Percolators have been people’s favorites in the cannabis industry for a long time. There have been a lot of different versions of the product since it was first made.
Even though most people have a favorite, this product line can be overwhelming to a new smoker.
Read on as we discuss the concept of percs and the different types of percs.
How Does a Percolator Work?
Percolators, like most bongs, are made of glass. On the other hand, some have additional features, like metal parts that help them look and work better.
Percolators aren’t just for the cannabis industry. They’re also easy to confuse with coffee percolators, which work similarly and look like percolators for coffee.
These percolators, usually found at the bottom of these bongs, help cool the smoke and improve filtration. Water can be used to make a filtering system in these bongs to be cleaned.
Bubbles, a common feature of all bongs, filter the smoke differently.
Types of Percolators
1. Honeycomb Percolators
The HoneyComb percolator is among the different types of percs. It has an excellent design that performs well and is more durable than the other percs.
It’s a glass disc with many small holes all over it. Smoke forces through the holes, creating smaller bubbles and allowing the smoke to cool down faster to give you a smoother result. They are reliable and sturdy and produce a great experience.
They effectively break the smoke into tiny bubbles while adding very little draw resistance. However, the disadvantage of honeycomb perc is that you must clean them regularly.
2. Fritted Disc Percolators
A fritted disc is among the different types of percs. It is made out of sintered glass particles that form a solid but porous glass body in the shape of a disc.
They connect glass fragments with tiny gaps between them to allow smoke to diffuse and percolate. When a fritted disc submerges in liquid, the fritted glass filter breaks the gas into millions of tiny bubbles.
Thus, increasing the amount of surface area contact between the gas and the liquid.
3. Showerhead Percs
Showerhead percolators are simple percolators that look like the shower in your bathroom. A vertical tube flared outward has slits or holes drilled into its bottom. This causes bubbles to spread out and filter the smoke.
The smoke goes through the showerhead percolator and into the main chamber, where it is inhaled. Showerhead bongs aren’t the most beautiful percs among the different types of percs, but they do the job well enough.
4. Ring Percolators
Tree percs usually have one to eight separate flow pathways or arms, but they can have as many as a dozen. However, doubletree perc with two arms or a triple arm tree perc with three arms works on smaller models.
In general, a bong with more arms has more elaborate glasswork. Thus, making these high-end percolators more challenging to make.
Tree percolators are essential, yet they work well. Many rods with slits per branch dangle beneath a canopy-like dome in the bong’s tube and run down into the chamber.
Also, you get plenty of diffusion by breaking down the smoke between these many pathways along the arms tree. Further, tree perc bongs are challenging to clean among the first recyclers.
5. Matrix Percolators
Matrix percolators are among the different types of percs. They are showerhead percolators piled in the middle of the bong with much space around them.
This is to make the bong shake. There are a lot of bubbles, better filtration, and a lovely look at the water because there are so many holes. Also, Matrix percs are very hard to clean.
6. Turbine Percolators
They are glass disc percs with angled cuts and even spaces around the disc. When you take a hit, it draws water through the angled cuts and whirls in a vortex to make a whirlpool. The turbine perc looks good and is very useful.
Instead of making bubbles, the turbine percolator pushes water up on the sides of the pipe and into a small cyclone. This is both beautiful and effective at filtering.
7. Spiral Percolators
Spiral perc is among the different types of percs. It is also called a coil percolator, and it pushes smoke through a coil to cool it down and make it look pretty. The coil in spiral perc bends to make it different from tree perc. Also, spiral percolators, like ring percolators, allow for a longer, more even percolation.
8. Dome Percolators
This percolator has a small dome on the bottom. The dome of the bong has many small holes or perforations that run across it. Then, it spreads smoke across the water in the bong. They use a single big dome to funnel smoke into a different water column.
Triangular domes with holes or slits arranged in different ways are used in many different designs.
9. Inline Percolators
Inline percolators are also among the different types of percs. They are simple horizontal tubes with slits in them. When there are more slits, the percolation rate goes up.
Inline percs can be found in many different types of perc bongs, but they all have one thing in common: percolation happens right in the path of the smoke as it moves between the bong stem the bowl. The inline percolator is found in even the most simple tube bongs.
