If you’re curious to learn about the different types of bong designs, keep reading — we cover that in the next section. If you’re in Colorado, California, or another such state that’s famously liberal glass pipes with legalization laws, you’re far less likely to encounter any issue should you be stopped or questioned. However, if you find yourself in Alabama or Texas, the outcome could be different.
These bongs function and feel similar to , but offer superior temperature change resistance, which makes tokes a little bit cooler. Ceramic bongs include all the standard features of water pipes, like a downstem and removable bowl, but lack the ability to accessorize with percolators, ash catchers, and diffused downstems. Borosilicate glass, silicone, acrylic, and ceramic stand as the most common materials used to make water pipes. Glassblowers make the majority of bongs with borosilicate glass and use a high temp blow torch to soften and shape the glass.
“Diffusion” is the process of forcing smoke through several tiny holes while submerged under water. This process is done either through a percolator or a diffused downstem. Proper diffusion can bring the smoke down to a comfortable temperature, so you can enjoy numerous hits over and over. Over recent decades, bongs have advanced into an entire ecosystem of sizes, shapes, materials, designs, attachments, themes, and smoke styles.
Think of these as the point guard of percolators, they make everything around them better and help the bong go. The use of a water pipe for smoking was introduced in China during the late Ming Dynasty , along with tobacco, through Persia and the Silk Road. By the Qing Dynasty, it became the most popular method to smoke tobacco, but became less popular since the Republic era. While typically employed by commoners, the water pipe is known to have been preferred by Empress Dowager Cixi over snuff bottles or other methods of intake. According to the Imperial Household Department, she was buried with at least three water pipes; some of her collections can be seen in the Palace Museum.
Silicone and glass are the more common water pipes and are typically the best methods of smoking cannabis, with glass being number one. The downside is that glass bongs are usually marked at a higher price point than other materials. Glass bongs consist of a few elements; a bowl, a carb, a downstem, a base, and a tube. The first step in using your bong is to fill the bong with water.
In addition, check out our heady glass – we source one of a kind artisan glass pieces from glassblowers across the United States. More for style than added function, any user is bound to find an elaborate water pipe to demonstrate their unique personality. Remember that choosing a bong size is important, but there are plenty of other factors to consider as well. Of course, glass bongs are the most popular, mainly for aesthetic reasons, but they’re also fairly fragile, and the larger the bong, the more likely it is that it will crack at some point.