What is a Water Pipe?

If you're over a certain age (say 30), you probably remember the days when saying the word "bong" would get you kicked out of a head shop. The preferred nomenclature, we olds remember, despite everyone in the room obviously knowing we were talking about bongs, was "water pipe."

Water pipes are so much more than just bongs, though. They can include bubblers, percolator bowls, and any number of implements for consuming your desired dry plants in new ways including using concentrates and vaporizers. The one constant: there's going to be some water involved.

Water pipes are glass attachments for your vaporizers that look and act like a bong. They attach to the end of your vaporizer and the vapor fills up in the pipe so that you can take it directly into your lungs in one gulp. For longtime users of a bong, this makes a familiar way to intake your herb and a lot of users claim that it increases the potency of your intake.

In this article, we’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages to using a water pipe. If you’re just getting into vaporizing your dry leaf, this is a pretty sweet contraption to have laying around.

 

Part of what makes water pipes so enticing are all the advantages that you get from vaporizers rather than smoking, and a replication of the sensation of using a bong. Bongs are typically larger than water pipes, although that depends on the bong, and water pipes have a similar feeling in your hand and in the way that you use it.

For any of you that use bongs regularly, you know the drill. You pack the bowl, you fill the bong with smoke, place your mouth at the end of the glass and release and take a pull. For vaporizers, the process is a little bit different, because they don’t require a bowl that’s lit up. Instead, vaporizers turn on, heat up, and turn the material into vapor.

Some vaporizers are easily transportable, while others you use at home. One of the most famous is the Volcano, and it fills up a bag full of vapor that you then inhale. These methods of inhalation are beside the point when it comes to water pipes, as they hook into a tube that goes straight from the vaporizer to the water pipe.

A thing to keep in mind with water pipes before you get one is to make sure that the vaporizer that you’re using is compatible with your water pipe. Not every vaporizer is compatible, and using an attachment depends on whether your vaporizer fits with an adaptor or not. More often than not, these adaptors are sold separately from both the vaporizer and from the water pipe.   

That being said, there are select vaporizers that are compatible with water pipes. For example, there’s the compact and easily transportable Launch Box by Magic Flight, which is compatible with the brand’s water filtration whip (the tube) which can hook into water pipes. Another device that is made for water pipes is Higher Standard’s AirVape Xs, which can attach to the brand’s Beaker Bong Kit. These two brands offer high quality water pipe compatibility.

Truly one of the most enjoyable ways of getting your buzz, vaporizer-compatible water pipes are a treat for any serious herbal users. They’re an especially good way for fans of bongs to transition into using vaporizers full time. If you haven’t tried them out yet, they come highly recommended.