Sometimes, we all get that strange impression that our spendings for weed always exceed the planned budget, no matter how hard we try.
For bong aficionados, the monthly cost of weed and accessories can get even higher. Bongs equal big hits, and big hits usually call for using more material.
Bongs also come with extra features and attachments that often make maintenance dreadful. Lack of proper maintenance, in turn, translates to lower quality of your hits and higher chances of destroying the item due to excessive wear-and-tear.
After years of personal experience, we’ve put together a guide for all bong owners who want to get more bang for their piece — both when it comes to their glass and their weed bowls.
Enjoy the trip!
How to Get More Bang for Your Bong: The Essentials
In this section, we’ll focus mostly on how to invest in a bong and make it serve you for years to come.
1. Invest in Durable Glass
You’ve probably noticed that glass bongs may dramatically vary when it comes to price. Some pieces are as cheap as bread, but you can also find bongs priced upwards of $100.
The price of the bong rises proportionately to the quality of its glass. Most top-shelf pieces are made with borosilicate glass, which is a special hardened type of glass. It offers solid structure to bongs and doesn’t crack with regular use. Borosilicate glass is also resistant to damage, so if your piece falls on the floor, there are chances it will endure it.
Thick walls, strong glass, and sturdy structure are paramount if you want a long-lasting bong.
2. Keep the Bong Simple
Having an intricate bong art piece that deserves a spot on your shelf sounds tempting, but the visual benefit comes at a cost. Namely, if bongs are shaped too intricately, the glass has likely been heated and moulded constantly, which gives it a fairly weak structure. With regular use, cracks will start to appear, compromising your experience and damaging the once-beautiful piece of art.
3. Don’t Throw the Bubble Wrap Away
The next time you buy a bong, try not to throw away the bubble wrap your bong came with. It’s like dumping a baby blanket once you bring your child home. If you’re into outdoor smoking and often take your bong on the go, keeping the bubble wrap around it is the best idea for keeping it safe. Wrap it when you’re moving around or if you’re particularly cautious about storing your glass.
4. Clean Your Bong at Least Once a Week
There are few nastier liquids on Earth than dirty bong water. Maintaining your bong can be irritating, especially if the piece has many trouble spots — but you can’t ignore it. Resin from your weed will accumulate in the bowl and base, making them sticky and difficult to use. Old water produces a bad smell which can be hard to get rid of.
Just think of your bong as of a coffee mug that gets good use. Do you really want to drink your coffee out of a dirty mug and ruin its natural flavors?
5. Ensure Proper Storage
The last thing you want to watch is your $200 glass bong fall and shatter right in front of your eyes. If you keep your bongs high on the shelf and you don’t have the bubble wrap surrounding them, this is a very possible scenario. Where you store the bong is just as important as where and how you use it. Make sure to keep it on a relatively low shelf or, if possible, in a drawer.
Last but not least, keep the piece away from things that could knock it over.
How to Get More Bang for Your Bong Hits Using Different Cannabis Formats
So you’re saying your tolerance to THC has just hit the ceiling but you don’t want to break the bank just to get the same high as you would a year ago?
Here’s how you can help yourself out.
Kief
When you open the bottom chamber of your grinder — just beneath the screen — you should notice some aromatic powder inside. That’s kief, the collection of trichomes carrying super high concentrations of cannabinoids. Kief usually has 40–50% THC depending on the potency of your strain. Try to sprinkle a small amount of kief on top of your packed bowl and enjoy the extra punch.
Hash
Hash is just kief pressed into moist bricks that you can smoke in your bong. Similar to kief, you just little hash over your favorite THC strain to increase the potency of your next hit. Be careful with dosing, though, as hash can have up to 70% depending on the potency of the source flower.
Distillate
Distillates are highly-concentrated cannabis products with up to 90% THC. If you want to get more bang from your bong, try to inhale some distillate an hour before the bong session. Just don’t overdo the distillate, as it may cause you to experience unpleasant side effects such as confusion, overwhelming sedation, and anxiety.
Dabs
Dabs are cannabis concentrates that owe their second name to their small average serving size. You can smoke them on their own in a dab rig — a more scientific bong designed exclusively for concentrates — or put them on top of your weed (or a mix of the above products except for distillate) and blaze it in the bong.
Again, it’s best to err on the side of caution if you’ve never done dabs before. Their effects take hold immediately and are extremely potent, so unless you’re a seasoned consumer, we suggest that you start from kief or hash.
Or with one of the highest-THC marijuana strains from your dispensary.
Getting More Bang for Your Bong: The Bottom Line
To wrap it up, getting more bang for your bong boils down to several things: the choice of glass, maintenance, storage, and the type of cannabis product you’re using. If you’re a novice bong user, getting a high-quality piece with some extra features like percolators and ash catchers should do the job just perfectly.
If, on the other hand, smoking dry flower doesn’t get you the desired effects anymore, you can experiment with different weed formats to see how you react to higher levels of THC.
How do you get more bang for your bong? Share your thoughts in the comments!
