Concentrates are known for causing even seasoned smokers to hack up a lung, but there are ways to take the cough out of your dab.
With the proper equipment, techniques, and concentrates, it’s completely possible to have a smooth dabbing experience.
Here are nine ways to minimize coughing while dabbing:
1. Always Have Water Around To Drink
An irritated throat is a sure way to induce a coughing fit, so stay hydrated and have water on hand to cough as little as possible. After exhaling the vapor, try taking a sip of room temperature water to smooth things out and keep your throat lubricated.
2. Water Filtration Is Your Friend
If you’ve never taken a dab out of a rig without putting water in it, consider yourself very lucky. While vaporizers are typically dry rips, doing the same on a larger scale through a titanium or quartz nail can become extremely irritating.
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3. Deep Breaths Before And After
Taking a decent sized dab is not an easy task for even the strongest of lungs because there’s a lot of vapor being processed. Deep breaths are the best way to prepare yourself for taking a glob, so that you’ll be able to intake a lot at once.
4. Dirty Concentrates Makes For More Coughing
It's no secret that some places like Colorado and Oregon for instance, have access to better quality cannabis products. Concentrates that are dirty with impurities and residual solvents will be sure to irritate the throat and induce a lot of coughing. If the taste is anything but a majority of terpenes, and it’s bothersome, perhaps you should refrain from further intake.
5. Low Temp Dabs
Not only are they great for taste, low temp dabs are also great for ensuring concentrates go down smoothly. On the flip side, heating your nail up and taking the dab on an unnecessarily hot surface will hurt your lungs and remove any chance of tasting the terpenes. In order to vaporize on the cooler side, remember to use a carb cap and be prepared to be pulling on the rig with your mouth for a long time.
6. Chimney Dabbing
Anyone that’s used to taking large bong rips in one hit will likely meet their match with the dab rig. Especially when there’s a large dab to tackle, it’s almost guaranteed that a premature exhale will have to occur in order to finish the multiple lung loads. The chimney technique where circular breathing is utilized to continuously dab is a great way to go big without overwhelming your lungs all at once.
7. Quartz or Ceramic Over Titanium
Out of all of the equipment used for dabbing, the nail is the most crucial for dictating the harshness of the hit. Titanium nails are not ideal for delicate throats, but those that aren’t bothered by the rough vapor can relieve their symptoms by switching to ceramic or quartz. Not only are they smooth surfaces to dab off of, but their representation of taste at low temperatures is unreal.
8. Smaller Dabs For Smaller Coughing Fits
Dabbing is not a competition, but some people certainly treat it like it is. The size of your dab should be dependent upon how high you want to get, along with a correspondence to your tolerance. Try taking smaller hits to give your lungs a break instead of running out of air.
9. Don’t Smoke And Dab Out Of The Same Dirty Glass
While one of the primary conveniences of concentrates is that you don't necessarily need two different pieces, it’s not the greatest idea to smoke raw cannabis and vaporizer concentrates through the same bong. Some companies offer bong-to-rig converter kits, but it’s advised to clean the glass before switching from the traditional to the modern method of consuming cannabis. Resin buildup from bong rips will make the piece taste repulsive while taking a dab later on, so keep it in mind before ruling out buying a separate rig.
Good luck and happy dabbing.