How to Use a One Hitter Pipe
(Visual Guide for Beginners)
Written By: Jay Hyung
Bong Engineer
The one hitter pipe is one of the most versatile devices for smoking weed.
One hitters are great for keeping your tolerance low which saves you cannabis and money – not to mention it’s the most portable device on the market.
I’ve been using a one hitter for quite some time and I’ll break down exactly how to use it from the grinding consistency of your weed, to how to pack, light, and smoking your one hitter.
Let’s dive in and learn how to use a one hitter pipe like a pro.
1: Grind your weed to a
medium-fine consistency
No Scooby Snacks
Grinding your weed matters. I recommend you get a good weed grinder but if you don’t have one you can check out this article on how to grind your weed without a grinder.
If you grind too much the weed will be too fine and when you smoke your one hitter small pieces will fly through the pipe into your mouth (this is called Scooby Snacks).
If you grind too little the marijuana will be too big and will light unevenly giving you an inconsistent smoke that wastes bud.
You want it right in the middle and it should look something like this.
A one-hitter holds about .25 grams of cannabis so I like to put about a gram a weed into the grinder. Break that gram into nice chunky pieces and place it into the grinder something like this:
If the weed is dense (squishy) then you are going to want to grind more but if your weed is dry (feels very hard and crispy) you are going to want to grind less.
For dense and sticky weed you can spin the top about three times forward and then three times backward. Spinning the grinder back and forth it helps the teeth in the grinder to clear and fall to the bottom of the grinder chamber.
For dry weed, I like to spin it about three times forward and only two times backward.
After you are done grinding make sure to tap the side of the grinder plenty of times so all the ground cannabis can fall to the bottom of the chamber.
2: Twist your beveled
edge bowl into the weed
How to pack a one hitter
Now that you have your ground cannabis ready it’s time to learn how to pack your one hitter.
One hitters have two ends, the beveled edge bowl and the side you put your mouth on.
The beveled edge (inclined edge) makes loading your one hitter very easy as it helps to separate the cannabis.
Take your grounded weed and make sure there is a nice pile of weed (you don’t want to push your one hitter into a shallow pile of grounded weed. I like to take the back of my nails and push the grounded weed into a nice little pile.
Take the beveled bowl end of your one hitter and push directly down. Avoid coming at an angle, you want the pipe at a 90-degree angle to the ground marijuana.
Next, you want to apply pressure with your one hitter by pushing down and twisting.
Check your bowl it should look like the image below.
This is not enough cannabis so if it looks like this just repeat the above steps again by pushing the beveled edge of the one hitter perpendicular to the ground cannabis and then push and twist back and forth.
The end result should look like this.
If there are any extra particles sticking out the end just do a quick graze with your fingers and knock the extra weed back into the grinder.
3: Light your one hitter
by grazing the flame
How to light a one hitter
This is where a ton of people have trouble with and that’s learning how to light a one hitter.
The one hitter holds very little cannabis and you don’t want to douse the weed in flames, it can burn out very fast throwing ash into your mouth.
To light your one hitter first ignite your flame source (hemp wick, lighter, or matches). Keep the flame source right next to the weed but not touching it.
Now gently tap the flame into the weed in your one hitter bowl. You want to tap in and out and inhale at the same time.
By drawing oxygen through your mouth and igniting the weed with fire we begin the combustion process which is called “cherrying” your weed.
Once the cherry is achieved you no longer need your lighter and you can begin the inhale process.
Steps 3 and 4 happen very fast but just for clarity’s sake, I’ll separate the steps.
4: Inhale softly for 2
seconds and exhale deeply
Pull softly exhale harder
If this is your first time smoking weed we wrote the full guide on how to inhale weed properly.
You do not need to inhale and hold for seconds. Once the cherry is achieved in your one hitter pipe you simply begin inhaling gently.
If you pull too strongly you will throw imbalance through the combustion process which can just waste the weed or again you will pull scooby snacks into your mouth.
Gently inhale for about 2 seconds. 1 second to get it into the lungs and 1 more second your upper chest should be lifting as you hold the smoke (it’s not necessary to hold longer).
Most importantly, make sure you exhale until you see zero smoke coming out of your lungs. You may want to cough here but just keep exhaling and the itch to cough will go away.
The reason why most people cough is they aren’t exhaling completely and that’s a very easy thing to avoid.
5: Clear the resin
from your pipe
Weed lets me see clearly
This step is never talked about when learning how to smoke a one hitter, but it’s just as important.
Most one hitters come with a metal poker that allows you to push through the entire pipe to clear the resin.
You don’t want a ton of resin on the inside of your pipe because it clogs, gets super sticky, and actually reduces the amount of THC that you get.
It’s a huge headache later and it makes it so you have to clean your one hitter less.
Just stick the poker through the pipe to push out any resin.
Do not slide it back to the other end, take an alcohol wipe or a damp paper towel and remove the resin that you just pushed out.
Now you can slide the poker back out from the other end.
This makes it so you have to clean much less and keeps your one hitter functioning at optimal levels.
Some advanced tips
on using a one hitter
Above are the basic steps on how to use a one hitter but I created another section for more advanced tips on how to use your one hitter for managing tolerance, saving money, and just efficiency.
Use a self ashing one hitter
Ryot and The Dart are popular options for self-ejecting one-hitters. Usually, these one hitters are spring loaded and after you are done smoking you push the back end of the straight pipe and it ejects the ash.
The self-ashes system is sort of hit or miss. It works when it’s brand new but as resin begins building up it begins working less and less.
I prefer the self-ashing one hitters mainly because they allow me to really clean that bowl well.
This allows me to clean the one-hitter much less, which trust me is a big deal because cleaning a one-hitter is a process in itself.
After a few days of using your one hitter simply push the back end of the pipe so the bowl is completely exposed, it will look something like this:
Take an alcohol wipe, a scraping tool, or a wet paper towel and remove any of the resin that’s exposed. If you used alcohol make sure it dries for at least 20 minutes before use.
How to not cough
with a one hitter
Most one hitters are made from metal (anodized aluminum) and while the first hit can be nice and smooth, the metal heats up fast.
After the second hit the metal within the pipe gets very hot and it can produce much hotter smoke, which ultimately leads to coughing (learn how to not cough when smoking weed).
To avoid coughing try not to smoke your one hitter back to back.
How to save money
using a one hitter
I discovered this by accident but I was always a bit taken aback that I could just as high from .25 grams of weed whereas my friend was taking entire gram bong rips back to back.
The more you use cannabis the more you down-regulate your CB1 receptors. It takes about 4 weeks of not smoking weed to build your tolerance (CB1 receptors) back up.
Basically, the more you smoke the less it works.
By using a one hitter you are smoking much less, but keeping that tolerance level can be tricky.
When smoking with a one hitter I like to smoke a week with just one hit, then upgrade to two hits for another week, and then take a 4-day break.
This allows me to get the same high most people would with much less weed to buy for the month.
Another trick is to switch up the strains when smoking with a one hitter, because this can help keep the high strong (check out our guide on how to get higher off weed).
Try to keep your tolerance low, once I find myself needing more than three hits I usually have to upgrade to a weed pipe instead.
Final thoughts on
using a one hitter
When it comes to learning how to use a one hitter (also known as a taster bat or straight pipe) it’s not hard but there are plenty of nuances.
A one hitter is usually made of anodized aluminum and is amazing for keeping your tolerance low and for saving money and cannabis. It’s perfect for stealth smokers and for traveling. Usually, one hitters are equipped with a dugout to store grounded cannabis and come with a steel poker. When using a one hitter at home I never use the dugout. The dugout is more used for travel purposes. I hope my experiences with smoking a one hitter can help you get the perfect high. Remember to smoke responsibly.
