man, i just got one of these things and am having mixed feelings about it. on the one hand, it works great. we noticed about halfway through the bowl we weren’t coughing our heads off every hit. on the other, setting it up was a pain. no screen, no way to hold the charcoal from falling out. i fashioned a metal bowl screen and tried for half an hour to get it to stay with no luck. i finally thought of cotton balls, but didn’t have any so i used toilet paper. it worked great.
then the ash started to come into the top, so i tried to stop it on the next bowl. i used toilet paper, big mistake! toward the end of the bowl, when the lit ash fell through, i didn’t see it hit the toilet paper and smolder while hitting it. i almost puked and hacked for almost 10 minutes! damn!
how in the hell do you guys use these things? i am back to the bowl without it but i just bought the bong, it’s white, and i wanted to keep it clean with the charcoal filter.
i used a bread tie for a kick clip. i used to use a screen in the bowl but have been using stems and stopping when it gets there. i have tried that for the screen and cannot get it to flatten out enough to stay and not spill the charcoal into the bong.
Before I broke my Roor, I used a small brass screen in it, the kind you would use in a small pipe. As I recall, I used the eraser on the end of a pencil to bend the screen into a vague cup.
I now use a carbon filter from SIpipes. I like that it holds more carbon. I also like that it’s US made (and I’m American). For me, it was also less expensive. I use/d a small brass screen in both. I don’t like that my current filter is physically longer than the Roor, which I broke by banging it against a table leg while it was in the bong. Fuck. Now I’m really careful anytime I’m around the bong. Thankfully, they’re relatively inexpensive, so I simply bought a spare. Perhaps having the spare is the key since I haven’t broken the first one.
I use my normal bong bowl. Filter goes in the downstem, bowl goes in the upper end of the filter. As I implied above, I do find these things a little unwieldy.
You may hate it even more than the Roor, but I gotta say I think it’s a better filter (even if, perhaps, a little more of a PITA).
Their filter has a glass “screen” at the bottom of the carbon chamber. I still use a brass screen. I’ll note that very little of their carbon fell through the built in screen. I just prefer none fall through.
For putting the carbon in, I use a small funnel. For removing the spent carbon, which is seriously sticky and messy, I use a poker to drag clumps of the material out and directly into a plastic bag. Either filling or emptying, the entire process takes me only a few minutes. Full disclosure - I don’t smoke nearly as much as I used to. I hit the bong maybe 8 times a day. I think I have to clean the filter maybe every two weeks, though I’ve never timed it.
I’ve gotta go and haven’t had time to proof this. I’m high, so there may be some internal inconsistencies. I’m going to try to remember to revisit this post.
i got the one from aqualab technologies. i don’t have any issues with it. it’s pretty decent. it does get clogged and you have to replace the charcoal every so often. i think it mutes the flavor some, but it also reduces the smoke/resin flavor. i can even smoke leafy choke stuff that doesn’t bong well without coughing up a lung.
i’m gonna get a little more creative with it now that i have some good ideas. man i must’ve been high with that damned toilet paper. that’s like the time we smoked the new testament, starting with revelations. i know a dude that had revelations made into ink and tattooed into a skull. dude never did have good luck after that. hmmm…just thought…maybe i should get that tattoo he gave me covered up. looks like a prison tattoo anyway. maybe tomorrow with the charcoal. i’m baked now and still gotta go teach the girl how to count money and tell time. good thing she’s smart.
well, that turned into a bust. before i got a chance to try to get the screen back in, it fell from about an inch or so above the glass desk top and broke. crack running down the length of the stem leading into the bowl. i mean i know it’s glass but damn, for $40 you’d think it could at least handle banging into another piece of glass from an inch above it. piss on it anyway, damned piece of shit that had no way to fill it or keep the charcoal inside.