Water Pipes: Joint Size, Gender, and Angle Explained

It is not uncommon that new smokers often end up buying complex pipes that they might not necessarily know how to operate. As a result, their purchase is rendered useless. Unfortunately, many don’t hesitate to blame the dispensary or the smoke shop owners for such a purchase!

If you wish to sell the perfect smoking accessories to your customers and make them high utility for them, it is essential to understand their requirements. This will require you to be very well acquainted with everything related to water pipes, including their joint sizes and genders.

If you are still clueless why these vitals play an essential role in popular smoking accessories, here are the reasons. 

• The vitals of the glass joint can impact the amount of smoke that the user consumes. 
• All the smoking accessories such as nails, bongs, adapters, and bowls have a gender. And the joint is that part of the glass pipe that holds these accessories. Therefore, it is essential to know the gender and size of the joint if the user wants to attach any of the above accessories in the future.  
• Even though most of the glass pipes are accompanied by a bowl or a nail, or both, the user might need to replace these accessories after continuous usage. They might even want to use an adapter for the personalization of their smoking piece. 

Size of the Joint

Glass joints are available in a variety of sizes for easy usage with varied accessories. In this blog, I will take you through the details of three categories of joint sizes – 10 mm, 14 mm, and 18 mm. Joint sizes are measured in metric. Why only these three? Because these are the most prevalent joint sizes. 

1. 18 mm Joint 

• Optimal for the broader variety of glasses such as beakers or straight tubes.
• Their extensive size gives them the ability to increase airflow. 

1. 14 mm Joint 

• Suitable for S-sized to M-sized dab rigs and bongs. 
• It is the most popular and commonly used joint size. 

1. 10 mm Joint 

• These are specifically designed to keep ease of portability in mind. 
• They are typically spotted on the smallest of the dab rigs or pendant rigs. 
• Smallest of all the available sizes and commonly referred to as nano or micro joint. 

Determining the Size of the Joint

Your customers don’t need to sit with a measuring tape to measure the size of the accessories and the joints. Just take the dime test and determine the size of the joint. It’s easy and fun! 

Here’s how they can take the dime test. 

• 10 mm Joint 

If the size of t the joint is less than a dime, mark tick on the 10 mm joint option. 

• 14 mm Joint 

If the size of the joint and dime matches, they possess the most common joint size. 

• 18 mm Joint 

Do those mentioned above, and if it doesn’t fit in either category, you have the biggest joint size. You can also measure the size of your joint against that of a dime. If the dime can quickly get into your joint, you have the 18 mm (or technically speaking, 18.8 mm) joint. 

Your customers must know that the accessories they choose should match the joint size on their glass pipes for perfect compatibility!

Gender of the Joint

Not just the joints but also smoking accessories and bong parts such as dropdowns, adapters, nails, bowls, and ash catchers have a gender!  Your customers must be aware that pieces of the same gender as the joint won’t be compatible. However, opposite gendered attachments are compatible with each other.  Now the question is, how can users determine the gender of the joints. 

Let’s have a look:

• Male Joint 

If you have to place the attachments over the joint, then it is a male joint. Male joints are most commonly found in oil rigs and some water pipes. This implies that customers with smoking devices having a male joint will hunt for female adapters, nails, domes, and bowl pieces when they are shopping next! 

• Female Joint 

Your smoking device has a female joint if the attachments have to be inserted into it, instead of over it. Standard water pipes for dry herbs usually possess a female joint. The customer’s smoking accessories need to be male. If they have a joint, that’s a female! 

Suppose the above pointers aren’t easy for your customers to grasp. You can explain them in the below manner.

Difference between male joints and female joints 

• Male joints are more petite, whereas female joints are more expansive. 
• Male joints are solid in form, while female joints appear similar to a cup-like structure. 

The angle of the Joint

Now that the concept of joint gender and size is clear let me tell you about one other aspect of the joints—the Joint Angle.

Joint Angle 

• The joint might also be angled with accessories. 
• Most common joints and accessories angles – 45° and 90°. 
• The degree of the joint should match that of the accessory, i.e., a 45° joint will pair up with a 45° accessory. The same goes for 90° joints and accessories. 

Now there might be some customers who need some time before they can grasp the above concepts. If any of your customers are adamant about pairing a male joint with a male accessory, or a female joint with a female accessory, you can help them. Recommend them to use a converter or adapter to get over this tricky situation.