Do Water Level or Amount of Diffusion Correlate With Hit Potency?

I've searched and searched and haven't gotten an answer based on anything but mere speculation: Does more water mean a less potent hit? And the same for more diffusion. Or is it just a less flavorful hit?

i.e. If I pack .15g into a bowl and vape it with x amount of water in my piece, will the hit potency differ from .15g packed into the same bowl with y amount of water in the piece?

My best answer is yes with a clause that the difference is usually negligible and not statistically significant.


The situation where you might actually notice a difference is with micro-bowls or micro-hits. In that case, any loss of potency would be a bigger % of the total.

Another situation is temperatures. If you're using very low temps (on the VXC for example) you might want to lower the water level (which technically lowers the amount of diffusion). Partly to maximize potency and partly to maximize flavor.

Decently packed bowl + higher temps? Diffuse that vapor as much as you want

Fair enough question, but I generally find worrying about such minute details ruins the potency much more

Of thc it wont effect the potency, but it may strip some of the other cannibinoids that aren't so non-polar. Water is a highly polar solvent and the two main cannibinoids (delta-9/delta-8-THC) are highly non-polar, which most errl heads could tell ya. Solvents work on a 'like absorbs like' basis in regards to molecular polarity, so water can only absorb an absurdly low amount of the thc's, i do not have the numbers on hand but i believe it only rips out a couple of parts per million. Cannabidiol (CBD, a few of the studies ive read report this to be the anti-cancerous cannabinoid) is more so semi-polar, so some will be stripped by the water, I'd imagine.

The only other way I could think this would have an affect would be the rapid cooling of the vaporous could cause more of it to build up as claim inside your piece. This could have some, though very minor, effect on potency of a hit.