Quartz vs Titanium Bangers: What's the Difference?
A banger is the dish your torch heats. The two materials you will actually be choosing between are quartz and titanium, and they behave very differently. 21+ only.
Quartz
Quartz is the default for a reason: it is chemically inert, so it does not add anything of its own to the vapour. It heats more slowly than metal and loses heat more quickly, which means a shorter working window and more attention to timing.
Thickness is the spec worth reading. A 2mm wall heats fast and cools fast. A 4mm wall takes longer to get up to temperature but holds it considerably longer. Thicker is not better in the abstract — it is better if you dislike rushing.
Titanium
Titanium heats quickly, holds heat for a long time, and is effectively unbreakable in normal use. That last point is the real argument for it: a dropped quartz banger is gone, a dropped titanium one is fine.
The trade-off is that metal conducts heat aggressively, so it is easy to overshoot. Grade 2 titanium is the standard; anything not sold as grade 2 is worth asking about.
The short version
- Flavour and a slower pace — quartz, 4mm if you can.
- Durability, travel, speed — titanium.
- Joint size matters more than either. 14mm and 18mm are the common sizes, and male and female are not interchangeable. Measure before you buy.
The accessory that does the most work
A carb cap restricts airflow over the dish, which lets you work at a lower temperature. It costs very little and changes the experience more than upgrading the banger does.