Bongs - Percolator Really Worth it?

[ImSoHappy]

SWIM is suprised this hasn't already been posted. But anywho, SWIM wants to buy a bong, he found out that bongs with percolators are much more expensive than those with out. Should he go for the percolator?What is SWIY's opinon?

[wespawloski]

SWIM really has never cared :P An ice catcher is the only "water-pipe" aspect he notices a difference with.

http://www.rollitup.org/toke-n-talk/...diffusers.html <- heres a good summary :P

Also, one can check out the wikipedia entry for "Water pipe percolator" for detailed information

[Your Local DARE Officer]

Quick answer: NO

Longer answer: It depends, on things like price, type of perc, size of bong, other aspects (ash-catchers, dual/tri chambers, ice catchers). To swim, a bongs a bong, it uses water to cool smoke, sure a perc makes it a little smoother and all that jazz. Swim would skip all of that and buy a straight bong: just a nice peice of glass complete with glass on glass connecs, a good slider, and cold water, oh yeah GREAT POT!!!

But again, swim just says avoid all that techy stuff like dome v. tree perc or percs in general, ISHO, it's not worth it.

[ImSoHappy]

Alright thanks for the advice, SWIY is right it really is just smoke being filtered through water an additional time. SWIM will go for the standard one. Glass on glass, with an ice catcher, so he has more money to spend on weed lol.

[kckool]

Asking a question like "worth it" is tough to answer. What's worth it to SWIM may be very different than what's worth it to SWIY. SWIM thinks it depends entirely on your financial situation, your desire for smoothness in a hit, how often you smoke, etc.

SWIM is something of a glass nut, so he'll try to help you make a reasonable decision. The most important "feature" to get in a bong, in SWIM's opinion, is a beaker base, as opposed to a straight tube. Why? A beaker base offers significantly more water once the bong is lifted off the ground and tilted to smoke, as most bongs are. The difference in time that the smoke has to cool is both significant and noticeable.

The entire purpose of a bong is to cool the smoke allowing one to take a larger hit than normal. All other features obviously contribute to this. An ice catcher puts the smoke in contact with ice, a diffuser splits up the streams of smoke to increase the number of smoke particles in contact with the water. An ash catcher is an additional chamber used to catch the waste products before they enter the bottom of your bong. Not really an effect on your hit, although the additional chamber provides the opportunity for a larger one, but it'll keep SWIY's bong clean.

To percolators. Percolators are additional water chambers through which the smoke passes on the way to your mouth. There are generally more than one when they exist, meaning that they also act sort of like a diffuser. The additional water chamber obviously provides additional opportunity for the smoke to cool. Percolators can occur either before the main water chamber (usually when they are part of an ash catcher) or afterwards, such as when the percolators are in the main tube.


Long story short, if your looking for the best hit imaginable from your piece of glass, you want to get the big 5 accessories. (Beaker base, diffuser, ash catcher, ice catcher, percolator) However, if cost is more important to SWIY, as it often is, percolators are one of the first things to drop off the list. Hope this helps, happy SWIMming!

[ImSoHappy]

Thanks for the advice for SWIM kckool was very thorough! SWIM will most likely go for everything except the percolator(s) as they skyrocket the price and money is a factor for SWIM. (he's a broke college kid)