A Guide to Finding Your Favorite Dabbing Temperature

When it comes to dabbing temperatures everyone is going to have their own opinion on what is too hot, too cold, and what exactly the ever evasive just right is. So let us help you find your own Goldilocks zone of dabbing before the family of Bears returns and find out you ripped all their concentrates…

How Do I Know What the Temperature of my Banger is?

While old methods of timing how long you heat and counting down may get you your rig working, it certainly won’t let you get the precise information you need to get the most out of your concentrates. That's why we recommend grabbing a dedicated oil temperature reader such as the WULF Dab Rite Pro which is able to get incredibly accurate heat readings quickly thanks to its innovative IR sensor technology. Another great choice is the Octave Terp Timer that works well as a desktop reader and will help you get accurate readings on where your banger temp is currently. Whichever choice you end up making, having a temperature reader that was tailored specifically to cater to dabbing will make your life much easier.

What’s the Range of Dab Temperatures?

While the perfect dab may not be an exact science, the act of heating your rig is thanks to the particular way that oil and terpenes interact with different temperatures. To this end you are not going to be able to vaporize much of your concentrate if your banger isn’t at least around 300°F and this is on the low end. On the other side of the spectrum once you get near or above 900°F you will begin to burn the oil and receive only the negatives from dabbing hot. Thus you have a fairly large range of “working” dab temperatures where you will be able to vaporize your concentrate and inhale them properly.

What's So Cool About Cold Dabbing?

On the more icy side of things we have the world of cold dabbing which depending on which exact type of concentrate will vary in temperature but is typically considered to be around 300-450°F. Cold dabs come with a host of benefits including an increase in flavor due to terpenes burning off less which will give you an overall fuller experience from your hit. On top of that many choose low temp dabbing as it is much easier on your throat as the colder vapor will be less harsh making for smoother long term sessions.

Flipping the coin there are a couple of not necessarily drawbacks, but let's say side effects of enjoying a lower temperature dab that include slightly less potency and less volumetric vapor clouds on the exhale. Depending on your own preferences these may be deal breakers for you but they are easily countered as colder dabbing lets you session for longer all the while using your oil slightly slower to make issues like a slightly less potent hit have less of a bearing on your enjoyment.

What’s all the Heat Around Hot Dabbing?

The fiery alternative to colder hits is obviously hot dabbing, which depending on material used will change but generally means temperatures around 550°F and up. Connoisseurs of a more scorching hot dab will tell you that the increased heat allows for a much stronger hit thanks to an increased volume of vapor produced. This lets you maximize how much of your concentrate you are getting with each hit and makes sure that you are not leaving anything on the table. Thanks to the science of heating you are speeding up all the processes in which your materials vaporize and thus you are producing a much more potent cloud.

Pumping the brakes slightly on hot dabs is the fact that you must be careful when heating to not go overboard, as this will ultimately just ruin your concentrates and leave you in a coughing fit. Higher temperature hits are also just inherently harsher due to the denser clouds and also will lose a bit of the flavor as some of your terpenes will burn off. While these are certainly things to be aware of, it shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying a hotter dab as issues like harshness can be addressed fairly easily by using a water pipe attachment and losses in flavor are typically mild.

Your Hot n Your Cold

In summation, dabbing temperature preference isn’t an existential battle between the Heat Miser and the Cold Miser, no instead it's much more of a ballet between two diametrically opposed approaches to vaporizing. Luckily for you, switching between the two is as easy as waiting for your torch to heat your banger longer or just waiting longer to let it cool off into that cold dab sweet spot. Mix and match between temperatures to figure out which types of concentrates or oils work best for you at each heat setting, experiment until you have your very own secret dab techniques to share! As always be sure to check back to our Got Vape Vaporizer Blog for more tips!