The perc seperates the smoke, allowing more filteration when it passes through the water. Same concept for a diffusor, it breaks up the smoke more so when it goes through the water its filtered more, meaning a much smoother hit.
Well a perc is just another filter to smooth the smoke out. Meaning less THC n shit in your lungs. I just bought this bong http://forum.grasscity.com/toking-tools/511312-new-bong-20-percs-ice-niches.html and i found that i get way higher if dont add water to the perc. But boy does the perc get dirty fast....
Dude, percs don't filter out thc. THC is not water soluble, meaning you don't lose thc. Filtering it just means a smoother hit, less tar and junk in the smoke. You don't lose any thc.
Okay well since i was using a pen as the downstem of my hoemmade bong, i just stabbed a buncha holes in the bottom of it, is it technicly the same thing?
Well there is turbulence ya know? But yeah I definitely doubt that he is experiencing it that much from one perc. 3 or more on the other hand... Some words of wisdom from Preston at StoneGlassWorks: "the sooner the smoke hits your lungs the more THC hits your bloodstream, so laminar flow is best because the smoke is rocketing straight up into your lungs. turbulance makes the smoke swirl inside the tube giving more of a chance for the THC to stick to the side of your tube. so essentially turbulance = loss of THC this is why none of my tubes have percs. my damned engineering backround wont let me make something i know defeats the whols purpose of burning the tree in the first place. hope this info helps and maybe even sheds light on why the bag disappears so fast when you have a tripple perc tube."
I gave this some more thought. You're right and everything I just said, though awesome , is beside the point. Whether there is water in the perc or not IS irrelevant like you say... its whether or not the perc is there interrupting laminar flow that matters. You know how when you go to clean your perc tubes there is always resin build up in two places: around the joint area and in the perc chambers. In straight tubes there is no second buildup area because there is no extra turbulence to cause more thc to stick. In metalace's case, water being in the perc shouldn't matter. It isn't the water that causes the thc to stick... its the pinball-style flow of the smoke down through the diffuser, up through the perc upstem, down through the arms and then up through the tube.
I could be completely wrong but it sounds like having water in the perc makes it so that there is more thc in the smoke than with no water in the perc because the smoke is not water soluble and the water covers up a lot of glass surface area allowing less thc to stick to the wall. I guess it all depends on how fast you rip it and how much airflow the individual tube gets.
That could potentially be true. The thc stuck to the tube is always above the waterline.... but who is to say that same amount of thc might stick without the water? It could just end up positioned lower and less concentrated throughout the chamber. I don't know.. just speculating.