Bongs
A bong, sometimes referred to as a water pipe, is a smoking device used to filter smoke. Bongs have become more and more elaborate over their 2,500 year history but the basic design has not changed much. When the early bongs were invented they were originally made from clay, bamboo or wood but it wasn’t until much later that master glass blowers started making them with high end glass. With high quality glass pieces prices ranging from mid $100 to tens of thousands of dollars. It is important to know what the perfect water bong is for you and Zob is here to help - so we have compiled a buyer’s guide here and if you still have any questions feel free to contact our Bubble-ologist support team!
What pieces make up a bong?
Typically each bong has a stem and a slide. There are different joint sizes for the slides and downstems but most commonly used sizes are 14mm and 18mm. The slide is where you pack it and the smoke travels down the stem, through the filtered through the water, the smoke is then exposed to more surface area than a standard pipe and travels up the tube to your lungs. Some of our pieces also have ice catchers or pincers which allow you to add ice to cool the smoke as it passes. There are also additional add-ons you can pair with your Zob glass bong such as an ash catcher as an extra filtration or a freezable glycerol coil to assist cooling the smoke before entering your lungs.
Borosilicate Glass Bongs
Zob offers a variety of glass bongs of different sizes, shapes, colors and perc options. Most importantly, what separates our Zob glass bongs from other water glass pipes is that we use only the finest Borosilicate glass. This is the highest quality and strongest glass on the market. Every piece of glass lab and medical equipment is made from Borosilicate and it is also used for Nuclear waste storage! This type of glass is more heat resistant than regular glass because of its higher melting point. It can withstand operating temperatures of 515 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of this glass’ heat handling it has a great resistance to Thermal Shock, such as putting the piece in the freezer then applying heat - rarely will it shatter or crack - cracking only under the most extreme of temp changes. These properties make Borosilicate the perfect glass for a bong or dab rig.
Most Popular Bong Styles
Just as with sizes and attachments there is a plethora of different styles and names, this can be confusing. However most are derived from tried and true classic original bong designs with different filtration options. To help you become an expert we have outlined these for you!
Fixed & Replaceable Downstems
Scientific Glass & Straight Tubes
Scientific glass and straight tube pipes look as if they belong in a lab. With their clean and clear appearance, you can easily see how much smoke has built up in the tube. Scientific glass bongs are some of our most popular designs.
Beaker Bottom Bongs
Beaker bottom or base water pipes are an instant classic with a long neck with a wide cone base. Beaker bongs allows more water to be added to the pipe which requires less cleaning and adding a higher level of filtration. The larger base also helps prevent knock overs and spills.
Percolation & Filtration
As you learned above; a bong uses water to help cool and filter the smoke as with a classic straight perc bong your smoke will travel through the downstem to slits that break the smoke into smaller bubbles and is then pulled up out of the water to your lungs. This is great but there are other percolation options out there to re-percolate and filter the smoke more than once.
Inline Perc
Inline perc pipes are a new take on a classic standard perc. These pipes have a horizontal tube with slits that sit under the water allowing an even spread of your smoke through the water.
Recycler Perc
Recycler perc bongs have two chambers - the smoke goes through the downstem and filtered through water in the first chamber, then the smoke is pulled into a second chamber where it is filtered once more to then travel back to the original chamber before being inhaled. This multi-level filtration offers some of the smooth smoking you can find.
View All Recycler Bongs
Showerhead Perc
Showerhead perc bongs are an all time favorite by many smokers due to their simplicity and filtration effectiveness.The perc shape commonly resembles, as it’s name implies, a shower head - pulling the smoke in a downward shape into the water. The base of the perc will normally flare out to separate the smoke allowing it to pass small holes or slits to break the smoke into smaller bubbles.
UFO Perc Bongs
UFO perc bongs offer out of this world filtration. Often they can be confused as a showerhead perc with a dome (making it look like an UFO) that has been placed in the tube instead of the base. Being housed inside the tube the UFO perc is commonly paired with another perc acting as a second layer of filtration.
4 Arm & 8 Arm Tree Percs
Tree percs look as their namesake implies looks like a tree turned upside down. The arms of the tree come down into the water. The arms may or may not be open or closed on the caps and may also have slits on the sides of the arm. These features create smaller size bubbles to allow the water to cool and filter the smoke at a higher level. Tree arm percs are commonly used a secondary source of filtration providing one of the cleanest bong hits you will ever take. View our selection of 4 arm and 8 arm Tree perc bongs here.
Disc Perc & Puck Perc Bongs
Disc Percs or Puck percs are often flat thin percolators with many tiny holes to allow the smoke to be broken up rapidly into extremely small but large over all smoke surface area. Their simple design allows great filtration in smaller pieces but also work great in larger bongs.
As you can probably tell by now while the basics haven’t changed much, the bong is almost a college course within itself (for many of us it was). But we hope you have a better understanding of what a bong and a water pipe is now and can make a better informed purchase. At Zob Glass Pipes we want our customers to be happy and the first steps to make that happen is to sell high quality products within your budget that do what you need them to!. If you have any questions / comments / concerns please feel free to contact our expert customer support by email, live chat or phone.
