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Let’s say you’ve become familiar with cannabis as far as smoking or vaping goes, but you want to try dabbing cannabis concentrates. Dabbing involves slowly melting an extract into vapor and inhaling that, as opposed to smoking. You’ve doubtless heard a cannabis fan or two who’s big on dabbing. It’s a whole step up from inhaling the whole burned plant.
But how do you “dab”? You might remember the gesture where you pose with one head ducked under your arm, but that’s not helpful. There’s a huge variety of methods for vaporizing cannabis dabs, but all of them might look intimidating if all you’ve ever piloted before was a glass bong.
On the one end, you have the purists who stick to glass dab rigs with quartz buckets and a flaming torch.
On the other end, you have “eRigs,” sophisticated electronic dab rigs that automatically heat your concentrate for you. The top brands of eRigs have their fans as well, but electronic dabbing has its own challenges.
We’re aiming this guide at new dabbers – especially those of you (like the present author) who tend to be a bit clumsy. Regardless of what rig you choose, there’s a skill factor either way. Let’s put aside the complicated jargon and break down dabbing in plain English!
The Kinds of Cannabis Concentrate
Many a guide on dispensary websites out there will help you sort out the different consistencies of extract, so we’ll shorten it to a list here. These are different kinds of concentrate consistency:
- Shatter – A stiff, candy-like consistency
- Crumble – A moist, cake-like consistency
- Wax – A drippy, honey-like consistency
- Diamonds – hard, clear crystals
- Sauce – Like wax, but runnier
- Pull-and-snap – Like shatter, but more of a taffy-like consistency
- Budder – Made from whipped wax, with a creamy, butter-like consistency
- Oil – A liquid, oily consistency using in vaping
It’s all a matter of how the extraction was done, and what post-extraction refining, if any.
Dabbing is More Complex Than Smoking
Everybody knows how to smoke: Set something on fire and inhale. There is no temperature too high for burning. If you can operate a lighter, you can smoke.
Dabs are made from the pressed, extracted essence of the cannabis flower. We won’t go into the dozens of different kinds of concentrate and instead focus on things common to all concentrate dabbing:
- Finicky temperature setting – too low and you get nothing, too high and you’re burning it instead of vaporizing it
- Concentrate is difficult to work with – consistencies range from a buttery wax to a sticky, taffy-like texture to solid crystals and more, usually requiring a special tool to dispense the right amount
- Harder clean-up – While smoking a bong involves less maintenance, a dab rig needs consistent cleaning because sticky concentrate residue gets everywhere
- Smaller doses – A “bowl” of flower for smoking runs maybe a quarter to a half gram, but a bead of concentrate the size of a pea will be enough to get you wasted
- More intense flavors and aromas – Concentrates really bring out the terpene profiles as opposed to burning flower
- Less harmful usage – You’re getting the THC and a whiff of terpenes with a dab, but when you smoke, you are also inhaling carbon, ash, tar, and other nasty toxins
An experienced cannabis user might put it like this: Concentrates are to flower what whiskey is to beer. Plain flower is less potent by volume, while concentrates are “the distilled essence of cannabis,” in a manner of speaking. Dabbing is just a new level of cannabis consumption: better effects, less harmful inhalants, and a tasty experience. I’d describe the best bowl of flower I’ve smoked as “pretty good,” but a dabbing session with a good concentrate moves me to poetry.
Glass Rigs vs. eRigs
In the more traditional glass rig + torch method, you start with a glass rig, which is similar to a bong. Water in the bottom; inhale from the top. The chief difference is in the stem, typically pointing straight up. Instead of a bowl, you have a cylinder-shaped quartz piece called a “bucket,” usually with a 45-degree bend in the neck.
You place your dab in the bucket, then activate your torch. A plain lighter won’t do here; you want to heat the quartz to a few hundred degrees as evenly as possible, and inhale the vapor that comes off it as the concentrate melts. As you keep applying heat, the concentrate will become liquid, sometimes even bubbling a little.
You do not want to keep heating it until it chars the concentrate and produces smoke. Typically, you develop a rhythm where you torch a little, inhale a little, and torch it again. On and off, you want to keep the temperature balanced with the torch while drawing on the rig. Eventually, all your concentrate will vaporize, leaving nothing but a sticky residue in the bucket. In addition, you also may have a “carb cap,” which fits over the bucket and helps keep the vapor from drifting off into the air.
Obviously, the difficulty in dabbing this way lies in good coordination. You’re working with a six-inch-long flame close to your face. Burn the concentrate and the smoke will be harsh on the inhale. Dabbing this way compares to smoking a bong as operating a stick-shift vehicle compares to driving a car with automatic transmission. If you lack good timing, keeping the heat with a torch and carb cap is inconsistent.
Electronic dab rigs take the guesswork out of this, and also the flame. In your typical eRig, you will have a battery-charged base with a glass water bubbler and mouthpiece. You have a bucket to place your concentrate in, only here it’s usually an electronic coil heating a ceramic cylinder (or equivalent). You control this rig with a set of buttons.
On the plus side, it is far easier to get clouds of generous vapor from an eRig, efficiently consuming the concentrate down to the last drop without charring it. Once you get the hang of doing it this way, it is much more convenient. Operating a glass rig, between the torch and carb cap, feels like you’re using both hands and want a third. Operating an eRig requires a thumb on a button at most.
On the downsides, eRigs are typically more expensive and harder to maintain. Manufacturers have various different button control schemes, some of them quite complicated. Cleaning the rig will be more necessary after every session, while a glass rig can go a few sessions without cleaning. Erigs can have issues with charging time, battery life, and obtaining replacement parts.So if you are more skillful at operating an electronic device, and patient enough to maintain it, an eRig can be the best way to go.
Further Devices For Dabbing
There are several alternative methods to electronic dabbing besides eRigs, but they’re mainly niche interests we’d only recommend for the experienced cannabis connoisseur.
Nectar Collectors
Nectar collectors are electronic rigs with a different form factor and method. The chief difference here is that it lacks a bucket; instead, you have a straw-shaped piece which you dip into the concentrate itself, typically in its own heat-proof container.
Nectar collectors are less expensive than proper eRigs, but also take a bit of skill to operate. It might even prove more challenging to handle than a glass rig, considering you have a hot straw tip with sticky concentrate all over it, plus a less sure dose since you’re dabbing straight out of the container. Therefore, I won’t recommend nectar collectors to inexperienced users. The market for nectar collectors is more focused on those who got used to using a simple glass honey straw, or “hot knives,” and so on.
Electronic Buckets
Take the same glass torch-fired rig you would use for analog dabbing and remove the bucket. Then insert the electronic bucket, and now instead of heating your concentrate with a torch, you have electronic temperature controls. While also cheaper than the standard eRig, the combination of the electronic bucket, plus the controls, plus the glass rig make this a clumsy set-up to manage. They’re not very popular and only a couple companies make them.
Wax Pens
Another niche electronic concentrate dabbing device, these have you placing the concentrate directly onto a heating coil, then inhaling off a glass bubbler on top of that while holding a button to heat the coil. On the plus side, these are both cheaper and truly portable, requiring only one-hand operation. On the downside, they are more wasteful, usually char some of the concentrate, and clog up easily. The even smaller version of this is the “wax pen,” matching the form factor of a simple 510-battery-operated vape, but also even more prone to overheating and clogging.
Different Dabs For Different Folks
For the first-timer, have a friend show you how it’s done! You will also want to handle a few rigs and get a feel for them, seeing which one works out best for you. Lacking that, turn to your nearest social media platform that hosts videos and allows cannabis-related content, to watch experienced dabbers demonstrate devices.
Hopefully, this guide has provided a good overview and introduced you to the world of dabbing with as little effort as possible. Overall, dabbing is the best way to consume our favorite psychoactive plant. Once you get a handle on it, you’ll feel downright classy. You just have to get over that awkward introductory stage first.
