The cannabis world has seen a lot of innovation in the past few years. If you’re not sure of the best way or how to smoke wax in 2021, you’re not alone. While there are plenty of ways on how to smoke wax, some are definitely better than others.
You deserve to have the best possible experience when smoking wax, so it’s worthwhile to learn which methods work best. Keep reading to learn about the best way I’ve found on how to smoke wax and how to use a wax dab rig most effectively.
What Are Wax Dabs & The Best Wax Rig for Smoking
Before getting into the details about the absolute best ways on how to smoke wax, let’s take a step back. To understand why some kinds of smoking rigs work better than others, it helps to understand what wax actually is.
Basically, wax is concentrated cannabis. If you look at a cannabis flower, you’ll see little gooey crystals all over the surface. Those crystals, known as trichomes, contain most of the THC, CBD, and terpenes found in weed. Wax is essentially just purified trichomes.
To make wax, cannabis is soaked in a solvent that dissolves those trichomes and most of the other cannabinoids in the plant. The plant material is strained out, then the resulting liquid is carefully treated to remove the solvent. Wax is produced by heating that liquid to evaporate the solvent, which leads to its unique texture.
It’s obvious why wax has its name. The cannabis concentrate produced through this method tends to be sticky, malleable, and a little gooey. Some types of wax can be brittle, but usually only if you try to break them. The exact consistency will depend on the extraction techniques used by the producer.
Wax is just one form of cannabis concentrate. Other types include shatter and crumble, which have very different textures. All kinds of cannabis concentrate, wax included, are popular for doing dabs. That brings us to the best ways on how to smoke wax: dab rigs.
The All in One Wax Dab Rig for You
If you’re ready to start on how to smoke wax the right way, the HAMR Cold Start Concentrate Rig is the best wax dab rig I’ve found for getting smooth, delicious hits. This elegant, clean rig is considered a “cold start” rig because you don’t heat it before smoking. That’s great for people who want to experience the flavor of their wax dabs instead of only tasting smoke.
Why does the HAMR work so well? It’s because cold start smoking never scorches the wax dabs. Instead, it melts and vaporizes the cannabinoids. It’s the difference between melting an ice cube and burning a block of wood. The result is a smooth, clean hit that’s easier on the lungs.
The HAMR comes as an all-in-one bundle, so you don’t need to worry about missing any important elements and can focus purely on how to smoke wax. You’ll receive the slanted glass pipe, the quartz finger banger, the stainless steel dabber, properly fitted silicone base and bubble cap, plus a SABR torch lighter. There’s no need to find a lighter that gets hot enough or try to find a mouthpiece that fits, since everything you need to get going is included. Plus, the HAMR also comes with a perfectly-sized carrying case, so you can discreetly carry your favorite wax dab rig with you wherever you go. It’s also great for keeping everything together between smoke sessions, so you don’t have to worry about your lighter or other components wandering off.
Personally, I love the HAMR. It’s one of the most pleasant smokes I’ve experienced thanks to the easy hits and the breezy transport. Making you fully able to focus on how to smoke wax smoothly and not worry about missing anything. There’s no wonder that cold start wax rigs, and the HAMR in particular, are quickly becoming more popular than old-school smoking methods for wax dabs.
How To Use a Dab Rig for Wax
If you’ve never used a dab rig, or you’ve never tried a cold start dab, then you might be confused about how to smoke wax correctly. Luckily, with the HAMR wax dab rig, you have everything you need to get started. All you need to do is practice the right technique.
Here’s how to use a wax dab rig the right way, assuming you’re using the HAMR model above:
- Take your wax dab and spread it on the nail. Remember, wax should be relatively malleable. Take a small amount of your wax and spread it onto the nail. The more wax that’s in contact with the nail, the faster you’ll be able to smoke it.
- Place the carbon cap over the nail. The cap covers the hole where you insert the wax. Without the carbon cap, the wax vapor will just disappear into the air instead of traveling through the pipe. Always make sure the carb is on securely before you do anything else.
- Burn the nail with the lighter. A cold start rig should start with a cold nail, not a hot one. This lets the wax heat up slowly instead of getting scorched right away. That’s why you want to burn the nail after spreading the wax. The HAMR’s silicone base includes a convenient slot that perfectly fits the SABR torch lighter that comes with the rig. It’s important to use a lighter that can get extremely hot. The SABR gets hot enough to properly vaporize the wax on the nail. Plus, you can neatly place it in the slot on the base and trust that it will hit the nail perfectly.
- Inhale through the mouthpiece. As the wax heats up, it will start to disappear. You should see bubbles in the water of the rig. Once you notice those bubbles, you can inhale through the mouthpiece like you would with other wax rigs or bongs.
- Lift the carb cap and finish the inhale. As you breathe in, slowly lift the carb cap to let air into the rig. You’re already breathing and pulling air through the rest of the rig. The vapor is on its way to your lungs. Lifting the carb cap now just lets extra air in to replace the vapor you’re breathing, so you don’t get stuck with a vacuum.
That’s all there is to it. Now you know all you need to know when it comes to how to smoke wax effectively.
Other Ways of Dabbing Wax
Of course, there are other ways on how to smoke wax. While dabbing wax is the most popular, you can try alternative methods like nectar collectors or vaporizers. While nectar collectors work similarly to other dab rigs, they have more moving parts, so it’s pretty easy to lose something between smoke sessions.
Meanwhile, with the vaporizer method, you insert wax into a vape rig. However, you need much higher temperatures than most vape rigs can safely handle to properly vaporize wax dabs. A vaporizer rig used to smoke wax will break much sooner than a dab rig or nectar collector.
Some people do try to smoke wax with a joint or a bowl, like they might with other forms of cannabis. However, these methods run into some problems. First, joints and bowls rarely get hot enough to fully vaporize the wax. Instead, it just gets burned, so the taste is altered in a way that you may not like. Second, you’re likely to lose some of the smoke to the air around you, which means you’re not getting as strong of a hit. Most people prefer to smoke wax with a dedicated rig because it’s simpler and more effective than any other method.
Do Dabs Smell?
Not only do people ask “how to smoke wax” but also, “Do dabs smell?” The short answer is yes, they do. Cannabis has such a potent scent that it’s almost impossible to smoke it without a smell. However, when dabbing wax, you’ll notice much less of a smell than with pretty much any other method. If you live with other people, dabbing is a much less intrusive way to smoke wax than alternatives like blunts and bongs.
There are a few reasons for this. First, dabs contain a lot of the smell and filter it out. The water collects unpleasant scents, and the glass keeps the smell from escaping into the room before you breathe it in. The only scent that makes it into the room is the vapor you exhale and the tiny amount that escapes through the carb when you breathe in.
Second, you’re not burning the wax with a cold start rig. You’re vaporizing it. That means that there’s much less of a “smoky,” harsh smell and a more natural herbaceous odor instead. The scent is still that of marijuana, but it’s closer to fresh bud than a burnt blunt.
Finally, since you’re vaporizing it, the smell doesn’t linger as long as it does with smoke. Vapor settles out of the air instead of clinging to things as smoke particles do, so you won’t smell it as long.
There are just three things you need to remember: First, better-quality wax will have a stronger smell since the terpenes were preserved during processing. Second, using less wax obviously leads to less of a scent. If you’re trying to be discreet, it’s better to use a small amount of strong wax instead of a lot of weaker wax or bud. Lastly, depending on the method you choose when it comes to “how to smoke wax” will depend on the smell. Like we said vaporizing it with the wax dab rig is the best in our opinion as if you use a blunt the smell would be more apparent.
Bottom Line
So, that’s how to smoke wax the right way. With a high-quality cold start rig like the HAMR, you can smoke wax dabs that are cleaner and smoother than any other method. While dabbing wax does have a smell, it’s still less obvious and easier to contain than other ways to smoke wax. If you’re ready to get a wax dab rig that makes it easy to smoke wax anywhere, the HAMR is a great choice. Start practicing how to smoke wax and other cannabis concentrates as soon as possible, with the HAMR Cold Start Concentrate Rig.
