Freezing a glass tube, is it safe?

Hello RIU,

I have an Illadelph that I picked up a few days ago. It stands 18" tall and has no perc, it's a straight tube and is black/platinum. It has a black down stem, and an 'ice pinch'.



My question is: if I leave the down stem and the bowl at room temperature, is it structurally safe to freeze the tube itself? I have the option of using ice on a regular basis, but I feel like it slightly impedes the flow of air that the bong was originally intended to produce. Also, a frozen tube feels like it actually cools the smoke better than the ice does.

Anyone with glass knowledge is encouraged to chime in if you have an opinion on the matter. I just don't want to add any unnecessary stress to the glass by constantly freezing and thawing it if it's going to result in the demise of my investment.

:peace:
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
i was doing dishes one day. i had half the sink full of hot soapy water. i reached in a grabbed a glass tumbler out of the hot water. i scrubbed it off and reach over and turned the water on to rinse it. the faucet was all the over on the cold side. when the cold water hit the warm tumbler the glass exploded. 100's of tiny little pieces in the palms of my hands. i very gently opened them and dropped all the broken glass into sink. escaped without a scratch.

any type of structural stress can lead to cracking. if there is any tension within the glass and then the shock of heat or cold is applied, bad things can happen.

your tube may be fine, or it may crack. with glass there really is no guarantee.
 

Prefontaine

Well-Known Member
I once ruined a 140 dollar bong, which had glass on glass female piece, I washed it out with hot water put the female back smoked out of it, and the female piece is now permanently stuck.

now if your talking about a hooter go for it, just remember cold glass is brittle
 

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
i think i'm with fdd'ed on this one.. if you take the piece out of the freezer and then quickly put the slide in it and add heat to the slide to smoke out of it, the quick change in temperature may be enough to crack your piece.. then again, it may not do anything, but i wouldn't be willing to gamble on a nice illadelph bong like that..
how about using ice chips and don't put them so that the ice notches hold them, but rather down in the water so that it doesn't restrict the flow like you said it does on the notches??
or maybe even better yet, just stick the water in the fridge for awhile so that the water is just about ice cold, that way there's not really much need for ice in the bong? just a thought or two..
 
Thanks for all of the great responses.

I think I will just stick with the ice cubes and not mixing it with crushed ice because it tends to pack together too tightly.

The glass itself doesn't have a lot of 'work' to it, just the labels that came with it. But the risk of it exploding doesn't seem to be worth the 'cool' feeling that the frozen bong delivers.
 

researchkitty

Well-Known Member
You could freeze a bunch of those glass diffuser beads and toss them in! Wont last forever of course but neither would freezing the tube.
 

Sr. Verde

Well-Known Member
i used to mess around with cold things and glass

i just dont anymore.... i learned my lesson


BOOOM! like faded

exploding glass isn't fun.
 
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