Never having used a perc'd bong before, I went out and bought one

[tdavie]

Never really smoked weed before January of this year, currently trying to get back to vaping, but was always curious about bongs. Never really planned to find out what they were all about.

And then because I was in a pissy mood, stopped off at a head shop while I was returning some possessions to the 'ex' (I have no idea what you call them) determined to spend some money. Walked out with a 1/2 price bong (for 420 week) that looks like a frosted pumpkin with a 12 tree perc stuck on his/her/its head and ice pinches. If I had to guess, I'd say the volume of the pumpkin head is 500 ml.

Already want a splash guard (just a minor niggle), and an ash catcher.

First time I hit it was with ~ 1/8g mids. Found it was incredibly smooth, no choke/cough. Not terribly high, just agitated enough to do random housework and take 2 dogs for a walk. Very surprised by the drag (?) I encountered but was able to adjust.

Second time I tried it, I changed the amount of water (first time I had 1/2 covered the percs, but with no water in the bottom). Water is about 1/5 of pumpkin head and loaded 1/3 g into bowl. 1/3g is what I would normally roll in a joint, and that would take me about 5 minutes to smoke. Hit the bong and managed to clear it in one go. Coughed once, became very confused, realised I'd eaten a take home Easter dinner from my sister's house and knew I was very high.

I think I can understand why people like bongs; they can hit you very hard, very quick and are very smooth. Already I do not see smoking a joint while at home. This makes me even more enthusiastic for the Vapexhale Cloud.

Downsides? After using the bong twice (with filtered water snd filtered water ice), it smells like very stale smoke. I can see cleaning this at least once a day. Other downside is that I can't control the high (so far) in comparison to vaping or smoking. Baseline to stoned/very high almost like when using concentrated salvia. Instantaneous. Also, I've found that the water level in the perc and bowl (?) have to be 'just so' for a perfect draw, which I imagine is a personal thing.

Does a splash guard and downstem diffuser add drag?

So far, the quickest I've found to get medicated other than vaping oil. I guess I've learnt something new today.

Tom

(Still very Sativa and jittery high after a few hours, no pain relief at all, and no idea what type of weed it is I am using).

 

[AGBeer]

Have you tried to run your vape sesh through the bong? I know that once you combust through your glass it makes it taste like booty, but I still LOOOOOOVE to run my SSV and Zap through the bong. And for some odd reason, yesh.. I get pretty goofy once I bongit.

 

[Nycdeisel]

Its most likely that you have a lower quality perc. what kind of perc is it exactly btw?

A good diffused downstem usually makes for less drag, more airflow and diffusion, etc I would reccomend a showerhead downstem if you can get one of those

splashguards CAN sometimes add drag, could be a little to a lot, depending on the design and the size/number/placement of openings on the splashguard, if the tube is tall enough it may not need a splashguard, but I dont like tall tubes, I like small, micro pieces and short tubes. I wont get anything taller then 16" though, for say a tube for smoking.

 

[tdavie]

Have you tried to run your vape sesh through the bong? I know that once you combust through your glass it makes it taste like booty, but I still LOOOOOOVE to run my SSV and Zap through the bong. And for some odd reason, yesh.. I get pretty goofy once I bongit.

Nope, just bought the bong about 7 hours ago, still experimenting with it. It does have a ground glass receiver on the pumpkin head where a ground glass bowl fits, I think 14mm?

I do intend on hooking up my SSV or EQ to the bong if I can.

I can understand why high quality glass costs $.

Tom

 

[tdavie]

@Nycdeisel It's a 12 tree perc? It's hard to count the number of arms because the outside of the bong is frosted; however, the number was what the headshop assistant told me, even though that wasn't a selling point (didn't know what it meant). I assume it all relates to air surface/contact ratio/filtration? That up to a certain point, the more filtration the better (except then more drag happens)?

And yes, it is low quality glass, retail price somewhere around $140 US

It's got my interest.

Tom

 

[Nycdeisel]

actually has to do with I believe the bore of the downstem and that of the upstem(what goes up into the perc)

but the design and number of arms make a huge difference. the number of slits, their placement, and whether the arms are closed or open ended.

just an example
here is the 5 arm tree of my LUX scientific beaker, its got 3 slits close to the bottom of each arm and a slit across the bottom as well. I use it with a 14 hole Lux(same as the roro 14 hole in this case) downstem.

and here is the splashguard

it has quite a bit of volume with the perc and all, but it has so little drag, the design is very good on this piece and its really good for smoke

those are kind of between open and closed ended. open ended arms you can see on Toro, SG, etc etc

 

[tdavie]

@Nycdeisel I'll try to take a picture and post it when I get home. Yeah, at $100 it wasn't a risk if I didn't like the bong, but surprise, I do! I can see more $$$$ slipping away

Tom

 

[weedemon]

sounds like you got a reallf good deal then eh? congrats! looking forward to seeing some pics!

 

[finchrock24]

If you your bong has a 18mm bowl (which honestly should be the only kind people buy) then hooking up your EQ to your bong will take litterally 30 seconds. All the parts you need to hook up your EQ to your bong came with the vape. Very simple and WORTH IT! Imagine the "quick rush" sensation you get from combusting a bong but with vapor instead of smoke!

 

[VWFringe]

welcome to the bong, Tom!

try splitting that amount into 2 hits (that's what i used to like)

 

[tdavie]

I can't post pictures at all, and don't know when I can. Ex took (or borrowed) card readers, data cables and cameras when she split. I've got a crappy iPhone 3gs with no flash or optical focus and I won't insult anyone with a picture from that.

@finchrock24 I find the high very, very speedy. Doesn't do squat for arthritis (so far, and only within one indeterminate hybrid), but is almost instantaneous for an upset stomach, pretty good at mild pain relief. I think my EQ is deficient in parts because it is a yr+ old and has suffered several "Golden Retriever' related accidents. I'm limping along on a 'tuff bowl' and tubing from my SSV at the moment as far as parts go.

@VWFringe Yup, I find I usually have to split it into 2 hits. If I go for ~0.2g I can sorta, almost clear it in one go. I can only imagine what vapor bonging will be like.

Tom

 

[tdavie]

So the more I read about bongs (design wise, usage, aesthetics, cleaning/maintaining, add-ons and so on), the more I realized that I had to satisfy my curiosity about these factors.

Drove to my one of my local head shops (we've got a few really, really good ones in a city of 650,000, and they're both close to where I spend most of my time; work and at home), talked to the clerk (I was the only one in the store at the time and so she could answer any questions with as much detail as I wanted).

Pulling a ziploc baggie from my jacket pocket, I showed her a downstem with ground glass joint and said I'd like an ashcatcher that would fit into this. I had the downstem in a baggie because it had been used extensively. I was asked if I wanted a perc in the ashcatcher. I said sure, so she matched a couple to the downstem and I ended up buying one with an inline perc. Also picked up a nifty diamond faceted bowl, glass screens, cleaner, etc.

Got home to play with the new toy and experimented with water level in the ac-perc, tried inhaling from the bong with everything connected (including ice), but no weed. A bit more drag (not surprising since this is not specifically designed to go with my bong; I'd imagine that one designed and built by a single good glass blower/company would present little or no extra drag). I loaded 0.16g GDP, and using a torch lighter (new toy) needed 2 inhales to finish everything.

I've been higher before (for example when vaping or with edibles). But I'll be honest, I find this much quicker; perhaps because I enjoy the process of tasting the weed at different tempratures when vaping- the bong process in comparison is brutally brief. A couple of seconds and it's over. With an ac/inline perc, mutli arm tree perc and ice, it was the smoothest combustion I've ever had in my life. No coughing, choking and no dry mouth.

Just realized that the last time I smoked a joint was the day before Easter Sunday; otherwise it's been vaping and bong combusting.

Already realize I want to try different types of percs to see their effects, how much drag they add and so on. Also on my radar is a diffused downstem(?), and I'm pretty sure there are other 'enhancements' out there that I'll get to try.

I'm not a glass snob (although there are things that I don't like about my pieces such as frosted glass (I'd prefer clear), a rubber grommet holding the downstem into the bong (I'd prefer ground glass only) and thicker construction (I think the glass is 5 mm, at least it seems like that)).

I guess this makes me more excited about the VapeXhale, although I do wonder about it's capability to sustain multiple percs.

Blah blah, rant over.

Tom

 

[Nycdeisel]

Sounds like you are having some good, dirty fun

Do you like my Lux perc up there^?

 

[VWFringe]

do you breath out when the smoke gets to the top of the tube?

i always did, but never for long, as the smoke gets stale real quick

not many things in life worse than stale smoke in an uncleared bong, yuck

i never like taking one hit in two breaths...but taking two 1/2 joint (or 1/4 joint) hits, instead of one huge one, is what i used to like - i hope that's what i wrote last time

 

[Nycdeisel]

I HATE when people remove their mouth from the bong in the middle of the hit, one of my personal pet peeves, really ticks me off. Its all too easy for the smoke to get stale or for someone hitting it to start coughing and ruin the whole hit and leave this stale smoke that pretty much sets me off on a stress rampage!

one breath or nothing. with bongs that is, puffing is alright on pipes and joints.

 

[tdavie]

I've got a bit more idea of bongs now (just a bit more mind you); enough to say that I did get a lower quality bong (the downstem is GoG but the downstem itself has a rubber grommet where it inserts into the bong bowl/pumpkin head). Also what I thought was a tree perc looks like a bell perc with a number of holes at the bottom of the bell. There are ribs in the glass which I thought were tree arms, but aren't.

The ashcatcher (#1) has an inline perc with 12 slits.

Well, today I picked up a GoG ashcatcher (#2), and this one has six open downstems, each with 3 slits near the bottom. The multi downstem is part of the lid of the ashcatcher, and said lid is itself GoG so you can disassemble the AC for cleaning. The downstems aren't reinforced so I cringe every time I open or close the AC. Have only used the new AC once, but was very surprised to find it smoother than AC #1. Also found slightly less drag.

Now I'm curious and wanting to try other percs in an AC and in a bong.

Curious to find out how many people use ice/crushed ice?

Tom

 

[Nycdeisel]

I never, ever use ice anymore.
there are a few reasons for this: one is that the ice melts quickly(a lot faster then you might imagine), another is that too much ice can actually end up burning your throat with the coldness(really sucks), not to mention that with vapor we arent trying to cool it so much as we are trying to hydrate/moisturize it, and cold water can help vapor to cool as well.

Even when I smoke(this is very, very rare for me), I dont use ice because from all my experience(there were times when I smoked bongs all day every day for many months on end) it doesnt end up helping the hit very much, and the hassle is just not worth it IMO and IME.

glad to hear that you are learning more. But I am always educating people on glass, especially when I end up chatting with people in my LHS