The Ultimate Bong Buying Guide for Canada 2021

Many Canadian marijuana enthusiasts rely on a bong or bubbler to get their daily high. And although buying a bong for cannabis use may not seem like a complicated undertaking on the surface, there will always be some fundamentals to look out for when choosing your next piece. Whether you’re hitting the top shelf to get the best out of your weed, or just looking for functional glass to smoke your stash, here’s a few things to keep in mind.

What should I look at when buying a bong?

The Draw

Airflow is essential. We’re guessing you would expect a good draw when using a water bong. Having too tight of a neck, or a downstem that doesn’t let a good amount of air through is what to avoid here.  Look for 8” – 18” tube or beaker bongs that have a pull bowl. Even a choke like you’d find on an old school water pipe is fine.

An Ice Pinch

While not an essential feature we think having an ice pinch is pretty handy. They act as a splash guard, an ice catcher, and also make bongs easier to grip.  The key thing is that ice pinches reduce the amount of water that splashes up the tube while giving you the option to use ice for a cooling effect.

Removable Downstems

Having a removable downstem allows you to easily access the beaker area to clean it. You can also clean the down stem separately or even swap it out for a newer one. Most new designs have built in downstems along with percs.  This feature is getting harder to find as bong manufactures are focusing on more intricate designs over maintainability.

Percolators

Yes, it’s true – percolators are a good feature when you want smoother pulls. For more filtration, look for tree, basket, dome or honeycomb percs. Be careful with bongs that have more than two percolators as they can be very difficult to clean and the draw can feel plugged.

Where can I buy high quality bongs in Canada?

If you are looking for a good place to acquire your next smoking tool, you might want to check out our friends at BC Smoke Shop, who have supplied us with precious insights and data to write this article. Their online store offers a selection of more than 100 high-quality bongs as well as other smoking utensils such as dab rigs, vaporizers and more. If you are in British Columbia, you are welcome to visit the brick and mortar store of BC Smoke Shop in Victoria.

What are the best bong brands in Canada?

When you’re finally ready to make a choice, the next consideration is always which brand you want.  This is often a personal thing with Gear Premium, Nice Glass, and Hi Guy being the most popular choices over all.

Gear

Gear is the most popular brand at BC Smoke Shop and across Canada.  They offer a huge variety of bong styles and features. Gear focuses on 7 through 9 mill bongs made of thick top quality glass. They’ve gained our trust by focusing on quality and by providing an all around better piece for you to enjoy.

Nice Glass

The Nice Glass line of bongs is what we consider to be the bare bones essential bong at the nice guy price.  BC Smoke Shop will carry some of NG’s more experimental pieces but overall it is their core offering that has the best function and price for our customers – so we tend to stick with those.   Nice Glass Bongs are an entry point to purchasing good functional glass with quality welds, and awesome prints.  They also have a high end line called Primo where they do swiss perks almost like Hoss glass –  but still with really good prices!

Hi Guy

A Favorite here on Vancouver Island is Hi Guy. These bongs are locally made and use American grade glass.  We really appreciate the old school slide designs because nearly all other manufacturers are going with 14 mill glass on glass pull outs.  That is why Hi Guy makes third on our list – for the mature enthusiast this brand fits the mark for style, classic build, and predictable draw.

Custom Pieces – Heady And Local Glass Bongs

dab rig by Vagabond Glass & Redbeard Glass.

 If you’re ever in Victoria BC feel free to come by and see our showroom of local glass.  We feature beautiful one of a kind pieces from artists like  Luda Glass, Mystic Creations, Tomb Stone Glass, Leash Glass, Chris Bruneau, Red Beard,  Vagabond, and  Jessy Evans. 

The original glass in BC Smoke Shop’s showroom is selected by meeting people in person, and a lot of Instagram, which is the staple for finding out people’s portfolios.

It used to be harder to showcase custom glass ten years ago as people would have to drop by with Pelican Cases full of their glasswork to shake hands. Nowadays we have really good cameras and sites like Instagram – so we tend towards that.