What are the Cons of Too Many Percs?
However, there are downsides to percs: first, they can cost some serious money. Remember earlier when we said that bong prices are often determined by the quality of percolator(s) inside? Although we would all love the best perc in the world with hundreds of tiny holes to filter our smoke, these tiny pieces of glass are difficult and complicated to create, rendering them quite costly.
Aside from cost, you don’t want to overload on percs: they make cleaning your bong much more difficult--all those little holes eventually get resin and particulates stuck in them. Additionally, you can always have too much of a good thing: if you (hypothetically) had 10 percs on a bong, it could filter the smoke so much that nothing comes out of your pipe. For some people, they’re actually a little turned off by more than one perc since they like their smoke to be on the sharper side. It’s up to you.
There’s one last downside to percs, and it concerns dabbing: although we certainly love percs, they’re best left for dry herb smoke. Why? Remember, percs are designed to filter harsh smoke, and when you dab, it’s only vapor. A percolator can take the already delicate vapor and stop you from enjoying it to the fullest. Also, all those tiny holes in a percolator can easily become clogged with sticky resin from dabs. Of course, the typically larger bongs with percs for dry herb don’t help either, as the cavernous chambers don’t cycle your vapor that effectively. That’s why dab rigs tend to be on the smaller side, even when they’re not a nano rig.
With that being said, there’s other ways to filter vapor even for dabbers, namely with recycler bongs. Recycler bongs help to primarily filter vapor using a system of chambers instead of a glass percolator built into the bong: the smoke travels between the main chamber and a secondary (or third) chamber, meaning it travels through the water multiple times before you inhale. The chambers are on the small side, so it’s perfect for sticky vapor that’s not too harsh and could clog up a regular percolator. Example of recycler bongs are the famous Faberge egg recycler bong and the donut recycler. If you know you’ll be dabbing more with your rig than smoking dry herb, you might want to look into recycler bongs.