A Guide to Select the Best Glass Pipes for Smoking

Although pipes are made of several materials, including wood, clay, and metal, most people prefer a glass pipe. You may use a glass pipe to smoke hemp flower, cannabis, or tobacco. You may even add it to your collection of water pipes.

With glass pipes, you can enjoy the smoke’s natural flavor, and there are no competing flavors as with a wood or clay pipe. If you want to buy one, keep the following points in your mind.

What Should You Know About Glass Pipes?

Buying a glass pipe is not easy by any means. As more people prefer glass pipes, there are many options to parse through when purchasing one, from cheap ones to the posh chameleon glass pipes. The choices are never-ending and overwhelming.

Maintaining a clean and hygienic pipe also adds significantly to the smoking experience during every session. And seasoned smokers have the right products to keep their glass pipes in good shape.

Selecting a Glass Pipe

Unlike variants made from other materials, glass pipes are carefully hand-crafted. Hence, each pipe is unique and takes a lot of care; many enthusiasts collect glass pipes for the same reason.

While there are a few standard shapes commonly preferred, glass pipes in unique shapes, such as the chameleon glass pipes, are gaining more popularity. Moreover, each figure has its unique features.

Chillums

For beginners, this is the shape you should gravitate towards. It is a basic tube pipe that you can easily hold in your hands. To smoke, you need to pack your substance at the end of the pipe, light it up, and inhale the smoke through the tube.

However, they do not have any filters, making it difficult to clear out the smoke after use. Additionally, the pipe is relatively small, which is why more experienced users and heavy smokers drift away from this shape.

Spoon

The spoon shape is slightly more sophisticated than the chillum as it has a filter in the form of a hole in the pipe. Although the filter is not much, most old hands prefer a pipe with some filter as it makes the experience better.

The smoke feels fresher, lighter, and can be inhaled much quicker when there is a filter involved. However, using a spoon shape is slightly more complicated as these pipes are like a bowl at one end where you can light up the substance. You need to cover the hole with a finger when drawing air from the bowl and release the finger when you inhale the smoke. Using this method ensures that the smoke remains fresh.

Sherlock/ Gandalf Pipes

It’s not hard to guess where the name comes from, for this particular shape, given its iconic arch. Such pipes have a bowl attached at the end of the stem, and those with a longer stem are referred to as Gandalf Pipes, while the shorter ones are called Sherlock pipes. These pipes may or may not come with a filter.

Steamroller

Usually, first-time users do not opt for steamrollers as they require a bit of experience to use them. Steamrollers have a complicated pipe design and are complex to use; when used incorrectly, they can catch beginners off-guard with the hit they deliver.

The glass pipe has a bowl attached at the end of the stem, and there are two openings. The opening closest to the bowl acts as a filter; some steamrollers have additional ‘chambers’ between the bowl and the mouthpiece where the stem rolls over and cools down before it is inhaled. Once you have the hang of smoking from a pipe, it is worth it to invest in a steamroller.

Bubbler

A bubbler can be seen as a hybrid between a bong and a pipe. The bowl is filled with water, which acts as a filter for the smoke to use this pipe. It creates tiny bubbles as it filters out the harsher flavor of the tobacco or cannabis, and hence it gets the name bubbler. One can use cold, room-temperature, and even hot water as a filter. Some experienced smokers even use ice, which adds to the flavor of the smoke.

When looking at glass pipes, the material it is made of is important to keep in mind. While cheaper glass alternatives are not a bad option, they are usually not durable. If you want a glass pipe that lasts, look for materials such as borosilicate glass or lab tested glass, which is generally of higher quality and hence, a little more expensive.

Selecting a pipe type can be difficult, but you will likely want to switch up types as you get more used to them. As for beginners, it is best to go with the pipe styles that are easier to use.