The Complete Guide to the Honeycomb Percolator:
From Scientific Secret to Session Superstar
Getting a perfectly smooth hit during your next smoke session comes down to one thing-
Superior smoke filtration.
While there are countless percolator designs available on the market, one style stands alone as the perfect balance of massive diffusion and minimal drag: the honeycomb percolator!
Read on to discover why the honeycomb bong is a filtration powerhouse, where the style comes from, and how our detachable bong parts finally make it the easiest honeycomb bong to clean on the market.
What is a Honeycomb Percolator?
The honeycomb percolator is an ingenious piece of scientific glass engineering that owes its origin to the chemistry laboratory.
A Vintage Honeycomb Glass Chemistry Denuder.
From Lab Beakers to Honeycomb Bongs
The roots of the honeycomb percolator are actually incredibly professional—and maybe a little boring if you skipped chemistry in school. They start in scientific glass labs! Decades ago, before honeycomb percolators were ever found in your favorite glass bong, these disc-shaped glass filters were (and still are) essential tools for chemists. They are professionally known as "fritted discs," and their job is simple: if you need to bubble a gas through a liquid to clean it or facilitate a reaction, these discs are the gold standard.
The honeycomb design works to force gasses through a maze of tiny holes, breaking them into an incredible volume of minute bubbles—maximum surface area, maximum scrub. They first appeared in chemistry laboratories in the early 20th century, and have been a mainstay ever since.
The Breakthrough Moment: When glass artists, tired of making simple, harsh straight tube glass bongs, looked at that sleek, effective lab equipment and said, "Wait a minute. We could use that!"
A glass artist fusing a honeycomb percolator into a tube.
Making the First Honeycomb Bong
The concept was expertly adapted by early glass artists, giving rise to the modern disc percolator style. They took a proven, high-efficiency scientific principle designed for precise laboratory filtering and applied it to your smoke sesh.
The honeycomb is one of the oldest and most respected modern percolator styles in the industry, proving its efficiency and staying power against newer, more complex designs. It's the moment the scientist's best-kept cleaning secret became the smoker's best-kept smooth hit secret.
How Honeycomb Percolators Cool Smoke so Effectively
Air being pulled through a double honeycomb set-up.
Surface Area + Diffusion
The honeycomb design is elegantly simple and powerfully effective for glass bong filtration. It consists of a flat, horizontal disc packed with dozens of small, evenly spaced holes—resembling a… honeycomb, duh! This design maximizes surface area with every rip, to ensure every molecule of your smoke has been cooled.
Specifically, here’s how they pull this off:
best-kept smooth hit secret.
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Maximum Diffusion: As smoke is pulled through the holes, it's instantly broken up into an incredibly large volume of tiny bubbles. This process, called diffusion, maximizes the smoke's surface area in the water.
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Superior Cooling: The huge surface area of the bubbles allows the water to rapidly cool the smoke. Cooler smoke is less irritating on the throat and lungs, delivering that signature simple and smooth pull.
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Effective Filtration: More contact with water means more impurities and particulates are filtered out, ensuring you get a cleaner, purer taste of your flower or concentrate.
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Low Drag: Unlike some other complex percolators, the honeycomb design provides incredible smoke cooling without creating excessive "drag" or resistance when you inhale, keeping your experience effortless. For those with limited lung capacity, this is a big win.
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Versatile Use: The superb balance of filtration and low drag makes the honeycomb water pipe ideal for both concentrates (for your dab rig) and flower (dried cannabis)
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Sights and Sounds: There’s no better way to know your percolators are doing their job, than hearing them in action. With honeycomb percs, you’re guaranteed a symphonic orchestra of bubbles and blips. It’s like ASMR for your lungs. That fizzy sound is similar to carbonation, and even more relaxing than a “cold one”.
What Makes Prism Water Pipes Honeycomb Unique?
Three Sizes: Perfect Fit for Your Session
The Classic Honeycomb
Compact but mighty, our Classic Honeycomb base comes with two honeycombs stacked on top of each other. A fan favorite for dabbers and concentrate enthusiasts alike.
Combine this set-up with a Tall Mouthpiece for to add more ice and prevent splash-back!
The Classic LARGE Honeycomb
Featuring the same double stacked honeycomb percolators as our original base, the large version features a robust, wider diameter built to handle full-size rips and higher water volume.
In addition to the double honeycomb percolator, it also sports a slotted inline downstem. This base is perfect for the daily user who wants maximum cooling and stability.
The MINI Honeycomb
A compact design that scales down the function for portability and smaller rips. Featuring one thick cut honeycomb percolator, this unit offers the direct to lung style rip you’ve been looking for.
Pint sized, but packing a punch, the MINI honeycomb set-up is perfect for on-the-go and solo sessions alike!
How we get more out of Honeycomb Bongs
Unscrew Your Cleaning Routine:
The traditional honeycomb percolator has always had one critical drawback: it’s notoriously difficult to clean.
Resin quickly builds up in the hundreds of tiny holes, and because the perc is fixed inside a one-piece glass water pipe, cleaning it becomes a tedious, time-consuming chore that rarely results in a truly spotless piece.
Prism Water Pipes solved this problem.
Cleaning takes time, but it doesn't have to.
Our Honeycomb Percolator Bases for the Classic and MINI lines are built with sturdy, secure glass threading, allowing the base to screw completely off the body of the pipe.
This makes all of our honeycomb percolated bongs the easiest to clean.
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Full Access: Twist off the base and you have instant, full access to the entire percolator disc. No more struggling to shake cleaner into a tight chamber when you're learning how to clean a honeycomb percolator. Just twist, wipe, and refill.
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Effortless Cleaning: You can easily scrub both sides of the disc percolator, ensuring every single hole is clear. A clear honeycomb means minimal drag, maximum diffusion, and the smoothest hit—every single time. It truly makes a traditionally tricky percolator manageable.
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Reclaim and Save: Heavy concentrate users know, there’s gold in that rig! In order to get every bit of your concentrate, you can unscrew the honeycomb base and access your reclaim directly. This saves both time and money, and a whole lot of frustration!
Tips and Tricks
These insider tips will help you maximize filtration, coolness, and function.
Water Level:
Dialing in your function.
The Rule: The water line should cover the entire disc and sit roughly 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the top surface of the bottom most honeycomb. If you are using a double honeycomb piece, don’t worry, the second percolator will serve to further diffuse your smoke and water as you pull air through the mouthpiece. As long as water flows through it, it doesn’t matter if water is sitting on top of it or not.
Why?: This ensures every hole is submerged for diffusion, but leaves enough space in the base chamber to prevent splashing and minimize the "drag" (resistance) on your pull. Too high, and you'll struggle to clear it; too low, and you'll lose core functionality.
Truly hate splashback? Pair your base with one of Prism’s Tall Mouthpieces, and never end up with a mouthful of bongwater ever again.
The Ice Shelf:
Honeycomb as a 2nd Ice Catcher
How To: Place a few larger ice cubes directly onto the honeycomb disc after you’ve set your water level or put in ice first, and fill your base through it's joint.
Why?: As the ice melts, it maintains a layer of extra cold water on the disc itself. The honeycomb acts as a perfect Ice Shelf, chilling the smoke at the very first point of filtration, adding an extra layer of smoothness before it even hits the main chamber.
The Snowcone:
Using Shaved Ice for Cooling + Filtration
How To: Instead of cubes, use a small amount of shaved, purified ice (like from a snowcone machine) directly in the base chamber. For best effect, place the snowballed base into your freezer for no longer than 5 minutes, and the mass will combine into one giant ice perc.
Why?: The smaller ice chips melt faster and create a much larger surface area than a single large cube. As the honeycomb forces the smoke through the water, the finely chipped ice provides rapid, intense cooling, delivering an unbelievably light and refreshing pull. Just remember to clean your base immediately afterward!
Pro-Tip:
Tilt to Level
How to: During regular use, its not uncommon for your water levels to move around. This doesn't affect your pull, but can be an annoying thing to look at. Easy fix, simply hold your piece at a 45 degree angle, and let the air bubbles meet, and you'll hear a satisfying whoosh as your water returns to where it should be.
Why?: While there's no functional downside to using a honeycomb perc with wonky water levels, it can be a bit of a buzzkill. This way you keep your pulls tight, direct, and effortless.
Upgrade to a Honeycomb Today!
The honeycomb percolator offers the perfect blend of high-end glass bong filtration and smooth, low-drag function. And with the Prism Water Pipes' modular design, you no longer have to sacrifice easy cleaning for elite performance.
It's time to stop fighting your stinky, sticky, glass pipe and start enjoying it.
👶 Option 1:
The MINI – Filter on the Go for $89.99
🐝Option 2:
The Classic Honeycomb - Filtered Perfection for $150
🍯 Option 3:
The Pro Set-Up - Sesh like a Specialist for $174.97
CHECK OUT OUR 3D CUSTOM BONG BUILDER!
