Glass · 1321 Venice
Two shapes, five heights, and one tradeoff nobody mentions until after you have bought the wrong one.
Beaker or straight tube is the first question, and it is genuinely worth thinking about for thirty seconds because the two behave differently. Then comes height, which people get wrong far more often than they get the shape wrong. Here is what actually changes, using what we have on the shelf as the examples.
The shape, honestly
A beaker flares out at the bottom. That wider base holds more water, which means more room for the smoke to cool and diffuse before it reaches you, and it makes the whole piece harder to knock over. If a piece is going to live on a coffee table with people around it, that stability is not a small thing. If a beaker sounds right, our GRAV collection has Deco and classic beakers from mini to large.
A straight tube is the same diameter top to bottom. Less water, so each pull clears faster and tastes a little sharper, and the smaller footprint means it takes up less room. The tradeoff is that it tips more easily, which is why so many of them end up on a shelf rather than a table.
Neither is better. A beaker is more forgiving, a straight tube is quicker to clear. If you are genuinely undecided, get the beaker.
Height is the part people misjudge
Taller means the smoke travels further before it reaches you, so it arrives cooler. That is the honest benefit and it is real. Here is the part that does not get said: taller also means the piece stops being furniture you leave out and starts being something you store. An 18 inch tube does not sit under a shelf. It does not go in a bag. It is harder to clean because you cannot get your hand into it.
Our own range runs 6 inch and 9 inch beakers, then straight tubes at 12, 15 and 18 inches, which is a clean way to see the ladder. The 9 inch beaker and the 12 inch tube are where most people land, and there is a reason for that. They are tall enough to cool properly and short enough to live in a normal room.
What a perc actually does
A percolator is anything that breaks the smoke into smaller bubbles on its way through the water. More bubbles means more surface area, which means more cooling. That is the whole idea.
A shower perc, the kind on our 12, 15 and 18 inch tubes, pushes smoke through a ring of slits. An inline perc lies horizontally and does the same job across its length, which is what the inline tube runs alongside a triple ice catch. The Hemper 70's XL stacks two, an inline feeding a lava dome, which is about as much diffusion as a piece this size can carry.
An ice catch is a separate thing and worth having. It is a pinch in the tube that holds ice above the water, so the smoke gets a second cooling stage. Nearly everything in our range has one.
The size ladder
| Piece | Shape | Height | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human Grade beaker | Beaker | 6" | Ice catcher, five colours, the small one |
| Human Grade beaker | Beaker | 9" | Ice catch, the safe first buy |
| Human Grade tube | Straight | 12" | Shower perc, removable downstem, seven colours |
| Human Grade tube | Straight | 15" | Shower perc, ice catch |
| Human Grade tube | Straight | 18" | Shower perc, ice catch, the tall one |
| Human Grade inline | Straight | 15.75" | Horizontal inline perc, triple ice catch |
| GRAV Oracle | Curved | 9" | Smoke tint, premium borosilicate |
| GRAV Round Base | Round base | Three sizes | Grip neck, ice pinch, removable downstem |
| MJ Arsenal Nexus | Straight | 9.5" | Suction base that grips a flat surface |
| MJ Arsenal Laguna | Straight | 11" | Hollow bottom base |
| MJ Arsenal Spire | Straight | 11.25" | Second perc, splash guard, limited run |
| Hemper 70's XL | Straight | 10.5" | Inline feeding a lava dome perc |
| Softglass Core | Straight | 9" | Glass and silicone, magnetic lighter dock |
Which one to pick
- First water pipe, no strong opinion. The 9 inch Human Grade beaker. Hard to regret.
- It lives on a table with people around it. Beaker, or the MJ Arsenal Nexus, which has a suction base that actually grips a flat surface.
- Coolest possible hit. The 18 inch tube, or the inline with the triple ice catch.
- Small space. The 6 inch beaker, or the Hemper Snail XL at 6 inches with a full showerhead perc.
- You break things. Softglass Core or the Totem, both glass and silicone rather than glass alone.
- You want it to look like something. The Alpine Lookout and Palisade run milled black walnut on glass.
- Something different. The BigFUN! Sublime is an all glass gravity bong, which is its own thing entirely.
Not everything is a bong
Two shapes sit alongside these and solve different problems. A bubbler is a small water pipe you hold in your hand, like the Alpine Mesa or the Softglass Core bubbler, so you get water filtration without a piece that needs its own corner of the room. And a modular system like the Totem lets you swap the top rather than buying a second piece. Modular glass is also the easiest kind to keep clean, which we get into in the bong that comes apart.
If you want something you can put in a pocket instead, that is a different category and it lives in hand pipes.
Before you buy
Three practical things. Joint size matters and almost everything here is 14mm, so bowls and downstems are interchangeable across most of the range. A removable downstem is easier to clean and cheaper to replace when it breaks, which it eventually will. And the piece almost always comes with a bowl, so you are not buying one separately unless you want a nicer one.
On cleaning, height is the thing that decides how annoying it is. Anything up to about 12 inches cleans in a sink with warm iso and salt. Past that you are working blind. Our full routine is in the cleaning guide, and it applies to water pipes just as well.
Honestly though, height is the one thing you cannot judge from a photograph. An 18 inch tube is taller than people picture, every time. We keep the whole range on the floor at 1321 Venice Blvd, so standing one next to your own arm for ten seconds settles it faster than any article can.
Questions people ask
Is a beaker bong better than a straight tube?
Neither is better, they behave differently. A beaker holds more water, so it cools and diffuses more, and the wide base makes it much harder to knock over. A straight tube holds less water, clears faster and takes up less room, but it tips more easily. If you are undecided, get the beaker.
What size water pipe should I get?
For a first piece, 9 inches. Tall enough to cool properly, stable enough to leave out, and small enough to clean in a sink. Taller pieces give a cooler hit but stop being something you leave on a table and get harder to clean, because you cannot reach inside them.
Does a taller bong actually hit smoother?
Yes, within reason. More distance means more time for the smoke to cool before it reaches you. The catch is practical rather than physical: past about 12 inches the piece needs storing rather than displaying, and cleaning it means working blind.
What does an ice catch do?
It is a pinch in the tube that holds ice above the water line, adding a second cooling stage after the water. Most of our range has one, and it makes more difference to how a hit feels than an extra few inches of height does.
What is a percolator and do I need one?
A perc breaks the smoke into smaller bubbles so more of it touches the water, which cools it further. You do not need one, but it is the difference people notice first. A shower perc is the common type, an inline perc lies horizontally, and some pieces stack two.
Can I see these in person in Los Angeles?
Yes. 1321 is at 1321 Venice Blvd in Venice, CA, open every day from 11AM to midnight. Height is the thing photographs get wrong, so it is worth seeing one next to you before you commit. Free local pickup on anything ordered online.