What are Percolator Bongs?
If you’ve spent any time around glass bongs, you’ve surely seen or at least heard the term ‘percolator bongs’. But that doesn’t mean you’re familiar with how they work or what their purpose is. Commonly referred to as a ‘perc’ bong, percolator bongs are water pipes that diffuse the cannabis smoke before it enters your lungs, making it much easier to inhale.
You accomplish this by forcing the smoke to filter through the water before it even reaches your lips. You know that sound you hear while a bong is in use? That is the percolation in action! And in this article, you’ll find out some of the most popular types of percolator glass bongs such as tree, honeycomb, and showerhead, in addition to what benefits percolator bongs have to offer.
Different Types of Percolator Bongs
Percolators, similar to ice catchers, are a great option to remove excess heat and harshness while maintaining and accentuating the cannabis flavor. Nonetheless, different glass bong percolators will achieve this in different ways. They will also add a unique aesthetic to the piece to allow the bong to stand out from the crowd. With the many types of glass perc bongs out there, let’s discuss a few of the more popular varieties now.
Tree Percs
Tree perc bongs get their name from, you guessed it, their appearance resembling that of a tree. This makes them easily recognizable via the various slitted arms that branch out in a tree-like manner. The smoke travels through the central tube before it travels down the arms where it’s filtered by the slits at the bottom, which diffuse bubbles into the bong.
The more arms your tree perc features, the more filtration you’ll receive. Just be aware that all that filtration typically comes with a difficult cleaning process. Since they break up the smoke so well, buildup accumulates much faster than other percolator options.
Showerhead Percs
Another fairly popular type of percolator bong would have to be the showerhead perc water pipe. And just like the tree percolator bong, it garners its name from its appearance of looking like that of a showerhead. When you inhale, you force the smoke through several tubes that blast it out into the main piece’s body by a Showerhead percolator.
You typically use this perc in conjunction with other percs to achieve killer diffusion. This perc’s radial symmetry ensures uniform distribution of smoke bubbles but does not disperse them as finely as some of the more sophisticated percs available. As a result, showerhead percs require less cleaning but might increase pull resistance depending on the size of the bottom slits.
Honeycomb Percs
The most simple out of all the glass perc bong designs is the honeycomb perc, hands down. Some would argue it’s the prettiest percolator glass bong to boot. Personal taste aside, they feature a flat disc with studded holes grouped together in a honeycomb pattern. They are aligned and parallel to the bong’s base, providing a straight cooling path for the filtration.
You’ll typically find multiple percs of this nature where they stack them on top of one another to allow for improved function. They depend on the tensile strength of water to keep a tiny sheet of water from dripping through each of the small holes. However, the thin layer of water does not provide the smoke much contact to cool or filter, leading to a lot of bubbles splitting and diffusion.
Percolator Bong Benefits
This may sound great and all, but you’re probably looking for some more information on how beneficial perc bongs can be. In this section, we will discuss some of the reasons why you need to add a percolator glass bong to your collection.
Improved High
Those who swear by percolator bongs will tell you that the smooth, filtered smoke they produce provides a superior smoking experience to that of a traditional bong without a percolator. Now, everyone is different, so this sentiment may not apply to you.
Consumers claim that using a glass perc bong makes smoking more intense since the condensed smoke makes inhaling rips stronger and faster. Which makes percolator bongs the ideal choice for those who place a priority on the effects of the high over everything else.
Improved Filtration
Another primary reason for using percolator glass bongs is to provide unmatched filtration, along with diffusion, which has countless smokers moving away from the traditional, non-percolator bongs. Have you ever heard someone say they ‘can’t get enough of that unfiltered, nasty hot smoke?’ Of course not! Therefore, you will never hear anyone say ‘’there are too many percolators in this bong.”
Improved Flavor
You’ll find that most people who smoke cannabis do so for the effects that it produces. That doesn’t mean that all consumers couldn’t care less about flavor. There are many people who would place top-notch flavor over the effects of cannabis. Percolator glass bongs are ideal for these types of smokers.
They extract the purest of vapor from your cannabis and hold it for a while. This allows you to reach those lofty highs that so many crave. All of this, with a minimal amount of drag. Hence, another benefit that comes with this improved high is the improved flavor that everyone seems to love.
Wrapping Things Up
Since you’ve reached this article’s conclusion, you should now be well-versed in what are glass percolator bongs, some of the more common varieties, and the benefits of owning one. This should make your decision on which perc bong type is best suited for you much easier. And as long as you focus on what your personal needs are regarding percolator bongs, you shouldn’t have any issues finding one to fulfill your wants and needs.
