen, freshly ground cannabis.

• Four-piece manual grinders build off the three-piece design. The third piece down from the top instead features a fine screen, and beneath that, a fourth piece creates another compartment to catch even more finely sifted kief.

For daily users, plant matter and sticky residue accumulate in all of their grinder pieces.

If you don’t take care to remove and save this valuable cannabis material properly, you could miss out on a lot of valuable THC that could be repurposed for your vape or edibles.

Materials used for manual grinders:

• Wood

• Plastic (acrylic)

• Metal (stainless steel)

Cleaning Electric Grinders and Wooden Grinders

It’s not as easy to clean wooden and electric grinders as it is with plastic and metal ones. We recommend brushing your wooden or electric grinders out as often as possible to prevent buildup or sticky residue.

When there’s too much to brush off, gently clean with a towel soaked in warm water or olive oil. With electric grinders, always unplug before starting and keep your cleaning to the teeth areas only.

If you have a stainless-steel grinder or a plastic grinder, then you can make it look and work like new by following this brief guide.

The Ideal Herb Grinder Cleaning Process (Steel and Acrylic):

Step 1: Empty out all of the nugs and disassemble

Don’t forget to empty your grinder before cleaning it. Too many forgetful cannabis enthusiasts have lost valuable buds to thoughtlessly skipping this simple step.

For cannabis that’s stuck in the grinder’s teeth, use a toothpick to wedge it out and keep your grinder clean.

Once you’ve emptied out what you can, disassemble your grinder completely.

If you skip this step and try to clean your grinder while it’s assembled, you’re preventing yourself from efficiently attacking all of the plant material and gunk that lives in its nooks and crannies.

Step 2: Freeze your grinder, brush away residue

No matter how much residue and kief you’re able to clean off when initially disassembling your grinder, there will likely still be more.

To get at it easier, try freezing your grinder for at least an hour. Afterwards, you can go over it with a toothbrush or paintbrush to retrieve more crystallized trichomes, kief, and leftover plant residue. Kief contains highly concentrated cannabinoids and terpenes, which you can repurpose to use in your edibles or vaporizer.

Step 3: Soak or boil your grinder

This step will be determined by the material your grinder is made with. For those who use a stainless-steel metal grinder, you’re going to want to put the pieces of your grinder into a plastic bag, and then submerge them in just enough isopropyl alcohol (yes, just like with cleaning a bong). Leave the grinder pieces to soak for at least a half hour. We recommend a full hour if you have the time.

For those using acrylic grinders, you’re going to instead boil your grinder components in hot water for just one minute. Rubbing alcohol can damage plastic.

Step 4: Rewash with fresh isopropyl alcohol or water

Whether you use boiling water or rubbing alcohol, you’re going to discover that the cleaning liquid dilutes with the resin from the cannabis grinder.

Like with a bath, if the grinder is too dirty, then by the end it’s soaking in its own filth.

For true deep cleaning, re-soak your grinder components in a fresh Ziploc bag of isopropyl alcohol or warm water following Step Three.

Step 5: Cool, wipe down, and reassemble

Once you’ve double-soaked your grinder parts, it’s time to let them dry on a bed of paper towels. The towels can get nasty so making sure they’re disposable is recommended. Make sure to stack up a few to keep your counters clean.

Once the grinder components are dry, wipe them down, and reassemble. At this point, you should be ready to comfortably use your grinder.

FAQs About How To Clean a Grinder

Q: How do you remove rust from a metal grinder?

A: If your grinder is covered in rust, or too dirty in general — it’s worth remembering that these things go for as low as a few dollars online, with your average quality steel grinder costing only around $20. Consider picking up a new one before putting yourself through too much trouble. At the same time, if you really feel attached to your rusty grinder, then soaking and scrubbing it with white vinegar or baking soda is known to help.

Q: What happens if you boil your plastic grinder for longer than a minute?

A: The plastic will start to melt or warp. Some practitioners may even recommend skipping the boiling process altogether but a quick one is ideal for the deepest clean.

Q: How do you break up weed without a grinder?

A: Let’s say you don’t have the time to clean your grinder after smoking some cannabis flower, or you can’t find it, then it might be time to use the original herb grinder — your fingers!

It takes a little more time but it also puts you in touch with an ancient and meditative practice. If you use your fingers as your weed grinder, rubbing alcohol and olive oil are tried-and-true solutions for getting that sticky resin off them.

With a Clean Grinder, Enjoy Each Strain For What It Is

One of the best parts of using a grinder that's free of any leftover plant material is that you know the ground-up cannabis is purely the strain of weed you bought.

The longer the grinder goes between cleaning sessions, the more diluted each batch of ground-up buds will be with the remains of those ground up before them.

If you’re someone who likes to curate a specific strain of cannabis for a specific mood, then you could theoretically enjoy that strain better with a clean grinder. You can also find mood-specific strains at the Mood Shop today.