14mm vs 18mm is bigger better?

Stevenski

Enter the Dragon
Having grown up in a different cannabis culture I am curious as to what is preferred amongst the vaporizing community? Why is there two main sizes? In Australia we had the old thin stem & then the new bonza fat ones came out. All that meant was your stem took longer to block up with a tar/ash toxic slime. I have evolved over the years though ☺

Currently i have a 18mm bubbler, 18mm honeycomb bong & a 18/14mm tube. I only use 18mm for vaping as that is what the EQ used so i stuck with that. What is the future standard size for vaping? What works best for you? Is 14mm better because it creates a narrower denser airpath? Or is 18mm better becauss it allows higher air flow?
 
Stevenski,
  • Like
Reactions: NorVape

Tstat

Dead Foot Designs
Accessory Maker
Good question and I don't have an answer. I collect and use 18 only. I started with a mix and used adapters when needed. I only like 18 now because of my daily use of the EVO. The other reason is I have GAS and there are way more 14's than 18's. And if I didn't decide on only 18, id spend way too much on glass!
 

Delta3DStudios

Well-Known Member
Accessory Maker
Honestly I'd think 18mm female on bubblers is becoming the standard. Most Chinese glass on DHgate either has 18mm Female or 14mm male (most, like 95%). I do find 14mm male very often in my Local shops, which is annoying because I prefer female joints on my bubblers.

18mm female is preferred because yes it is thicker glass, and it's easier to step-down than it is to step-up in size. Converting from 18mm opening to 14mm is much more common and easier to find adapters and such locally (if you accidentally break a reducer on a saturday afternoon and can't order one online fast enough). Converting from a 14mm to 18mm does exist, but it's much more uncommon to find (special order online).

I have gotten rid of nearly all of my glass recently, only keeping three pieces for my journey south. But all glass I'm keeping is 18mm.
 

howie105

Well-Known Member
Having grown up in a different cannabis culture I am curious as to what is preferred amongst the vaporizing community? Why is there two main sizes? In Australia we had the old thin stem & then the new bonza fat ones came out. All that meant was your stem took longer to block up with a tar/ash toxic slime. I have evolved over the years though ☺

Currently i have a 18mm bubbler, 18mm honeycomb bong & a 18/14mm tube. I only use 18mm for vaping as that is what the EQ used so i stuck with that. What is the future standard size for vaping? What works best for you? Is 14mm better because it creates a narrower denser airpath? Or is 18mm better becauss it allows higher air flow?

I have both 14mm and 18mm glass but prefer the 18mm size. Not because the 18mm pieces are better performers but because I find the 18mm size more adaptable to my different styles of use.
 

ataxian

PALE BLUE DOT
I think I am in the minority preferring 14mm. I have no logical reason but prefer attaching 14mm to all my water pieces. Even when I use the fc187 or d020-d, I use the 18-14mm reducer (even though I have 18mm adapters).
i Have both 14mm and 18mm.

Currently I have a 14mm GonG in a 18mm x 14mm reducer in my FC UFO and it works fine!

The 18mm works the same and I'll break the rest of my GonG's!
 

Stevenski

Enter the Dragon
This is interesting as I was expecting a far more hardline stance on one size or the other. I think I will stick with 18mm pieces as it is easier to step down than step up as pointed out & keep it simple. Hell I can even get an 18/18 stem for my UFO tube if I want. Actually that may not be a bad idea at all.

Continue to sing the virtues of the size debate.
 

SavedByTheVape

Well-Known Member
I feel it kind of depends on your airflow/resistance preferences imho. 18mm offers increased airflow and low inhalation resistance, while 14mm will supply less airflow and more resistance/tension when taking rips.

I also fall into the 18mm camp primarily because I have weak respiratory passages and seek the lowest resistance possible.
 

biohacker

HREAM
18mm.... for all the reasons posted above. I have massive swimmers lungs but still prefer better airflow and low resistance. I would never buy a 14mm piece again.
 
biohacker,

Stevenski

Enter the Dragon
Not a fan of male joints on dab rigs. All inlets should be female and all outlets male. Its a basic plumbing principal.

Nyahh fuck up cunt I got a bonza stem in me Orchy & thats good nuff for Bazza :lol:. I always think "those dabbbin muddafuckas" whenever I see a male joint, it makes as much sense as the imperial measurement system does to me.
 
Stevenski,
  • Like
Reactions: Nugg

Quetzalcoatl

DEADY GUERRERO/DIRT COBAIN/GEORGE KUSH
18mm females generally. You can make an 18mm f to a 14mm f with a nice reducer that just sits inside the 18mm joint. When going 14mm to 18mm female the adapter sticks out which isn't a bad thing at all provided you have a well-constructed adapter, I just think the low profile 18mm f -> 14mm f looks much cleaner. I notice a lot more 14mm male (direct inject) on oil rigs, and especially on worked stuff (even the smaller 10mm is starting to become a bit more common). I'm weird though because on my 14mm male oil pieces I won't go up to 18mm. There's less of a bottleneck with 18mm than 14mm logic would say, however I haven't found joint size to be an important factor in draw restriction so much as the percolation style/setup. 4 stacked honeycomb discs is gonna have a lot more drag than a single showerhead, and that drag will be more significant than the difference between 14mm and 18mm :2c:
 

throwawaytre3s

Well-Known Member
My first water pipe was 14mm, but my EQ and my newest water piece (d020-D) are 18, so I'm probably going to make an effort to only use 18 from here on out. Reduces issues with adapters and needing extra bits.
 

Tstat

Dead Foot Designs
Accessory Maker
I have a question about downstems. I was going to put it in the Ask FC section, but figured I'd ask here first.
If you have piece that has a 14mm opening, let's say a beaker like this:

media.nl

Are there downstems that would fit this (it's 14mm) that would make it 18mm? I guess it would be an 18/14? I like this beaker but I would want to make it 18mm WITHOUT adding a 14 to 18 adapter.

EDIT: Actually, after more research it looks like it would take a regular 18 to 18 downstem. The opening on the beaker is 18, it just uses a 14 - 18mm DS. I think if I got the same size only with 18mm instead of 14 I will be ok.
 
Last edited:

jim-bob

Well-Known Member
I own 3 14mm pieces of glass and 5 18mm pieces. Also an old 9.5mm perced piece from the old vriptech days.

I'm lazy when it comes to options, so all of my glass is from the same source as the vaporizer I intend to use it with. When all I had was my Steinel heat gun and Vriptech manifold, I used a Vriptech piece. When they added a few pieces (the Pro and the BuB) I scooped those up as well. Vriptech works pretty much exclusively in 14mm, so that's what I had.

Then I bought an Evo, which is an 18mm male. I got a hydratube and a dry stem, 18mm, and have slowly been building my hydratube empire.

I was hoping to pick up an 18mm female -> 14mm male adapter, but brainfarted and got the genders swapped. So if I want to use my Vriptech glass with my evo, it turns out I now have to use the whip adapter.

Life sure is difficult.
 
jim-bob,
Not a fan of male joints on dab rigs. All inlets should be female and all outlets male. Its a basic plumbing principal.

Male nails (ti especially) have a tendency to expand with heat and crack pieces is why they typically reverse the two on dab specific rigs. I prefer a female to male adapter for nails since I don't have a dedicated dab rig, sure it looks busy but knowing my piece won't crack is reassuring.
 
nondarb,
  • Like
Reactions: pigfoot

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
What has really interested me, which is somewhat on topic, not sure I have a preference - is dab rigs started out 18mm M or 14mm M and now tend to all be 18mm F.

I do find for dab rigs is that especially if you are using a dropdown or adapter, the narrower - the better (and sometimes influenced by the choice of GonG joint)! My 14mm M jointed Kevin Murray rig with 11 hole diffuser downstem and matching dropdown has such an airpath, gives satisfying big hits what to me feels like the perfect draw. Any broader airpath seems to change the draw and make it too airy and easy to run out of breath quickly.

I too had thought that female GonGs and male jointed nails may lead to cracking. Still, I am of course aware that design can mitigate this.

Anyone here have the skinny on why we tend to see 18mm F joints on dab rigs these days now? Especially glass people (@mvapes here's lookin' at you bro!).

BTW @Stevenski GonG joints are actually a scientific standard. We use ground glass joints like these to connect lab glass together, keck clips too! It seems like US tokers poached this idea out of the lab, which was very clever of them!

I have one 18mm M jointed dab rig (Ryu Wilson), one 14mm M/F jointed dab rig (Kevin Murray, female 45 degree without dropdown and male 90 degree with dropdown) and one 18mm F jointed piece (Luke Wilson flower rig).

Also got an 18mm F jointed worked and sandblasted oil rig on the way for an xmas present to myself! It is so beautiful and I am excited for you guys to see it :D
 
Last edited:

mvapes

Scratchin' Glass!
Accessory Maker
@herbivore21 - you know this! Lol, for enails!

Look at anything from Jack Steele Glass, Pukingbeagle, pyrology (the riglet and the decycler). Now a days it's easy to just get a drop down if you wanna dab like the flinstones.

:lol::rofl:

Lol
 
mvapes,

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
@herbivore21 - you know this! Lol, for enails!

Look at anything from Jack Steele Glass, Pukingbeagle, pyrology (the riglet and the decycler). Now a days it's easy to just get a drop down if you wanna dab like the flinstones.

:lol::rofl:

Lol
Oh as in enails conduct less heat onto the glass and the cracking was really only an issue for torch dabs? I getcha lol :lol:
 
herbivore21,

mikeben

Well-Known Member
I'm so into my Hydratubes now, I really switched quickly from liking 14mm to 18mm.
 
mikeben,
Top Bottom