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 overwhelm 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. However, 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 bongs, help cool the smoke and improve filtration.
Water can be used to make a filtering system in these bongs, which can then be cleaned.
Bubbles, a common feature of all bongs, filter the smoke differently.
Different Types of Percolators
1. Honeycomb Percolators
Among the different types of percolators, the HoneyComb percolator has an excellent design, performs well, and is more durable than the others.
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, giving you a smoother result. They are reliable and sturdy and produce a great experience.
They effectively break the smoke into tiny bubbles, adding little draw resistance.
However, the disadvantage of honeycomb perc is that you must clean them regularly.
2. Fritted Disc Percolators
Among the different types of percs, a fritted disc 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, allowing 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 passes through the showerhead percolator and into the main chamber, where it is inhaled.
Showerhead bongs aren’t the most beautiful of 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 can have as many as a dozen.
However, double tree perc with two arms or 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.
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, breaking down the smoke between these many pathways along the arms tree provides plenty of diffusion.
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 a lot of 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.
Taking a hit 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
Among the different types of percs, spiral perc is also called a coil percolator.
It pushes smoke through a coil to cool it down and make it look pretty.
The coil in spiral percolators bends, making them different from tree percolators.
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 bong’s dome has many small holes or perforations that run across it. The smoke then spreads across the bong’s water.
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 and the bowl.
The inline percolator is found in even the most simple tube bongs.
