Table of Contents
How Does a Reclaim Catcher Work?
How to Reclaim Dabs and Keep Your Rig Clean
Before you buy an ash catcher, make sure you know the exact gender, joint size, and angle that you will need. Usually, most bong ash catchers are incompatible with your favorite dab rig or bong.
What is an ash catcher?
An ash catcher is a glass accessory designed to be easily attached to a dab rig or bong. It catches ashes and resin to prevent it from entering your flower tube. This device is transparent to give a clear view of the byproducts of smoking filtered during inhalation.
Ash catchers are loaded with percolators to filter smoke before it gets to the main chamber. If you want a smoother hit, use bongs with percs. Some dab rigs have built-in perc.
Varying types of percolators create the various stack, size, and patterns of bubbles full of smoke. It's a fun way; it increases the pleasure of smoking to another level. However, ash catcher differs according to the type of flower tube a smoker uses.
Just in case you really need a simple ash catcher design to ensure your dab rig is clean, or maybe you require to add more extra filtration to your glass tube, there is a vast selection of all the best ash catchers.
However, every ash catcher has two joints – a male and a female. These joint sizes range between 14mm and 18mm. The male connection can be set either at a 45-degree angle or at a 90-degree angle. It's great to understand these options to ensure you get precisely what you necessitate.
Basically, if the bowl on your dab rig points away from you when you smoke it, you may want to consider using a 45-degree joint for your ash catcher, and the dab rig should sit on some level as you light to rip it.
If the bowl on your dab rig points to the ceiling, the 90-degree ash catchers are the best bet. Generally, upright tubes require 90 degrees, and some dab rigs need 45 degrees.
What Does an Ash Catcher Do?
Yes, an ash catcher does, as its name suggests. It catches the ash to ensure your glass is cleaner, a large perk! Nobody loves to hit a dirty glass. If you want to keep it clean, catch some ash. It hits differently with a clean dab rig. The session gets less gunk but funkier.
That's why we need an ash catcher for even smoother tokes. It is designed to trap ashes and charred plant substances passed through the water while you take some huge rip off a dab rig. An ash catcher is an attachment designed to catch resin and ash. Basically, all the byproducts of smoke are prevented from entering the dab rig or bong.
The ashes that normally fall into your dab rig will instead drop into the ash catcher. After having a smooth dab, you can detach it from your dab rig to clean it separately instead of cleaning the entire bong or pipe.
The different percolators placed in the ash catcher further diffuse the vapor, making every hit smoother. The ash catcher captures these nasty residues like debris and tar before they can even dirtify your dab rig and lungs.
Ash catchers do more than clean. Not only does an ash catcher keep your dab rig clean, but it also adds more water filtration to cool down the smoke and get rid of impurities. This leads to more big and good tasting rips coming from your favorite tube.
Another added advantage of including an ash catcher to your dab rig is that no heat from a torch will ever go near your dab rig or bong. Heat damages on a dab rig are rare since a new ash catcher reduces the possibility.
How to Use an Ash Catcher?
There are a few important things that you should consider when you finally decide to purchase an ash catcher: gender, angle, height, and size. To buy the required ash catcher, make sure you understand the type of glass bong that you are using. They should be compatible.
An ash catcher has got two joints: one for your dab rig and the other one for your bowl. First, you place the ash catcher bowl through the joint as it points upward.
As for the downward joint, insert it to the stem of your dab rig. Some ash catchers will require you to add some water to the glass attachment, but this will depend on the kind of ash catcher you buy. Ash catchers, also named pre-coolers, will also assist in cooling down the smoke before it flows inside your dab rig.
An ash catcher is more of a dab rig connected to a dab rig. The smoke flows down from the bowl into the ash catcher's chamber. Since the pre-cooler's chamber is separated from the dab rig, diffuser, percolator, or water, it gathers the ash and build-ups from the smoke just before it flows through the connecting joint.
The smoke that is produced from the ash catcher has less charred substances, and your dab rig does not need to do laborious work to clean and filter the smoke.
You can attach some more percolators to filter and diffuse the smoke before it gets into the main chamber. An ash catcher is a glass attachment that you can comfortably attach or detach to your dab rig's joint.
The end result of adding this feature is to have extra filtration. The dab hits differently, and your dab rig is left clean after dabbing. Water filtration is an essential task for dabbers. Before the smoke flows inside your dab rig, attach an ash catcher to effectively filter the smoke and remove any amount of charred substance or ash and all the byproducts that would most probably accumulate in the main chamber of your dab rig.
What is a Reclaim Catcher?
Anytime you smoke your dabs, a fat glob of oil (reclaim) will get stuck in your dab rig. Therefore, as the name implies, a reclaim catcher catches the leftovers that are left after dabbing. It's an accessory that dabbers must-have for their dab rigs. A reclaim catcher is an extra piece of glass that is often attached to a dab rig.
Usually, it houses the quartz banger. Reclaim is a sticky black resin produced during dabbing. To get a smooth hit, flavor seekers attach a reclaim catcher to their dab rid to keep it clog-free and clean. A reclaim catcher reduces the number of times you clean your dab rig. This great add is such an ingenious glass! Reclaim catcher adds value to your dab rig that is primarily utilized for oil concentrates.
A reclaim catcher may seem like just an extra glass tube that you attach to a dab rig to look pretty, but in reality, it has a functional addition, especially for heavy dabbers out there. Also, it keeps your dab rig and water pipe safe from the heat.
Just like ash catchers, reclaim catchers have a water pipe that is either male or female. Their sizes too range between 14mm and 18mm, so you can easily attach to your dab rig.
The dab reclaims catchers have a silicon dish that is plugged into the bottom. All the reclaim ends up in one place for reuse and keeps the dab rig clean. Simply put, a reclaim catcher collects the lost globs that are sucked into the quartz banger so you can reclaim and to make sure that your dab rig is not caked with reclaims.
How Does a Reclaim Catcher Work?
After a dabbing session, a reclaim catcher works by catching unvaporized and condensed oil from a dab rig. The concentrates will either spill over into the dab rig or condense back into wax form.
The reclaim catcher has a detachable cup to catch your sticky substances for recycling and to reuse. First of all, to make use of a reclaim catcher, attach your banger to the top of the reclaim catcher, then connect it to your water pipe or dab rig.
This creates a path for the smoke to flow through the reclaim catcher and enter into your dab rig. Through this, the remains of the oil from dabbing are left behind; to collect at the bottom of the reclaim catcher.
When done smoking, it's advisable to detach the reclaim catcher from the dab rig to collect the essential oils for reuse. After you attach a dab reclaim catcher to your dab rig, the vapor flows down from the nail to the dab reclaim catcher.
In the case of a drop-down reclaim catcher, the vapor flows down a longer path that cools it down during dabbing. In some instances, keeping a reclaim in a drop-down reclaim catcher is a bit hard, especially when dabbers are doing low-temperature dabs. Once the vapor gets inside the dab rig, it's cooled down significantly, leading to further condensation.
However, a straight reclaim attachment has a better chance of getting the reclaim. A more substantial thing than vapor will sit at the bottom of the reclaim catcher, but pure vapor goes back up, passing through a connecting joint, leaving behind a sticky substance.
Some dab rigs have a built-in reclaim catcher. Here, vapor moves round the reclaim catcher. All the unvaporized wax clings to its walls and drizzles to a collecting chamber, keeping the reclaim clean and away from the dab rig.
How to Reclaim Dabs and Keep Your Rig Clean
All you have to do is open the reclaim catcher cap and collect the maximum resin after dabbing. First, drain all the water from your dab rig, carefully not to drain out the reclaim. Then fill the dab rig with alcohol to dissolve the reclaim, ensure to leave some air inside.
Let the alcohol sit for a few minutes, depending on the number of build-ups in the dab rig. After this, you cover up the openings in your dab rigs.
Swish or shake the rig vigorously until the reclaim is fully dissolved. Once dissolved, pour the alcohol into a glass container and heat it under high temperatures. High temp glasses are highly recommended.
Cover the glass container and allow it to settle for a day until all the alcohol evaporates; the sticky reclaim will collect into clumps that you can scrape out with a slotted spoon. You can now store your reclaim in a non-reactive jar.
No matter the method you use to collect your reclaim, you'll either smear it on your glass jar after you scoop it out. Some dabbers prefer to place it in the freezer for the reclaim to be more solid.
In other cases, to collect more resin, hold the dab rig upside down and carefully heat the surface of the glass reclaim catcher gently until the resin oozes and melts down. Torching the lower setting of the reclaim catcher makes the glass hot.
The high temperatures after torching the glass make it hotter than the resin, which in return melts and easily slides out into a container. However, this simple process takes too long to collect the resin. Also, it's advisable to wear gloves not to burn your hands.
Note: Be certain that all of the alcohol used has all evaporated before using your collected reclaim.
Can You Smoke Reclaim?
Recycling is good! Smoking a reclaim is not a bad idea either. So, technically, you can comfortably smoke reclaim. Reclaim is a burn concentrate that has the same flavors as a fresh concentrate. You dab it by putting a small portion to a dab rig or a joint.
It has a higher concentration of ingredients activated during dabbing. However, it would be best to understand that heating reclaim tends to produce a foul smell and a harsh taste on your lungs and throat.
The concentrate has a burnt taste, too awful for dabbers. A reclaim is considered better off baking or dabbing, but again you should feel its intoxicating effects if you want to smoke reclaim. Though dabbing reclaims is still a great option, there are more alternative uses for reclaim.
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*This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. All products are intended for legal usage. Before consuming cannabis in any form, please consult with a licensed health care provider, smoke at your own risk.