From vapes and edibles to joints and pipes, there’s no shortage of methods of getting stoned to your liking. The bong remains one of the easiest and most efficient ways to take a toke, but they aren’t singular. Bongs with percolators have plenty of features that make the smoke cleaner and smoother. A bong has many shapes and forms with different pieces and features to enhance the experience. However, they can also be made with household items, as we’ve seen with gravity bongs.
What Is A Gravity Bong?
The gravity bong is a water pipe that you can make at home. Otherwise known as a bucket bong or a waterfall bong, it requires only a few household items to build, but the experience is unlike anything else, and it’s also less harsh on the lungs than a water pipe. These particular contraptions rely on pressure and water for their function. Gravity pulls the smoke into the bottle before inhaling, rather than using your lungs to do the work.
The gravity bong works by taking a small bottle with a makeshift bowl around the lid and submerging it into a giant bottle filled with water. Once you light the bowl, slowly remove the small bottle from the water, allowing gravity to fill it with smoke. Due to gravity, the smoke impacts your lungs far less than other pipes and bongs. At the same time, it provides a unique buzz that maximizes your cannabis.
How To Make One
If you’re curious about how bongs are made, creating a gravity bong at home is the best way to understand the mechanism of working a water pipe. To make a gravity bong, you’ll need a few supplies that you can likely find at your home. If not, you could certainly pick them up at a nearby store.
- Two bottles (one 16 to 20 oz. and a bucket or 2-liter bottle)
- Aluminum foil
- Knife
- Cannabis
- Poke
The first step is to cut the smaller bottle. Cut the bottom off of the bottle with your knife or box cutter, but be sure not to trim off too much. This piece must fit into the bigger bottle, which you’ll need to cut the top off to fill with water.
For your bowl, you’ll need to take the lid off the smaller bottle, make an X-like incision, and use the poker to create a giant hole. Through that, you’ll take the aluminum foil and shape it into a bowl of your liking to prevent weed from falling into the water or spilling. Then, you’ll poke about six holes in the aluminum foil to allow smoke to enter the bong.
From there, you’ll place the smaller bottle with the bowl into the bigger bottle or bucket before you light up and watch the smoke rise.
How To Use A Gravity Bong?
Unlike average affordable bongs, these gadgets don’t necessarily rely on your lungs to do the work. As the name indicates, gravity creates the cloud of smoke you’ll inhale. First, you’ll need to fill the big bottle or bucket halfway. From there, submerge the small bottle into the water until filled to its neck. However, you’ll need to unscrew the lid on the smaller bottle before it enters the water, then screw it back on when the bottle submerges to its neck.
You can fill your bowl with weed and light it up while pulling the bottle upwards as it fills with smoke. Remove the lid/bowl, put your mouth over the entry point, and push down, so the smoke enters your lungs.
Gravity Bongs Vs. Regular Bong
There are perks to both smoking gadgets, especially if you’re looking for more potent hits. A gravity bong undoubtedly provides a more substantial hit as it produces more smoke. That’s mainly because what would usually be one to three hits from average glass bongs becomes one massive hit from a gravity bong. On top of that, it allows you to preserve bud by maximizing each hit.
On the other hand, glass or acrylic bongs for weed are far more efficient for filtering cannabis before it enters your lungs. The way manufacturers build bongs aims to filter out the impurities from the smoke, thus providing a cleaner hit every single time. Unfortunately, gravity bongs do not offer this type of filtration, even if you know how to fill a bong appropriately. The regular bong forces the smoke through the water, cooling it down. Though the water in a gravity bong helps with the temperature of the smoke, it doesn’t necessarily help remove toxins from the smoke.
Is A Gravity Bong For Me?
Something is rewarding about building your bong from scratch, especially one that will provide an incredibly potent hit. At the same time, you might have affordable bongs lying around in your home to use whenever a gravity bong delivers an extra kick. However, there are also manufactured gravity bongs entering the market these days. While pricey, they are undoubtedly an excellent addition to your collection.
