Learning how to vape weed correctly is the first step towards a healthier weed consumption experience.
While smoking remains the most popular method of consumption, vaping THC oil or flower is growing in popularity due to its numerous health advantages.
Many see vaping as a healthier and safer alternative. Rather than inhaling smoke, users inhale vapour devoid of the tar, carcinogens and other contaminants typically found in smoke.
However, vaping weed is vastly different than smoking it. From different equipment to different processes, there’s a lot involved in learning how to vape weed correctly.
That being said, if you don’t know what vaping is or how to vape weed, don’t worry.
We created the ultimate vaping guide on how vapes work, the types of vapes available and how to vape weed in various forms.
Let’s get started!
How to Vape Weed – Understanding the Basics
Consumers can vape weed in many of its formats through decarboxylation. However, to produce a psychoactive effect, cannabis has to be ‘activated.’
To be more specific, the inert THCA cannabinoids found in weed have to lose a carboxyl group to convert to biologically available THC.
This decarboxylation process can be achieved through combustion or through vaporization.
While smoking or combustion achieves decarboxylation and makes weed cannabinoids biologically available for our bodies, it also generates tar, carcinogens and other unhealthy compounds.
Comparatively, vaporization “bakes” weed products until their cannabinoids and active compounds can be inhaled as a vapour. Since there is no combustion or burning happening, there is no tar, carcinogen or other unhealthy compound generation.
Including dry herb vaporizers, you can also vape cannabis products such as oil and wax, and other cannabis concentrates with ease, as long as you have the proper equipment.
Vapes can come in various sizes ranging from small rechargeable THC vape pens or disposable vape pens to slightly larger but still portable vaporizers such as dab pens or tabletop vaporizers.
That being said, many of them work the same when it comes to how each device heats the cannabis product to turn it into cannabis vapour.
What is a Vaporizer? How Does it Work?
Vaporizers, colloquially known as vapes, are devices used to vaporize cannabis and cannabis concentrates for inhalation.
The average combustion rate for weed, or the temperature at which it converts the plant matter to smoke, is around 450 degrees F. In contrast, a butane lighter’s flame temperature can reach above 4000 degrees F.
Additionally, all the essential compounds in weed, including the terpenes, CBD, THC, CBN, or CBG, each have combustion temperatures lower than 450 degrees F.
When you smoke, you’re losing Most of those compounds to high temperatures, way above the boiling point of cannabis. You’ll also be inhaling plant matter and tar that won’t contribute to your high.
Vaping vs Smoking – 3 Important Differences
On the contrary, vaporizers operate at a much lower temperature, and many devices allow precision control over the heat levels. The vaporizer’s heating element heats cannabis to its optimal temperature to decarboxylate and preserve it.
Common Types of Vaporizers
Vaporizers come in all shapes and sizes and are usually divided according to what kind of product they can vaporize. Not all oil vapes can handle dry, while some weed vapes won’t be able to handle sticky concentrates.
That being said, some products can handle both dry herb and concentrates.
Both types of vapes operate with a chamber, a heating element (usually a coil or ceramic), and a shaft through which you’ll inhale the cannabis vapour.
The experience will appear, feel, taste, and smell different than smoking cannabis does. The vapour is lighter than cannabis smoke, contains more terpene flavours, and enters your lungs at a much lower temperature than smoke.
Let’s review two common types of vaporizers.
Dry Herb/Flower Vapes
Dry herb vapes are equipped to be vaped with dry flower.
When it comes to vaping dry flower with dry herb vaporizers, the grinding process is everything.
Using a good weed grinder to prepare your bud creates more surface area for the weed to heat evenly. This also means you’ll receive more of cannabis’ psychoactive effects and possibly its medical and health benefits, depending on the strain and its dominant compounds.
Concentrates/Oils
Devices that use cannabis oils and concentrates can also come in desktop or portable form. In desktop form, these concentrate products are known as dabs and are consumed with a dab rig, a kind of specialized bong.
In portable form, these devices are known as THC vape pens. These devices use a replaceable cartridge system to supply the device with a concentrated cannabis product. These devices work by powering the device and heating it up to a temperature that can vaporize the oil.
Vape pens are the most accessible and popular way for first-time cannabis consumers to learn how to vape weed. Their discreet and convenient form factor leaves no odour or smoke behind, making them available for use anywhere and anytime.
Guide to Vaping & How to Vape Weed
To vape weed, you’ll need a device that’s suited to vape your preferred product type. Dry herb vaporizers are needed for dry herb and vice versa for concentrates. THC vape pens can only be used with THC vape pen cartridges and can’t be used to vape flower or concentrates. It’s important to match the right device with your preferred product format.
Now, let’s cover how to start vaping weed and what vaping products you have access to.
Choose Cannabis
In the cannabis market, you have the option to purchase the following cannabis products:
- Dry flower- Keep in mind whether or not your weed is THC or CBD dominant. Each compound has a different combustion temperature, so in order to get the most out of your vape session, choose a vaporizing device with temperature control.
- Concentrates- This can include cannabis oil, wax, shatter, hash, or THC distillate.
Choose Your Cannabis Vape Device
Consider these factors before you begin to look at purchasing a new vape:
- Your budget- there is a wide range of prices, with the disposable pens usually being the cheapest option, and the desktop vaporizers usually being the most expensive.
- What kind of cannabis do you want to vape? This will narrow it down to the oil/concentrate vapes and the dry herb vapes.
- For at-home or on-the-go? This will narrow it down between table/desktop vapes and portable vaporizers such as THC vape pens.
How to Inhale With a Vape
The actual vaping process will differ depending on the device being used and the product being vaped. However, inhaling with a vape isn’t all that different from smoking from a joint, bong or pipe. If you’re familiar with the latter, you’ll be comfortable with the former.
Vaping is easier on the throat and your lungs, which means you can take a larger hit much easier. However, this can also be detrimental. Vaporization is more efficient than combustion, and you’re likely to inhale more cannabinoids through vaping than smoking.
If you don’t pace yourself, you could end up higher than you anticipated.
How to Vape Weed – Key Takeaways
Choosing to vape weed instead of smoking is one step towards a healthier lifestyle. However, as with all good things in life, moderation is key. The type of product you choose to vape will influence the device you’ll need to purchase. Some of these devices can be expensive, so if you’re on the fence, start off with a THC vape pen and move up from there.
In our opinion, learning how to vape weed is exponentially easier than learning how to smoke it.
If you’re on the fence about trying it, consider this a sign that you should dive in. You’ll be glad that you did.
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