Hey, so I recently bought a glass ice/perculator bong and I was wondering what it does? I searched around for it but found nothing. If anything I've heard it cools the smoke down, but that's about it. If anyone can tell me that would be ace, thanks
3 things mostly: They filter the smoke; they filter out some of the harsher elements in the smoke, at the cost of also filtering out some THC and other good things They humidify the smoke; by bubbling the smoke through some water you add some moisture to it which makes the smoke a bit less harsh on the lungs, some medical breathing devices often have percolators installed on them to prevent the dry air from irritating the patients lungs. Hot water adds more moisture, but also filters out more good stuff, your call. They "cool down" the smoke; now this one has some butts to it, as the smoke in a bong cools down pretty rapidly on it's own even without a perc or pre cooler. And if you have already added ice to your bong the cooling effect of a perc becomes irrelevant. Even the smoke from a joint is pretty cool until you start reaching the end, so it mostly filters some of the smoke and adds some humidity. One of the biggest uses of percolators is in the form of an ashcatcher, which you add to your bong and it basically traps most of the dirt so your bong will stay cleaner.
The basic principle is that we want to maximize the amount of smoke that comes into contact with water to, as was already said, cool down and filter the smoke. So if you have one large smoke bubble vs. many small bubbles, the small bubbles add up to a much greater surface area coming into contact with the water. The trade off being, the more you filter, the more flavor you lose. Of course there are more nuances to it than that, but generally speaking this is how it works. Me personally, I value cooler, cleaner smoke than flavor. My lungs are more important!
Aaah I see! Thank you both. I had heard about the ashcatcher beforehand but I wasn't too sure about hwo it worked. I was wondering why my bong had more of a smooth, mellow hit to it compared to other bongs I've had in the past. Glad I got it now! Time to buy some ice cubes to test the ice bong factor out, haha.
when you have another water chamber along the neck, and that chamber has some tubing intrications, it keeps the smoke in contact with glass and under water for way longer. the more time under water the better i guess, but not that simple. percs basically slow the smoke down too so it doesnt get to your mouth right away, so you can stack up the smoke for rips
I'm willing to bet this guy is just some other stoner. That's why this post makes sense...grab me a beer please!!!??
Damn straight! But i used to do some small scale glassblowing myself so i learned a lot about waterpipe functionality, but when i actually started i realized i was in way over my head so i mostly stuck to smaller pieces like pendants Been years tho...