How to Take a Dab: The Ultimate Guide

Dabbing has been on the scene for a while now, but it can be a little intimidating to ask, “how do you take a dab?” Don’t worry—you’re not alone. If you’re feeling nervous about diving into the world of dabs, this guide has everything you need to get started.

We’ll cover dab equipment, technique, temperatures, and even how to dab without a rig. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to take a dab like a pro.

Step-by-Step: How to take a Dab

So here’s how to take a dab.

1: Prepare Your Setup

Assemble your dabbing stuff. Get your rig, concentrate, torch, dab tool, and carb cap ready.

2: Use the torch to heat your nail

Most people torch their nail until it is red hot. If you're using a quartz banger, heat it for about 20–30 seconds. You might be tempted to dab right now, but that will overheat your concentrate. Patience is the key to a perfect dab.

3: Allow the nail to cool

The perfect dab happens at the right temperature. For quartz nails, wait 45–60 seconds after heating. Titanium nails cool faster, usually around 10 seconds. If you’re not sure, you can time it to figure out how to dab with quartz banger effectively.

4: Apply the Concentrate

Use your dab tool to apply the concentrate to the nail, slowly inhaling as it vaporizes.

5: Use the carb cap

Place the carb cap on the banger to control the airflow. Lift it up when you want more air from the water pipe, place it down when you want to concentrate the vapor.

You don’t technically need a cap, but you get much better dabs with one than without. Keep inhaling while you use the carb cap. Stop when you don't see any more vapor.

6: Exhale and Enjoy!

Yeah, boy! You just did a dab. Don’t worry if it feels a bit harsher than a bong hit. Remember, if you don’t cough, you don’t get off when you hit a dab!

How Much Dab Should I Use the First Time?

Start Small: How Much Concentrate Do You Need?

If you’re new to dabbing, remember that less is more. Start with a small amount—about the size of a grain of rice—so you don’t end up wasting concentrate or getting an intense hit that’s hard to handle.

How Strong is a Dab?

A little concentrate goes a long way, hence the name “dab.” For reference, while an edible’s starting dose is around 5-10 mg of THC, a 25 mg dab hit can be intense for many users.

Calculating the Right Dose

Let’s say you’re using wax with 75% THC. With one gram of this wax (1,000 mg total weight), you’ll have 750 mg of THC. For a 25 mg THC dab, you need just 33 mg of wax—slightly larger than a grain of rice. This means one gram of wax can provide roughly 30 solid hits.

Avoid Wasting Concentrate

While it’s common to see large dab hits, taking too big of a dab can cause unused concentrate to pool in your nail, wasting product. Stick to smaller dabs for an efficient, effective experience.

What Is a Dab Rig and How Does It Work?

A dab rig is like a bong but made for dabs. A dab is a hit of vaporized cannabis concentrate.

Concentrates like wax, shatter, or budder can contain up to 90% THC. Basically, a dab from a rig gets you really high.

Dab rigs tend to be a bit smaller than bongs made for smoking dry herbs. Instead of a bowl, it has a nail.

You do not use a lighter with a dab rig. Instead, you use a blowtorch to superheat the nail.

Then when it’s just the right temperature, you put a little bit of cannabis concentrate on it. The concentrate instantly vaporizes, which you then inhale.

Tools Needed Before Taking a Dab

In order to do a dab, you’re going to need some equipment. Here’s the breakdown of the things you’ll need, and a few things you might want.

1. Dab Rig

It’s the glass piece you use to dab. They look like little bongs with a nail instead of a bowl. Most are made of glass and have percs to make the smoke smoother.

2. Nail

There are many types of nails. They can be made from quartz, titanium, scientific glass, or ceramic.

The original nails came with a dome, but these days you see a lot more domeless nails.

The most popular type of nail It looks like a bucket used for taking dabs. This style of dab nail is called a banger.

Bangers are typically made of quartz. A lot of them have flat tops to make it easier to use a carb cap.

3. Carb Cap

This is a simple accessory that allows you better control over the airflow in your banger.

There are many different types of carb caps, but they all essentially have the same function. They give you a lot more control while doing your dab.

4. Dab Tool / Dabber

A dab tool of a dabber is the thing you use to place your concentrate onto the red-hot nail.

Concentrate is sticky and the rig gets hot, you need tools to handle it. In a pinch, any long metal item can function as a MacGuyver’d dab tool.

5. Torch

You use a blow torch or torch-style butane lighter to heat up your nail.

Vape pens and e-rigs use an electrical heating element, and therefore do not require a torch.

That said, dab rigs that use torches are just more fun.

6. Cannabis Concentrate

You absolutely cannot dab without concentrate! This is more than your standard-issue bubble hash. People use butane as a solvent to create hash that is 70-90% THC.

Different types of cannabis concentrate are named by their consistency. Some names for butane hash oil (BHO) are wax, shatter, budder, crumble, and oil.

7. Dab Mat (optional)

A dab mat can save you a lot of headaches. It’s a rubber or silicone mat that you place under your dab rig.

It keeps everything from slipping, and is easy to clean if you drop some sticky wax on it.

It’s also super useful if you prefer using a dab straw or a nectar collector. Your concentrates will not slide around on this surface.

8. Dab Pearls (optional)

Dab pearls are also called terp pearls. They’re little balls that spin around your banger as you take your dab.

They help keep heat evenly distributed and prevent the oil from pooling in your banger when you take big dabs.

Dab Temperature Tips

The key to a good dab is the right temperature. You want your nail to be between 500 and 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

How do you know your rig is at the right temperature? There’s an easy way, a hard way, and a boring way.

The easy way is to get a dab thermometer. These are ideal for those who want to take lower-temperature dabs.

Low temp dabs let you really taste the flavor of your BHO.

The hard way is to learn the correct timing of your particular nail. You can use your phone's timer to figure it out.

If you start by using a dab thermometer, you’ll naturally pick up the timing for it.

The boring way is to get a den or an e-rig to consume cannabinoids. It uses an electric heating element to get the correct temperature every time. Still, the blowtorch is fun.

Other Methods for Taking a Dab

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and there’s more than one way to take a dab. If you’re looking for different ways to do dabs, we’ve got you.

Cold Start Dab

This is also known as “reverse dabbing”. It’s where you put the dab on a cold nail and then heat it up.

Some people prefer cold start dabbing. As with all low-temperature dabs, it preserves the flavour and terpene in the concentrate. It’s a bit easier on your rig since you’re not heating it up as much.

However, there are a few downsides. Like all low temp dabs, cold start dabs don’t vaporize all of the oil.

This means you have to keep your nail clean if you prefer dabbing this way. The residual oil left over can ruin the taste of your next dab. 

How to take a Dab Without a Rig

Don’t have a rig? No problem! You can still dab without a rig, here’s how.

Using a Bong for Dabs

Do you already have a bong? You can totally use a bong for dabs. You will need to get a nail that fits your bong.

This can be a little tricky because most nails are female-jointed and most bong bowls are male-jointed.

That said, you can easily get a male-jointed nail, or you can use a joint adapter. 

Use a Healthstone

A healthstone can be added to a bong or pipe so that you can use it for doing dabs. It’s basically a piece of porous rock that you can put in the bowl of your favorite piece.

Place the wax on top, heat the stone with your butane torch, and enjoy your dab.

Nectar Collector

Have you ever wanted to feel like a hummingbird while taking a dab? A nectar collector, aka a dab straw lets you do that.

Using one of these is super simple. You heat up one end of the straw and put it directly in your concentrate container.

Inhale, and there’s your dab. Just like a hummingbird.

We recommend using a dab mat for this method. A dab mat serves two functions.

First, it gives you a place to put your nectar collector after you’ve done your dab.

Second, it keeps your concentrate container from slipping.

Dab Pens and E-rigs

Dab pens are one of the greatest things to come out of the last decade. It’s a super simple device. It’s basically an e-cigarette full of THC concentrate.

You can purchase both pre-loaded cartridges for your dab pen, or get a dab pen that you can manually load wax into. Check your pen’s instructions before purchasing.

An e-rig is a dab rig with an electric heating element. They will give you the perfect temperature dab every time.

E-rigs are rechargeable, while not all dab pens are. E-rigs also let you use any concentrate, not just what comes in pre-loaded cartridges.

Hot Knife

Ok this is getting a little into ratchet territory but, yes you can use a hot butter knife to do a dab.

You take your butter knife and heat it on the stove until it's red hot. Then you put the wax on it, and inhale.

Some people like to use a straw, funnel, or cut-up two-liter bottle to get all the vapor. A lot of it goes to waste though, it’s really not the best way to do a dab.

Roll a Joint

This one’s easy peasy, as long as you know how to roll a joint. Grind up your weed, put it in joint formation, and put some hash on it.

How exactly you do this depends on the consistency. Get it as evenly distributed as possible.

Then finish rolling your J, spark up and enjoy!

Final Thoughts

Now that you know the ins and outs of how to take a dab, you’re well on your way to becoming a dabbing expert. Whether you’re using a rig, a bong, or getting creative with other methods, the most important thing is to enjoy the experience responsibly.

Whether you’re learning how to dab someone up for the first time or figuring out how to dab with a rig efficiently, practice makes perfect! If you're looking for high-quality dab rigs or accessories to enhance your experience, check out Badass Glass for a wide selection of top-notch products.