There are tons of ways to break a bong. Some lessons have to be learned the hard way. Like, don’t just toss your bong in a backpack with no bubble wrap and expect it to come out in one piece. Fortunately, we have the internet to help us learn from other peoples mistakes so we don’t have to make them ourselves. To illustrate how to avoid destroying your bong, we’ll be using examples from a few bong smoking fails we found on YouTube.

Trust No One

Friends can be a bongs worst nightmare. Novices and people that get too high too easily are not to be trusted with your beloved bong. Make sure they know how to use it so they don’t pull the entire down stem or ash catcher out. Down stems are literally the stems that go down from the joint of the bong into the water. An ash catcher is a glass attachment that catches ash instead of letting it fly through the bong. They usually have percolators built-in to cool smoke.

Also, make sure you watch them use it. Otherwise, they may leave your bong on the edge of a table only to watch it fall as they’re coughing a lung out like in the following video.

Remember Your Old Friend Gravity?

Sometimes the short-term memory loss from a few good bong rips makes us forget about our old friend gravity. One weed smoker decided he was going to have the smoothest bong rip ever. That’s when he attached 7 consecutive ash catchers that extend far away from the joint of his bong.

To make matters worse, the ash catchers were hanging off of a tables ledge and there was a heavy e-nail attachment at the end. Despite having “Thick Ass Glass” brand ash catchers, the rumbling of the bubbling water from his bong rip caused the second ash catcher from the joint to break. Then, it let the next 5 ash catchers fall from the top of the table to the ground. You could see shards of glass flying up from the ground.

To avoid a similar fate, we recommend not allowing the ash catchers to hang so far away from the piece. He could have brought them closer to the piece so there wasn’t as much pressure on the joints of the first couple of ash catchers. That probably would have avoided breaking this piece.

Use A Plastic Clip

One of the best ways to avoid destroying your bong from gravity is by securing the separate pieces into place. There are clips to hold the separate pieces together. The clips are extremely useful in preventing ash catchers from coming out of the joint. Sometimes while clearing the bong, removing the bowl accidentally pulls the down stem or ash catcher out where they are vulnerable to falling and breaking.

If you insist on holding a large bong in the air while you rip it, don’t just hold it by the top of the tube. Some bong companies like Hoss Glass make pieces that can consist of multiple parts so you can take it apart. There’s also the option to customize certain aspects, like adding an extra percolator.

Hold It By The Base

https://youtu.be/v4LW_hMBx14?t=7m26s

One bong ripper had to learn the hard way that plastic clips were not to be trusted in every scenario. From the looks of the video, there was a green clip holding the mouthpiece tube to a percolator which was clipped to the base of his Hoss bong. Unfortunately, Hoss’ are heavy glass pieces and the bottom has a lot of weight to it. As a result, gravity emerged the victor yet again when the top section detached from the rest leaving it all to fall and smash.

Never underestimate gravity if you really want to avoid destroying your bong. Holding a bong from the bottom is a simple way to avoid breaking hundreds of dollars worth of glass in one move.

Final Hit: How To Avoid Destroying Your Bong

Learning how to avoid destroying your bong is simple. Especially when there are so many fails out there to learn from. Common sense is your best friend if you want to avoid destroying your bong. Don’t put your bong in situations that put it at a higher risk. The safest way to smoke a bong is on a sturdy table with a silicone mat under it to prevent it from sliding around. If you just broke your bong and you have no papers, there are still several ways to blaze without either one.