Carbon Filtering

so i convinced my friend to try this. we used regular aquatic activated carbon rinsed in water 3x then soaked over night followed by 3x rinsing and let dry in the sun. You could probably go with less, but this stuff does have a lot of carbon dust out of the box so... its your lungs.

tool of choice was a replica biohazard single chambered 8arm perc.

after exactly 7grams being passed. (non filtered)


close up of the ghetto fabbed filter.


clean and ready for test fire.


after a week and exactly 7grams being passed through. (with filter in place)

as you can clearly see the carbon holds back A LOT of the initial tar in the downstem. another big plus is that it DOES alter the exhaling smoke scent. it still smelled like pot but it DIDNT smell like "burning pot" if that makes sense??!
just think of the same concept of how a firemans mask filters black smoke and the scent of 'burning'

things to keep in mind during the test was that the water was changed out twice each time and very ice cold water was used in place of adding ice cubes to the ice catcher, and it was a mix of various strains throughout the week but as mentioned ONLY 7grams was used each time.

this was all done a few weeks ago, as an update, we decided to use only half as much carbon and changed it out during the same intervals as the water and we noticed further cleaner filtering. ill get pics up of that in a bit.

You shouldn't be using water filters for marijuana because they do more harm than good. You end up having to smoke more to get the same amount of THC so any filtering is rendered moot by the extra burnt materials.

The healthiest way to smoke cannabis is in a straight unfiltered joint, any kind of filter will only do more harm than good.
Joints/Vaporizers/edibles

inhaling ANY kind of combusted material is harmful.
when you 'ignite' bud, part of that high your getting is caused by the toxins of burnt material.
by utilizing the carbon filter, i agree you may not be getting *as* much of the high theoretically, because you are blocking out many of the carnicingens that are associated with getting high.

the water doesnt act as a filter so much as it does more for cooling, and it helps with the pressurizing in the bong chamber.

i do agree the healthiest ways to smoke are via edibles, and vaporizers, but NOT joints. remember inhaling burnt product is still unhealthy.

Yes I realize this but what I'm talking about was backed by a study. NORML co-funded a venture to figure out the differences between joint smoke, bong smoke, and vaporizer vapor only to have the results point to joint smoke being healthier/less damaging than filtered smoke because all the filters (water and cigarette filters) blocked enough cannabinoids (esp THC) that in order for someone to get as much of them as they would want they would have to use more plant material over all which means they would end up getting even more crap in their systems than if they would have used no filter at all in the first place. That same study also showed that vaporizers give you 3-5x as much THC as joints/bongs, and that it was by far the healthiest way to inhale.

You could probably have better/safer results with an ash catcher bowl. =)

can u gimme a link to the NORMML thing? im not doubting you but its just more reads for me. im mainly curious about the joint smoking. im 100% agreeing with you about everything else.

as for the ash catcher, all it does is extends the water life of the main bong chamber.

Actually I find that while using an ash catcher (with water in it of course) the bong itself stays perfectly clear and the ash catcher just gets all nasty. So I guess it's more a double water filtration than anything and has been a nice improvement for us so far. Interesting idea with the carbon filter, looks like it doesn't really filter much out though. Peace. =)