Marcus Richards
Whether new to bongs or a regular toker adding ice to your bong is a great way to cool down those heavy rips. Water pipes are one of the most popular ways to smoke marijuana. They have been immortalised on the big screen and in pop culture. These days there are countless options with bongs coming in all manner of shapes and sizes. Simple, cheap bongs can be made from acrylic or silicone, whereas more elaborate ones are made from glass. But, at the end of the day, all these pipes do the same thing. They allow us to enjoy our bud. They do this by filtering and cooling the smoke, and many pipes have ice catchers to that extent.
What’s the benefit of putting ice in a bong?
There are several benefits to adding ice to your water pipe.
Anyone who has smoked from a bong knows that the hot smoke can be harsh and induce a coughing fit when inhaled. But by placing ice in the neck of the bong, the smoke can be cooled before being inhaled. This reduces the irritation to the throat and lungs.
Ice further filters the smoke.
The ice also acts as a filter for the smoke to pass through and can help reduce any small particles that get through the water filtration.
Ice improves the flavour of your rips.
As well as cooling and filtering the smoke, ice has the added benefit of improving the flavour of your hits. The cooler smoke means you can enjoy more of the flavonoids unique to every strain of weed. You could add additional flavours to the bong water or ice to complement the different strains.
Ice lets you take giant rips:
Bongs are good for taking massive rips. But there is only so much hot smoke you can inhale. Adding ice to the water pipe makes the smoke cooler, so you can inhale more of it. Therefore you can enjoy bugger rips without a coughing fit.
Ice works like a splash guard:
Splashback from bong water is, urgh! Nobody likes the taste of that. But adding ice to the neck of a pipe can redirect any splashback down into the pipe and away from your mouth.
How does an ice catcher work
An ice catcher, also known as an ice pinch, is a narrowing in the neck of the pipe. This is usually made up of two or three notches or indents placed near the base of the neck of your bong. The notches allow you to stack ice cubes in the neck of the water pipe. When you use the water pipe, the smoke gets drawn up through the stacked ice, which helps to cool and filter it. As the ice melts, the water level in your bong will increase, so you may need to adjust the water during the smoking session to prevent splashback and ensure correct percolation.
What if my Bong doesn’t have an ice pinch?
If your water pipe doesn’t have an ice pinch, you can still enjoy cooler hits without investing in a new pipe. You can add some ice cubes to the water in your pipe and cool the smoke that way.
You can place the ice through the mouthpiece if you have a straight neck or beaker-style bong. If your pipe has a removable downstem take that out first so as not to damage it when putting the ice in.
Avoid dropping the ice cubes into your bong; this can damage the glass. Instead, hold the pipe and an angle and slide the ice down the neck. You can also add chilled water to your bong to help with cooler rips.
Which bongs are suitable for ice?
Almost every type of bong can benefit from adding some ice to it.
Of course, some bongs are more suited to ice than others, and while using a pipe that has an ice catcher is recommended, if your pipe doesn’t have this feature, that’s not a big issue.
If you plan to add some ice to your bong, we recommend using a glass one. This allows you to see the cooling smoke and keep an eye on the water level. Glass pipes offer a better taste and smoking experience than silicone, acrylic, ceramic or metal pipes.
The best style pipes for adding ice to are straight pipes or beaker bongs. These typically have a wide neck to add ice through. But if you have a bent neck pipe or smaller gauge neck pipe, you can also use some crushed ice if ice cubes won’t fit in it.
You will notice that different size ice cubes will affect the smoke’s cooling and filtration, so you can experiment to see which you find best.
Safety Precautions
If you’re not careful, smoking with ice can cause some issues like bronchitis and has been known to cause some other serious lung issues.
You may have noticed that when you take the ice out of the freezer, it has a white frosting coving it, and you may have seen vapour rising from the ice.
You should avoid white vapour, and frosted ice as these can cause issues when inhaled.
The frost and cold water vapour are so cold that when they are inhaled, they can cause stress to your respiratory system.
To avoid these, you should never put ice cubes directly from the freezer into the bong neck and use them straight away.
Always allow the ice cubes to stand for a few minutes at room temperature before adding them to your bong.
If you suffer from respiratory illnesses or are prone to asthma attacks, then it’s best not to use bongs; even without ice, they can cause you harm.
The strong thick smoke from a water pipe will irritate your respiratory system, so we would advise you to avoid smoking cannabis altogether and choose another consumption methods which is milder for your throat and chest. Perhaps infused drinks, edibles, sublingual or vaping.
All things considered, using ice with your bong is a good way to get larger rips and cooler-temperature smoke which is kinder on your lungs and will get you higher.
