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If it’s an intense cannabis high you’re after, the best bongs are the quick and dirty way to go. Also known as “bubblers” or “water pipes,” bongs are rudimentary smoking devices that use water to filter ganja smoke. And in the same way that weed vapes and grinders have entered their adulthood, evolving into a new era of sleek silhouettes and stylish finishes, the best bongs are a far cry from the soda can you MacGyvered in college.
The Best Bongs, According to GQ
- The Best Bong, Overall: Session Goods, $185
- The Best Durable Bong: Higher Standards Heavy Duty Beaker, $160
- The Best Discreet Bong: Puffco Cupsy, $70
- The Best Gravity Bong: Stündenglass, $600
- The Best Ergonomic Bong: Heir Waterpipe, $220
- The Best Novelty Bong: Hemper Glass Teddy Bong, $60
- The Best Art-Piece Bong: Edie Parker x Paul Arnhold Bong, $795
- The Best High-Tech Bong: Hitoki The Saber, $360
- The Best Ceramic Bong: Weed’d, $182
In an ever-growing market of excellent weed accessories, it may be hard to hone in on just one upgrade model, but we did the hard work of getting thoroughly baked with several different kinds of bongs (from glass beakers to a trompe l’oeil design that resembles a coffee cup) to figure out which ones were worthy of your finest weed.
The Best Bong, Overall: Session Goods
Your old-school bong can’t hold a candle to this modern piece of art from Session Goods. Made of durable borosilicate glass, this thing absolutely rips and cleans up good, too, thanks to its removable rubber pieces. The silicone cleaning cap fits snugly over the mouthpiece, so all you have to do is fill it with solution, slip on the cap, and shake until it’s shiny. The silicone pieces are customizable in seven colorways and you can pick and choose pieces à la carte, in cause you get a little too high and end up losing something among the couch cushions.
The Best Durable Bong: Higher Standards Heavy Duty Beaker
For hamfisted tokers, Higher Standards makes an impressively durable bong. Chances are it won’t break immediately after a fall, and its high thermal resistance ensures that quick changes in temperature won’t immediately cause it to shatter. Adored by amateurs and pros alike, do be warned that this thing is in, ahem, high demand. The brand has trouble keeping it in stock, but that’s just further justification for why it’s worth getting in while you can.
The Best Discreet Bong: Puffco Cupsy
Do not mistake Cupsy for your coffee cup lest you take a swig of dirty bong water in the early hours of the AM. Puffco’s handheld water pipe looks exactly like a travel coffee cup, and it’s a super discreet way to light up while walking to work. Using this thing is wildly easy, even if you’ve already taken one too many hits: Just fill the easy-to-clean stainless steel cup with water, pack the tiny bowl with weed, light up, and then take some rips from the straw. It’s small, but easy to clean, and one of the best options out there for an on-the-go high that won’t draw any unnecessary attention to yourself.
The Best Gravity Bong: Stündenglass
Smoking out of a homemade gravity bong made from a cut-out soda bottle is a rite of passage for many cannabis enthusiasts, and a method that Stündenglass has perfected. Employing more than umlauts to fine-tune things, the Seth Rogen-approved brand has developed a system that uses kinetic motion, water, and gravity to first draw in hits from the attached bowl, and then with another rotation of the device, propel the smoke out of the mouthpiece—no suction required. Aside from ripping hits, the Stündenglass can be used to infuse smoke into food and drinks like they’ve been hotboxing, and a separate attachment transforms this thing into a communal hookah. Sure, this thing is stupid expensive, but when you consider the cost-per-toke, that sky-high price might feel more a lot more mellow over time.
The Best Ergonomic Bong: Heir Waterpipe
Considering that you can fashion a DIY bong out of any old apple or Tic-Tac container, it’s not a given that your chosen smoking device will be ergonomically sound. But Heir is trying to make that a priority with their waterpipes, which feature a wider-rimmed bowl to reduce spills and a mouthpiece that’s positioned to avoid straining your neck mid-rip. They come apart to allow for the addition of ice into the chamber, and use an extended downstem with eight-slotted percolator for cooler and smoother hits.
The Best Novelty Bong: Hemper Glass Teddy Bong
There’s no shortage of kitschy bongs on the market and yet Hemper’s teddy bear feels more nostalgic than tacky. Functionally good and aesthetically great, it utilizes a narrow mouthpiece that’s easy to draw from for streamlined pulls. The diffused downstem percolator adds to the filtration by breaking down the smoke into smaller bubbles as it passes through the water, giving you smoother hits than a typical percolator might yield. Hemper also sells a cleaning kit to help keep this bear in fighting form.
The Best Art-Piece Bong: Edie Parker x Paul Arnhold Bong
Designer Edie Parker has taken on the weed world with its design-first approach to cannabis accessories. Take this 16-inch, groovy glass model that’s created in collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist Paul Arnhold and hand-blown for a one-of-one tabletop device. When it’s not being used for smoking, it doubles as a bud vase for teeny flowers.
The Best Ceramic Bong: Weed’d
Weed’d’s structural devices—which sell at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art—are off-duty eye candy for your tabletop when they’re not being used for a cheeky little toke. They’re not the easiest to clean considering their sharp lines and opaque finish, and the chamber is mighty small, but if you’re using one of these handmade-in-Italy pieces, you’re probably mostly in it for the vibes, anyways.
The Best High-Tech Bong: Hitoki The Saber
If there is a sign that humanity is on the right track with all of its recent technological development, it is this: A bong powered by lasers. The Hitoki Trident Laser is the world’s first to use laser energy to create rapid heating and precise combustion. The device operates similarly to a desktop vaporizer with three pre-set temperature options and a few-second wait time for the flower to ignite inside the chamber. Do you need this thing? No. Do you still badly want one? Hell, yes.
What Is a Bong?
At its most basic level, a bong essentially consists of a bowl for loading up plant material, a chamber to gather smoke in, a mouthpiece to draw the smoke through, and a hole (or “carb” or “choke”) to clear the smoke. Cypress Hill had it right when he rapped “it’s not a new method.” Even dating back 2,400 years ago, chiefs in what is now southern Russia were packing weed and opium into pure gold bongs for ceremonies, while other toking vessels made from pottery and horns have been discovered at archeological sites in Africa and Asia. Similar bongs are still used in these parts of the world to smoke tobacco, cannabis, and other herbs today.
How Do You Clean a Bong?
To avoid the cursed experience of making direct lip contact with dirty bong water, and ensure you’re tasting the current bowl’s terps and not last night’s spent ash, keep it clean. Some bongs make this simpler than others.
Start by disassembling the bong and rinsing away any bits of ash or chunks of plant material. Because combusted cannabis leaves an incredibly sticky residue, hot water and soap won’t cut it. Some bongs are dishwasher-safe, but others require special glass cleaning fluid or a classic combo of rubbing alcohol and salt to break down the resin. This can be done by pouring some of the mixture into the bong, stopping up the holes with your hands or plugs, and shaking vigorously. Q-tips or pipe cleaners may also be required for dipping into hard-to-reach places.
What to Look for in a Bong
When scouting out a new bong, think about how often you light up and what kinds of features you’re into, which will usually dictate how much you’re willing to spend. There are still plenty of borosilicate glass towers out there to fast-track you to cloud nine, but also a wealth of new design-minded, displayable options, from high-tech gravity bongs to handmade ceramic art pieces.
While breakable, glass bongs are longer-lasting than silicone, which tends to stain, so look for materials with staying power. Size matters here, too. Larger bongs with more water inside can offer smoother hits as there’s more water to filter the smoke, but are less portable and can sometimes be more challenging to clean and use. Features like percolators and additional chambers can also improve the experience when designed properly, as they affect how the smoke is cooled and filtered.
How We Tested
As a longtime stoner, I combined years of independent research with some additional scans of weed websites and forums to surface a list of some of the most celebrated, or new-and-notable bongs that I was eager to light up. I made sure that the options recommended here provided only the cleanest, smoothest hits, giving extra credit to those that were designed really well and weren’t a headache to clean.
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