What are the benefits of Bong Percolators?
If you’ve been browsing Smoke Monkey’s range of Australian Bongs, you may have noticed that each bong features something called a percolator or ’perc’, which are available varying shapes, styles and sizes.
Whether you’re new to the smoking world, or a seasoned veteran, chances are you might not be entirely sure about what exactly percs do, or how they can improve your smoking experience.
If you’re looking for a quick guide on what bong percs can offer, or are simply after some simple insights into the science behind bong percolators to help you choose the perfect perc for your needs, see our guide below!
What Is a Bong Percolator?
Before we jump into the different types of percolators available, we need to understand what a bong perc is and what benefits it provides the smoker.
Simply put, a percolator is a device built into the glass bong that functions as an additional filtration and cooling system for your smoke before you inhale. There are different types of percolators that all operate in slightly different ways, however the overall function of a percolator is to disperse the volume of smoke to ensure that a larger surface area of the smoke travels through the filtration system and is cooled at a greater rate by the water than otherwise would have occurred.
The Science behind a bong Percolator - How do Bong Percolators Work?
From a scientific perspective, a glass bong acts as a simple heat exchanger. A heat exchanger is a device that’s designed to transfer heat between two fluids, and in a bong, the heat is transferred from the hot smoke to the water in the bong.
When you ignite your herb, the herb combusts and produces hot smoke which you ultimately inhale. However, you want this smoke cooled as much as possible for the smoothest experience. If you’ve ever fired up a home-made piece without enough water, you’ll know exactly how unpleasant a dry bong hit can be!
In any bong, when you draw the smoke through the bong chamber, the smoke travels through water, which ultimately cools and filters the smoke before it reaches your mouth. However, a basic designed bong can only work so well, as there usually isn’t a large enough volume of water for the smoke to travel though before it reaches your mouth.
That’s where percolators come into play.
A percolator is a static device that sits within the chamber of your bong, and acts as a mechanism to improve the heat exchange between the smoke and water in your bong. As you inhale using a bong with a percolator, the smoke is forced to travel through the perc, which diffuses the smoke particles resulting in a larger surface area of smoke, whilst maintaining the same volume. This dispersed smoke is then guided to travel back through the water and is cooled a lot more efficiently. This means, that by the time the smoke hits your throat it’s been filtered multiple times and most of the heat of the smoke has been absorbed by the water, resulting in that smooth, smooth hit we’re all after.
As you may have picked up, if you’re after a smooth hit, the more water the smoke can be filtered through, the cooler the smoke will be, and the better user experience you will will have. Therefore, if you’re all about experience, Smoke Monkey always recommend getting the largest sized bong to suit your budget. If you pick up something like Smoke Monkey’s own Rainmaker Australian Glass Bong, your hit will be filtered through over a litre of water, and two separate percs for an absolutely unrivaled hit.
However, with whatever bong purchase you make, adding a percolator to your bong will always result in a smoother experience.
Choosing the Best Bong Percolator
There’s plenty of different types of bong percolators currently on the market, all of which aim to help filter the smoke to provide a smoother experience for the user.
At Smoke Monkey, we have hand selected the percolators from our personal experience that we consider offer the greatest user experience without being overly complicated or expensive. This guide will summarize Smoke Monkey’s favorite bong percolators, explaining the different types and how they work to filter the smoke.
1. The Honeycomb Percolator
The Honeycomb style perc is one the simplest yet effective perc styles for a bong that provides a reasonable level of extra filtration for your hit.
The honeycomb perc is a disc-type percolator that consists of several small holes, resembling a honeycomb structure to diffuse the smoke as you inhale. The honeycomb perc works by ‘bubbling’ the smoke as its force through the tiny holes of the honeycomb. This process diffuses the smoke and allows the water to cool the smoke at a faster rate, resulting a smooth hit by the time the smoke hits your throat.
Its not the most complicated perc, and only offers reasonable levels of diffusion compared to some other designs, however the Honeycomb is a breeze to clean and improves the user experience without breaking the budget.
The Honeycomb perc is a highlight of Smoke Monkey’s Ritz Cartlon Bong, which features, not one, not two, but three stacked honeycomb percs for maximum filtration and cooling. The honeycomb perc is also found on the Heisenberg, and Honey Badger bongs.
The image below demonstrates how a triple stacked honeycomb perc works.
2. The Tree-Arm Percolator
The Tree-Arm Percolator is another favorite of the Smoke Monkey team and is a feature of our Octopussy Bong.
As the name suggests, this perc design resemble a typical tree, featuring a cylindrical trunk base that filters out into a number of branches, or ‘tree arms’.
The tree-arm perc works by guiding the smoke upwards through the main trunk, then diffuses the smoke into the several smaller branches of the tree. The smoke is then passed through the openings of the branch arms back through the water and into the bong chamber.
The Tree-Arm perc offers an extremely high level of diffusion and is considered to provide one of the best smoking experiences for users.
Compared to other percs, Tree-Arms are considered best for breaking up smoke into several smaller bubbles, increasing the surface area of the smoke travelling through the water. The number of branches in a tree-arm perc helps prevent drag for a fast and even inhale.
We won’t lie to you though, despite how good the tree-arm functions in providing the smoothest possible hit, there is one downside. Cleaning. Due to the somewhat intricate design of the tree-arm, this style of perc can be particularly difficult to clean, as over time the smoke residue can build up. However, this can be easily managed with regular care with the regular use of cleaning solution and pipe cleaners. But – if you are one of those smokers who ‘forget’ to clean their bongs for months on end, you might notice your piece looking a little extra dirty. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
The image below demonstrates how a triple stacked Tree-Arm Percolator works.
3. The Showerhead Percolator
Like the Tree-Arm perc, the Showerhead percolator is a much-loved style of perc in the smoking community and is considered to provide an impressive level of diffusion and filtration for your bong, without the need for a complicated, hard to clean design.
The Showerhead perc consists of a cylindrical chamber which drags the smoke through and forces the smoke through small slits at the bottom of the chamber – which kind of resembles a typical bathroom shower head.
The simple, symmetrical design of Showerhead percs ensure that the smoke bubbles are diffused evenly for a smooth inhale.
The Showerhead perc can be found on Smoke Monkey’s Rainmaker, and Diamante glass bongs.
The image below demonstrates how a Showerhead Percolator works.
