Is it Better to Use a Waterpipe for Concentrates?

Recently it seems like smoking or dabbing concentrates has become more common. The government hasn’t provided any real data on its consumption or the true pros and cons of concentrates versus smoking plant material, but many people assume it is safer and healthier. Most experienced smokers use water filtration to make the vapor even cleaner. Anyone who has smoked concentrates in a waterpipe knows that water provides a better experience for your lungs. But if you’ve used water filtration for wax, you’ve also seen the concentrates lost (called reclaim) in the water. This is the sacrifice of clean vaping and the pressing question - Is it really that much better to use a waterpipe for concentrates?

Concentrates are effectively an extract that removes most of the organic matter and leaves the consumer with mostly the active ingredients. Those concentrates are much cleaner than smoking or vaping flower, but there are also risks to dabbing it. For example, concentrates are very hot and heavy with quite a bit of vaporized oil in each hit.

Concentrates are most commonly vaporized in a dab rig or concentrate vape pen. Dab rigs are the preference of most connoisseurs because the heavy vapors are passed through water filtration. To achieve the most pleasurable hit, filter the vapor through water by using a dab rig waterpipe, preferably with a percolator and recycler on it. This cools the vapor and removes some of the excess concentrates in the vapor. These concentrates that are removed as it is passing through water end up accumulating and coagulating in the water at the bottom of the pipe. This brings us to the crux of this dilemma – Do you value your health more or are you more concerned with the concentrates that have been lost in the water?

I’m sure that people’s opinions are split on this issue. But we feel strongly that your health is the most important thing. If you are going to dab, we encourage everyone to use effective water filtration. In fact, you can always even recover those accumulated concentrates, and reuse them. You can collect it in many ways but the best way is to use a  reclaim catch to collect some of the excess reclaim before it can reach the chamber and the water. Check out our previous article to learn more about reclaim catches.

In a recent study by MCR Labs, the laboratory tested some of the reclaim that had accumulated in four different pipes. This reclaim was found to contain the same active ingredients as the concentrates but in different concentrations. So not all of the value is lost when the concentrates are vaporized the first time, and your health has been relatively preserved. Additionally, as mentioned before you can collect and reuse what you recover. 

So we want to encourage you all to be healthy and use water filtration whenever possible. The best place to buy a waterpipe is at waterbedsnstuff.com or you can head into one of the 13 retail stores in and around the Columbus and Central Ohio area.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

**The beliefs and opinions expressed in this blog are not those of Waterbeds ‘n’ Stuff.