Flowermate V5 Nano

Everything on the Nano happens under a plastic sliding door on top of the body: the ground load presses straight onto the walls of the black ceramic chamber, and vapour leaves through a screen at the base of the bowl. The glass mouthpiece causes the second half of the problem, because it pulls apart and lives in a storage slot cut into the body between sessions, so it has to be dry and clean before it gets put away.

1. Brush the chamber warm: Tip the spent load out and sweep the ceramic with the supplied brush after each session, while the chamber is still warm but not hot to touch. Black ceramic does not discolour the way a steel oven does, so judge by draw resistance and smell instead of by how the bowl looks.

2. Blow the screen clear first: A short breath back down the mouthpiece shifts loose particles off the screen before any solvent is needed. Five spare mouthpiece and chamber screens ship with the Nano, so fit a new one rather than picking at one that stays blocked.

3. Wash the borosilicate: Take the mouthpiece off the top of the body and separate it. Isopropyl lifts baked residue from the glass quickly, though warm water is the gentler option Flowermate specifies for V5 series glass. Either way, dry it completely before it slides back into the stash slot.

4. Swab the ceramic, never flood it: A cotton bud damp with isopropyl clears the chamber walls. Keep it from dripping and keep alcohol out of the airpath beneath the chamber screen, since the heater sits below that.

5. Wipe the door and the shell: The plastic lid and the aluminium housing take a damp cloth only. Grit in the runner is what makes the door feel stiff, so clean the track as well as the lid.

6. Strip the concentrate pod: Unscrew the cap, pull the old cotton out, and sit the metal pod and its lid in 91 percent or stronger isopropyl until the alcohol changes colour. Rinse, dry, then fit fresh cotton. The stainless dry herb pod and the loading cap can share that soak.

7. Remove the 18650 first: The cell lifts out of a drawer in the body and should be out before any wet work. That drawer catch is fiddly on this model, so ease it rather than force it, and match the stock 2500mAh rating if you buy spares.

Brush after every bowl and strip it fully every week or two of steady use. Alcohol on the first draw means something went back together wet, so dry it again rather than vape through it. Grind medium fine and tamp lightly, because dust from a fine grind is what packs the chamber screen solid.