How does a dugout pipe compare to a regular bowl?
To start off this discussion, we need to first define what a dugout pipe and ‘regular bowl’ are. By dugout pipe I mean a container to hold, at a minimum, herb, a one hitter, and a poker. A regular bowl is one of the many pipes you see that hold .2-.4 grams of herb with no water usage. This will be an ongoing series with a few main categories of dugouts vs. other means of smoking. They'll be compared by 5 categories. Those are portability, price, efficiency, durability, and group smoking easiness.
Portability
How convenient is it to take with you on the go? A dugout pipe can be brought just about anywhere as the box is at the very least smell-resistant and self contained. Regular bowls need to be handled with more care, as they are traditionally glass and not self sealed. This means herb can fall out and be wasted, as well as smell up a pocket or room. Clear winner here: Dugout
Price
The cheapest dugouts can be bought for around 10$, and a cheap bowl can be bought for around 12$ at gas stations or clearance sections. However, these extra cheap dugouts don’t have a poker so they don’t truly qualify for this competition. For what you get, the price is pretty evenly matched. From a money saving point of view, you’ll get more bang for your buck from a bowl than a cheap dugout. Bowl quality difference is minimal, but with dugouts the difference can be night and day. Winner by a little: bowl.
Efficiency
Let's say you go out for the day with a gram of herb. How can you best use it? With a dugout, you’re using a one-hitter which is an efficiency machine. You’re only smoking one hit at a time, so there is no extra burning or torching a bowl. Even seasoned smokers cannot be as efficient with a bowl as with a one-hitter. You need to pack the one-hitter up more often, but from an efficiency stand point the one-hitter is king. Winner by a reasonable margin: dugout pipe.
Durability
We all drop things from time to time, no one is perfect. This is one of the best things about dugouts, is they can take an absolute beating. Unless you throw it off a cliff, whether they’re plastic, wood, or metal, chances are your dugout will come out just fine. Unfortunately that cannot be said about a regular bowl. 99% of regular bowls are still made of glass as silicone is just becoming mainstream. A regular bowl will shatter when dropped onto a hard surface from even a few feet up. For this category, dugouts are the last product standing. Winner: dugouts.
Group Smoking
I think we all know the answer to this one. Unless you only have a tiny amount of herb to smoke, 10/10 people will go with a bowl over a dugout here. A bowl can be lit and passed around with ease, whereas a dugout needs to be constantly repacked. A one-hitter and dugout are great for solo smoking, but when it comes to group smoking a bowl will take the cake. A dugout is great to carry herb to a friends in, and have tools to assist in group smoking, but from a strictly smoking point of view this is a no brainer. Winner by a long shot: bowl.
Overall
There’s a time and a place for each of those smoking devices. You need to make the decision that’s right for you. The good news is you aren't just limited to one of these. It’s easy to have both and bring the right tool for the job! We’re partial to dugouts due to their versatility, but not every situation requires one. A category not discussed here are multi-tools. Here at Smokit, we decided to take everything good about dugouts and improve on them. This way, even in a group setting you can add to the group with a positive contribution. From the grinder card to the multi-hitter, versatility is king. Check out what we’ve done to advance dugouts even further over at https://smokits.com/collections/all-smokit-parts