One of the more popular methods of using cannabis is called “dabbing”. To those uninitiated, it may sound a lot like that gesture, but it’s anything but. It involves the titular “dabs” - the concentrated versions of butane hash oil (BHO) made by pouring butane over cannabis, resulting in a somewhat solid product that can contain THC concentrations as high as 80%, much more than in, say, full-spectrum CBD oil or your typical doob. Such a great THC content level often results in an intense high that comes all at once instead of the gradually increasing experience associated with traditional cannabis products.
The issue is, to get the most out of your “dab”, you need a very specific temperature and a really good dab rig to smoke from.
The Temperature Is Much Lower Than That of a Cigarette or Joint
To answer the question, the ideal temperature ranges between 400 °F to 600 °F or higher. To give you a comparison, a standard cigarette usually reaches around 1300 °F, more when directly inhaled. The emperatures of dabbing are actually closer to that of your standard heat-not-burn device such as IQOS (usually around ~660 °F or 350 °C). A span of 200 °F may sound like a very narrow spectrum to maintain, but you’d be pleased to know that within that range, you get a whole variety of amazing results. So this begs the obvious question…
Why Exactly Is the Temperature Important in Dabbing?
One of the biggest reasons why people engage in dabbing is because of the strong smells and flavors it produces. These come from the so-called terpenes, a class of compounds naturally occurring in the cannabis plant and whose main function was to protect from predators and lure pollinators.
If You Get It Right, There’s Still More
What many don’t know is that within that range of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, there are different types of dabbing techniques.
Low-temp Dabs
This type of dabbing generally spans the 400-450 °F range and is reserved for those users who value flavor the most. As the surface of the nail is cooler than normal, the terpenes in your dabs aren’t outright burned away, resulting in a lot of taste and aroma being preserved.
Although loved by the connoisseurs, low-temp dabbing is still quite wasteful, giving you only a small amount of oil in the nail - not all of which will vaporize. Moreover, the amount of vapor exhaled when using this approach is usually on the smaller side. On the other hand, the number of carcinogenic compounds generated is far lower than other methods.
Mid-range Dabs
If you don’t want to waste so much of your concentrate, but the taste is still very important to you, consider this approach. This type of dabbing tends to revolve around the range of 500-545 °F, being a great option for those using solventless hashes like ice wax, hash rosin, and many different hashes known for being delicate to heat.
According to some users, the effects of this type of dabbing are slightly stronger than those of the low-temperature method.
The Jack of All Trades
If you want your dab completely vaporized so that none of it gets wasted and yet you expect great results in terms of flavor, aroma, and potency of it, consider setting your e-nail to somewhere in-between 545 to 570 °F.
High-temp Dabs
If the taste is simply not your thing,consider setting your e-nail to a range of 570-600 or even higher °F. This way,you’ll get not only a giant plume of thick vapor, but the strength of your hitswill be much higher than previously.
The generally agreed limit here is 900 °F. Thehigher you set the temperature of you're e-nail, the more bitter and smoky your vapor will be, making it muchharder on your lungs and throat. In some cases, it can even produce a coughingfit. Not to mention a whole lot of carcinogens, as the upper part of thetemperature range is over two-thirds that of a cigarette.
How Do I Know the Temperature of My Concentrate?
What many users don’t realize is that in a lot of devices, you can’t just trust the temperature readings completely, as those are for the heater coil, not your dabbing surface. To deal with that, either remember about a slight heating loss when gauging your dab’s temperature or purchase an E-nail that does it for you using its own controllers.