Cannabis concentrates are becoming ever more popular as more places embrace legalized and regulated marijuana. Vaping concentrates is the most popular way of consuming these more potent forms of cannabis.
You can use a concentrate vaporizer, dab rig, or wax pen to vaporize concentrates. If you want to know all your options, check out our article on the best concentrate vaporizers.
But what if you already own a dry herb vaporizer, designed for use with traditional cannabis flower? Or maybe you might be thinking of getting one, but also want to enjoy concentrates. And you don't want to carry around two vapes.
Do you have to buy multiple devices, or can you use a dry herb vape for both herbs and cannabis concentrate?
Protecting Your Dry Herb Vaporizer
Not all dry herb vapes have options to let users convert them into concentrate vaporizers. But it's not necessarily hopeless if you own one of these. Remember, the key to safely vaping marijuana concentrate is protecting against liquid coming into contact with delicate components. And there are ways to use limited amounts of concentrate safely in dry herb vaporizers.
You can sandwich a small amount of concentrate in the middle of a bowl of dry herbs, and that should keep the liquids away from the sides of the chamber, and from spilling into the rest of the unit. So for example, you can take some hash and put it in the middle of a dry herb bowl, and it should be safe to use.
Ditto with wax or shatter - use a small amount, and make sure the wax is surrounded by herb on all sides. Remember that concentrates tend to need a higher temperature in order to release their full effects, so be sure to use your vape at a higher temperature setting to ensure better vapor.
This is harder to pull off in most convection vaping style vaporizers, which use hot air to heat the chamber. Also, the sandwich method won't be able to heat all your herb and concentrate as evenly. Meaning slightly lower THC and CBD effects from your combination sessions compared with stronger hits when consuming them separately.
Cleaning a concentrate vape pen
Another thing to keep in mind is that vaping concentrate will result in more mess, and coat the vapor path of your vape with gunk faster. So you'll have to clean your dry herb vaporizer more often if you're also using it for concentrate.
Remember, if you want high quality vapor with a good smell and flavor, you need to make sure the air path is free of blockage. You'll be wasting THC and CBD if your vape has bad airflow.
So make sure your vaporizer is easy to clean if you're going to start throwing concentrates in there. Many portable vaporizers are also not designed with easy cleaning in mind.
Vape pens, which are very narrow portable devices, are notoriously difficult to properly clean.
Dry Herb Vaporizers That Can Use Concentrate
The sandwich method is useful in a pinch, but it can be a bit nerve-wracking to use wax concentrates in a vape that isn't designed for it. Also, you're wasting some potency because it's less efficient to combine the two, due to uneven heating.
An accessory like an insert or liquid pad is a much more reliable way to enjoy concentrate in dry herb vapes. After you've inserted the accessory in the chamber, you can then add your wax or other concentrate. Be sure to stay below the fill line, or else you can risk it overflowing and damaging the device.
They have some drawbacks too. They're difficult to clean, and removing them from the chamber can involve handling hot parts. If you want to switch from concentrate to dry herb, that will take time, interrupting your session. You also need to be in a convenient place to do that, so it's not very portable.
If portability is a priority, you might want to look at dedicated concentrate vaporizers instead of dry herb vaporizers with inserts.
Dry herbs, concentrates, oil cartridges in one device
Another option is a multiple-oven vaporizer like Furna. An oven swapping vape gives you the best of both worlds in a single device, without sacrificing portability.
Furna has ovens designed for both dry herb and concentrate, and you can instantly swap one for the other, with no waiting. There's also a 510 oil oven designed for use with 510 cartridges.
You can pre-pack your ovens, making it even more of a convenient, discreet device to use. It's also easier to keep it in top working condition than using a concentrate insert. Check out Furna vapes and see what you think for yourself.
