Popular Seeds: (Must Try)
- Grand Daddy Purple Autoflower Seeds (Indica)
- Super Skunk Feminized Seeds (High THC)
- Bruce Banner Autoflower Seeds (Very High THC)
Grasscity is one of the world’s most recognized headshops. Their slogan is literally “world’s best online headshop”. Whether or not they are the world’s best is debatable, however they are one of the biggest. They even have their own brand called Glasscity. We’ve decided to test out Glasscity’s most popular bongs on Grasscity.
When filtering for Glasscity bongs on the Grasscity website, one stands out from the rest. The Glasscity 4-arm Perc Beaker Ice Bong with Ash Catcher seemed like the biggest standout. It’s a bit of a mouthful to say, but that just indicates the amount of features it has. Because of the seemingly high features to price ratio, we decided to test it out for ourselves. It’s definitely not without its flaws, however we absolutely love using this bong.
Arrival and Unboxing
So the bong came a few days late, but that just made me more excited for its arrival. Upon opening the box, all I could think to myself was “what a huge waste”. The box was full to the brim with Styrofoam packing plastic. My bin was completely full after getting all the plastic out, and it’s not a particularly small bin either. They could’ve replaced all the Styrofoam with those blow up plastic packing things and used about 5% of the plastic.
Anyway, at least you have peace of mind that it will arrive in one piece. Once I finally found it within the box, and removed the 3-layer thick bubble wrap, I could see it in all its beauty. As it was Friday afternoon I decided to take it for a test.
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So Much Filtration
Whenever I’m smoking out of a bong I always like to keep a glass of water close by. After packing a fat bowl and doing it in one hit, there was no coughing at all. I was surprised by how smooth it all was. On the second bowl there was some coughing, but only minor.
This level of smooth was mainly due to the different chambers for filtration. Before the smoke even reaches the bong it has to travel through the ash catcher chamber. As the name suggests, the ash catcher (*surprise*) catches ash. It also increases the path the smoke has to travel, cooling the smoke that little bit more, while filtering most of the residue.
The smoke then travels down the downstem diffuser. Most of the smoke exits the downstem through the hole at the end, but some is forced through the little slits in the glass. This increases the surface area that the smoke is forced through, giving you a little bit more filtration than normal.
After this, the smoke travels through the tube to the percolator. This is where most of the filtration occurs. The smoke is forced through the slits in the glass, providing maximum filtration and percolation. There’s no large opening for the smoke to escape through like in the downstem diffuser. All the smoke has to pass through the percolator.
None of this filtration is ground-breaking by any means. This is all standard stuff when it comes to quality bongs. The difference here is that you get all these features for a far lower price.
The Coolest Bongs
To top it all off, there’s even notches in the main tube for ice cubes to sit on. These notches almost touch, so even small ice cubes will work. The notches keep the ice cubes out of the water, slowing the melting and keeping your hits cooler for longer. To cool even further, add cold water when filling your bong, as well as ice cubes.
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The Water Downsides
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There are a few issues that arise with the overall design of this bong. The first one is that due to the intricate design and multiple chambers, getting all the bongs water out can be a real challenge. I took this Grasscity bong over to my friends place to get their opinions on it, and my bag had wet patches all over. This was my own fault for not drying it properly, however small pools of water can easily get stuck in the chambers. Just be sure to wrap it in something if you need to take it somewhere.
The second issue is also to do with water. To cover the percolator in water you obviously need to fill it to that level. This level means the water in the downstem gets quite close to the ash catcher. After a lot of use, water somehow found its way into the bottom of the ash catcher, creating a black sludge that’s really hard to get out. You can just take the ash catcher off and run water through it, so no big issue here really.
Popular Seeds: (Must Try)
- Grand Daddy Purple Autoflower Seeds (Indica)
- Super Skunk Feminized Seeds (High THC)
- Bruce Banner Autoflower Seeds (Very High THC)
Grasscity Bongs Bowl Pieces
The third and last downside is my biggest personally. The bowl piece’s air pathway is wide enough that you need to use wire mesh coverings. There’s a pack of 5 that come with this Grasscity bongs package, so if you don’t have any lying around it’s no big deal. I just find that these are always really fiddly to deal with and get lost easily. You don’t have to use wire mesh coverings, however this can mean that some of your flower gets sucked into the ash catcher before being burnt. After a bit more use though I’d expect the air pathway to naturally decrease in size as the residue builds up around it. This also isn’t an ideal approach, but screens are just too fiddly to deal with in the long run.
Cleaning Your Grasscity Bongs
As with any bong, they’ll need to be cleaned every now and then. Given the intricate design and multiple chambers, I opted for some Bong Blaster multi-surface cleaner. You can always just use a rubbing alcohol and coarse salt mix, however I wanted to get a proper product.
The Bong Blaster comes in a 150g container, and one clean requires only 3 – 5 grams. If you measure it out correctly you’ll get a minimum of 30 cleaned bongs from the tub. You might have some spare rubbing alcohol lying around the house, however you normally need to use a fair amount, and that stuff isn’t cheap. Buying the cleaner also meant I was over the Grasscity threshold for free shipping of my bong. Win-win.
Grasscity Bongs – Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a comfortable, easy to use bong with all of the features you need, then the Glasscity 4-arm Perc Beaker Ice Bong with Ash Catcher is definitely for you. Spend a bit more money, and of course you’ll likely get a bit more when it comes to the features or quality.
We’re happy with our choice of Grasscity bongs, but if you’re still not convinced, just check out their website and read the multiple reviews from everybody else.
If you’re not sure about purchasing a new bong at the moment, we’ve chosen our favorite pipes, dab rigs and vaporizers from Grasscity too.
1 Month Later Thoughts
I’ve had this bong for a month now and wanted to share a few thoughts that didn’t initially make it into this post. As mentioned above, getting all the water out of this bong can be difficult. It’s not really an issue, however I’ve noticed the lingering smell can be a bit stronger than normal, if the bong isn’t properly rinsed out with fresh water. If you’re not a fan of bong smell, just rinse some water through after emptying the bong. This would only need to be done if you’re storing it in a cupboard or something similar.
The second afterthought is more of a personal preference. This bong doesn’t have a carb hole / shotty. After using this bong regularly, and then using my friends with a carb hole last weekend, it made me realize how annoying carb holes are. Lifting out the bowl piece feels far cooler than taking your thumb off a hole. Again though, this is a personal preference.
Apart from those two things, I’m very happy with my purchase still. I wish the ice cubes didn’t melt so quickly when using it, but you can’t win them all.
Grasscity Bongs – 2 Months Later
The ash catcher can get seriously dirty. Like, incredibly gunked up. But I guess that just shows it’s doing its job. The other after thought, and I’m being very picky here, is the length of the neck. I’ve noticed that when the perc is fully covered in water (like it should be), and when you’re sucking in hard, water can splash on your lips a bit. It’d be nice if the neck was at least half an inch longer, but for the price it’s still pretty damn good. Just don’t suck as hard, or fill your bong with slightly less water and this won’t be an issue. If you need to suck really hard just to pull through smoke, it’s likely time to give your bong a decent clean out.
