Someone somewhere on this planet who has been unable to decide on a sol piece probably made their decision thanks to you
Which ones are you looking at getting?
Can someone explain to me please why the gridded stemline for example is not ideal for vaping? What about such percs make it not ideal for vaping?
And there is little to no chance they would be disappointed, although as
@nodrog points out, having a small piece is a somewhat good idea for vaping. SoL make some damn nice bubblers too
As to why a gridded stemline is better for smoking over vaping, it just comes down to percolation and diffusion. When combusting, the smoke is hot and the cloud is full of sticky bullshit. A gridded stemline is going to cause smoother percolation compared to a simpler design, causing smaller bubbles and greater diffusion. A gridded stemline equates to a small volume in a larger basin of water, so the smoke gets cooled easily and the water has plenty of chance to interact with the gas.
An ordinary stem has similar dynamics but causes more turbulence and creates larger bubbles. This limits the diffusion.
When vaping, the vast majority of sticky stuff is hydrocarbons we're after. And so more diffusion will cause more of them to become trapped and ultimately condensed due to thermal phase change.
A good portion of those hydrocarbons are very flavourful (aromatic), and the rate all constituents get trapped in the piece will vary. Generally lots of diffusion drowns out key flavour profiles. So it is this combination that means when you compare glass pieces they are all subtly different and offer, in some cases, very notable signature difference. Size difference limiting cooling potential and different mouthpiece styles are probably more notable changes than a different perc however.
In my opinion a combustion piece is large to allow ample cooling, has ideally 2 percolators to balance tar absorption and drag, and isn't overly intricate to allow for easy cleaning of toxic sludge.
Although most smoking in my country is actually done through brass, garden hose and PET bottles - you can do as you please, there's no rules. I would happily vape out of a gridded stemline, often, but I would want a simple piece alongside it.
I have gone through some glass, all of it fairly cheap, and arrived at my final solution of the lace discs above for the massive hits where the vapour density renders condensation loss negligible (think about how much O2 we absorb and breathe out, it's the same with vapour clouds, I assume, you just have to make them massive clouds for the small loss). And alongside it I have two pieces with three-hole downstems in small and smaller, which see as much use.