Ummm...you put your weed in there.

July 22, 2009 1:23 PM

What the frack is a roor?

So I was given THESE THINGS that say ROOR on it.

What the hell is it...and more importantly...how does it work?

I know these are used for ingesting marijuana. Is it a regular bong, or some kind of fancy device that isn't referred to as a bong or water pipe. I'm not really a fan of that...but I am kinda interested in:

1. How can I clean this so it looks clean and new?...and then how do I sell it? Is craigslist a good bet since ebay doesn't really like to sell "BONGS". I've looked up laws and what I've found is that I can't sell it to anybody under 18, and I MUST clean it before I sell it otherwise its actual drug paraphernalia.

2. I'm PROBABLY not going to buy a pack of cigarettes, take out the tobacco and smoke it...or even take a cuban cigar that I have, crumple it and smoke that...but what if I wanted to. How do I use this to smoke tobacco? I know there are several parts and they connect in a specific way, how do they attach together and work? I wanted to attach them...but since I don't know much about this, I figured I'd keep it separate until I know how to not break it.

3. Also, just in case you were wondering, I won this at poker. They dude claimed that it was worth over $700 (although it was deemed to be worth a $100 bet at the table). How much is it worth? How much did he likely buy it for?

posted by hal_c_on to society & culture (19 comments total)

Well googling brings up their website:

http://www.roor-bongs.com/

I'm sure there is a price in there somehwere, but not really comfortable digging anymore into that site at work...
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:26 PM on July 22

See here for a bit of a description and some history on ROOR.

ROOR is a nicer-than-average bong but with a fancy brand name attached to it. The bong Michael Phleps was smoking out of when he had his picture taken was a ROOR.

Here is a photo gallery with more pics of people using their variously shaped and sized ROORs. The pictures may show you how to better assemble your piece.

Quite possibly, it did cost over $700 when it was first purchased. This is not uncommon. But depending on how it was handled since then and how long ago it was bought, it is probably closer to the $100 mentioned at the table.
posted by ejazen at 1:31 PM on July 22

roor looks dutch by virtue of the two Os & the palindromeness.

this shop suggests the pricerange is around 100-200 so the dude was bluffing (but hey, its gamblin, bluffin is okay).

i can't tell whats special about them besides that most seem to be glass "ice bongs" which means you put ice into 'em, no surprise.
posted by breadfruit at 1:32 PM on July 22

They seem like a high-end type of bong. The prices are in pounds on this site (probably NSFW). I don't know anything about the price of bongs but those types look as if they could easily cost the price you were quoted. There is one there priced at £1150 (or roughly $1900 USD).
posted by ClanvidHorse at 1:32 PM on July 22

It's a glass water bong. I believe the jar-like attachment is an ice chamber. It's made of glass, so you should be able to use any type of non-etching cleaning material.
posted by torquemaniac at 1:33 PM on July 22

1) Soak it in a bath of water and baking soda, then use elbow grease and one of those glasses brushes to scrub out the inside. Most head shops sell special pipe cleansers, but it's not really worth the price.

2) You need to buy loose-leaf tobacco if you want to smoke tobacco with your tobacco pipe. It's way cheaper and better than buying a cigar or using one you already have. Any decent cigar shop should sell loose tobacco, I imagine.

The tall one is just a regular old water pipe. The internet is rife with instructions on how to use it. I've never seen anything like the smaller one.
posted by muddgirl at 1:35 PM on July 22

1. There's something called Formula 420 that's sold at head shops--it's basically just a mildly abrasive not-too-poisonous cleanser. If I was trying to sell a bong, I'd ask my stoner friends. If that option's not available, I'm not sure what my plan B would be.

2. It's just a regular bong. Put a little water in the bottom of the big glass thing (enough to reach the bottom of the slide part, not enough to wet the tobacco). Put a little tobacco into the bowl of the slide/stem/bowl part (the smaller glass thing--looks like you've got two of them). Put the slide part in the hole in the bong part. Place your mouth at the top of the bong. Light the tobacco and inhale gently to fill the bong with smoke. When the bong is full, or when you're near the limits of your lung capacity, lift the slide out and inhale the smoke that has built up inside the bong. This isn't a great explanation--check out Youtube, ask somebody to demonstrate, or just experiment a little.

3. You can get a name-brand vaporizer for less than $700, and American-made hand-blown art glass bongs for less than that. I don't know that I'd pay $100 for it, and I sure wouldn't pay $700. The brand name might've had more cachet immediately after the Michael Phelps thing. I don't know enough about the headshop business to talk about wholesale/retail or anything.
posted by box at 1:39 PM on July 22

I believe the jar-like attachment is an ice chamber.

Holy moly, people don't answer if you're just taking guesses! The jar-like attachment is an ash catcher. Your bowl with tabacco/weed first is filtered through this jar with water in it. Any ash you might have pulled in with your hit will stay in that jar with the water. The smoke will then go through the actual roor bong. The horizontal poles going right underneath the ROOR logo are for ice--drop a few ice cubs down and it will hold it up so the smoke will pull through the ice. This way, your smoke will cool on the second pull and not taste like ash.
posted by ejazen at 1:40 PM on July 22

Upon a closer look: the slide is a two-piece deal, with a receiver tube and a separate bowl piece. It looks like you have two complete slides there. I'm not sure about the jar piece.
posted by box at 1:43 PM on July 22

Here is more info on the ashcatchers and from the pictures you can probably determine how to use your various down stems.
posted by ejazen at 1:45 PM on July 22

The jar-like attachment is an ash catcher.

As I live and breathe. I've never even heard of one of those - it's basically a two-staged bong then?

...the products companies will think up to further commercialize a relatively simple process!
posted by muddgirl at 1:46 PM on July 22

The glass sliders can just be boiled to clean. put a dish in the bottom of the saucepan to raise them off the bottom. You can them clean off any remaining crap with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip if you want. Wash the pan as soon as possible. To clean the main apparatus, uncooked rice and alcohol work well: plug all the holes and shake, the rice acts as a gentle abrasive (avoid this if there are places the rice can get permanently stuck).
posted by oneirodynia at 1:48 PM on July 22

The jar-like attachment is an ash catcher.

Thank god for AskMe. For all these years I thought my friend said he had bought a new bong with a built-in ass scratcher.
posted by The Bellman at 2:43 PM on July 22 [1 favorite]

You can clean it with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and salt. Combine the two and shake until it's clean. It helps to heat up the alcohol for a few seconds in a microwave, but obviously be careful if you do that.

Also you probably don't want to smoke tobacco out of a bong, that would most likely make you sick.
posted by bradbane at 3:07 PM on July 22 [1 favorite]

Head shop cleansing formulas are a serious rip off. bradbane's got it with the alcohol and salt cure.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 3:09 PM on July 22

You can clean it with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and salt. Combine the two and shake until it's clean. It helps to heat up the alcohol for a few seconds in a microwave, but obviously be careful if you do that.

I'd second a bath of isopropyl alcohol (the higher the concentration, the better), and leave it near an open window for ventilation, as that will be bonafied-guaranteed to remove any sticky residue therein. You can get pretty good quality stuff at a pharmacy.
posted by tybeet at 3:42 PM on July 22

Clean it with alcohol. The residue is tar. Normal soap won't even budge it. A degreaser might clean it but will leave a residue of its own. Alcohol will clean the tar and evaporate leaving no residue.

You got screwed at the poker table.
posted by chairface at 4:03 PM on July 24

You got screwed at the poker table.

A pipe of that caliber can be cleaned and resold for significantly more than a hundo, in the right circles.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 4:32 PM on July 24

Also, the alcohol breaks up the tars, but the salt is useful as an abrasive. If the concentration of salt is high enough so that it doesn't all dissolve, you can just swirl it around after it soaks for an hour or two. Then you won't have to scrub any of the tar. It will just sort of fall off.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 4:33 PM on July 24