If you are a cannabis smoker, either for recreational use or for medicinal purposes, you could be like many others if you have an issue when it makes you cough. Let’s face it, just like with smoking tobacco, cannabis can cause severe throat and lung irritation over long term use even though you may enjoy or need the effects it brings to you.
One way cannabis smokers combat the cough and irritation is by using a bong or water pipe, whichever you prefer to call it. The bong is either a straight tube design or a beaker design.
Either one uses water that is housed in the chamber and allows the smoke to be filtered and cooled somewhat as you smoke it like a big pipe, so to speak.
Whether you are a fan of the straight tube bong or the beaker bong, there is an added feature that you can either get in the bong you purchase or you can add one to a bong you already have. It’s called a percolator.
Simply put, a percolator is an added filter that you can use to help cool and filter the smoke even further than what the existing water in the pipe does already.
How Are Percolators Designed?
The percolator can be designed in a dome-shaped pattern. However, in recent years it can be found in many different ways like showerheads and honeycombed designs. In many instances, it is a coiling device like you might see in a laboratory.
It is placed in the tube of the bong and it will also contain water to help further filter the smoke. The more the smoke is filtered through water, the less contaminated it is by small particles of cannabis or tobacco debris, and the less irritating it is.
How Do Percolators Work?
When you first pull on your bong and the smoke goes through the first water at the bottom of the chamber, when it reaches the percolator, it is then filtered a second time removing even more impurities and cooling the smoke even more.
It is allowing you to get to an even more purified smoke by the time it is inhaled because it is processed by water twice instead of just the one time with bongs without a percolator. The percolator also breaks down bubbles even further, which means the smoke becomes even cooler.
Does A Percolator Affect Your High or Medicinal Aspects?
If a percolator reduces the highness you achieve when using one in your bong, it is thought that it is so minuscule that it literally doesn’t change things that much.
While a percolator does not increase the THC absorption as some seem to think, and it does not, it will not decrease it enough to make a notable difference. Some small amount of THC can be lost using a percolator, but most people can not even tell the difference at all since THC is not soluble in water.
Using A Percolator With A Diffusor
One more device that can help cool down the smoke created by lighting and sucking on your bong is a diffuser. This gadget goes into the shaft below the bowl that leads to the water in the chamber of your bong. This tube has holes or slits at the end and when the smoke is sucked through it, it helps to create smaller bubbles.
The smaller bubbles it helps create in turn cools the smoke even more. It also helps to filter even more of the smoke before it even hits the percolator!
All of this might seem a little complicated for using a bong, but so many cannabis smokers swear by it. The percolator and even the diffuser help to filter the smoke thoroughly and make the smoke so much cooler. It reduces the irritation to the mouth, throat, and lungs by such a degree, many would not even consider using a bong without them.
