How to Use a One Hitter for the First Time
Why use a one hitter: Tiny yet potent, a one hitter holds 0.1 grams of cannabis - a fraction of a chillum's 0.5 gram capacity. This small, yet precise dose gives you full control over your intake without any excess effects or wasted smoke, making a one hitter the best weed pipe for tolerance management.
Why it matters: While this device may seem simple,using a one hitter incorrectly can lead to clogs, ash and plant inhalation, and incomplete hits wasting cannabis. In this article, we break down everything you need to use a one hitter for the first time!
Anatomy of a one hitter
A one hitter is a compact cylinder tube about 2-4 inches with three key parts. The bowl holds 0.1 grams of cannabis, the stem channels the smoke, and the mouthpiece delivers the smoke to inhale.
This straightforward design lets you inhale a single, unfiltered hit for maximum flavor and potency with zero waste.
- Bowl: The bowl is narrow and holds approximately 0.025 to 0.1 grams of herb, enough for a single hit.
- Stem: The stem is a straight tube that connects the bowl to the mouthpiece, allowing smoke to travel.
- Mouthpiece: The mouthpiece is the end where the user inhales.
Benefits of a one hitter
One hitters are one of the best tools for keeping your tolerance low. By only smoking .1 grams of cannabis you never waste cannabis and never smoke in excess. This makes one hitters great for feeling moderate effects versus the stronger recreational high that a bong gives. They are also more affordable, portable, and discreet than any other marijuana smoking device.
Benefits of a one hitter pipe:
- Precise control: 0.1-gram bowl for precise dosing
- Cost savings: Minimize waste and stretch your supply.
- Tolerance management: Micro dose to maintain effectiveness.
- Discretion: Compact, portable, and quick to use.
How to use a one hitter
To use a one hitter, grind your cannabis to medium consistency and fill the bowl using a folded card, packing the first layer softly with a dowel. Light the bowl while angling the pipe slightly upwards, inhaling slowly to nurture the cherry. When the cherry is lit, stop the lighter flame and pull the smoke into your lungs deeply, and exhale.
1. Grind weed
Use a weed grinder to break cannabis into a medium consistency (not too chunky not too fine). Chunky weed will burn unevenly and ultra-fine weed will pull right through the pipe into your mouth, wasting cannabis. Aim for a fluffy consistency similar to coarse sand.
2. Pack your bowl
Packing a one hitter is tricky because of its horizontal design unlike packing a bongs bowl. Use a folded business card to scoop and funnel ground weed into the bowl from an upright position. Gently tamp the weed with a dowel, but avoid overpacking.
Double Check: The weed should be packed enough that no weed falls out when the pipe is horizontal for smoking, but when you test with a dry inhale you can pull with a slight resistance.
3. Light the weed
Hold the one hitter at an angle (slightly upright), place the mouthpiece to your lips, and light the bowl end. Use a linse lighter or hemp wick to ignite the cannabis while inhaling slowly. The fire and oxygen should activate a cherry. Avoid using the lighter’s flame the entire inhalation, you want to depend on the cherry to form smoke.
4. Inhale the smoke
Inhale gently and steadily drawing the smoke into your lungs. One hitters produce far less smoke than spoon pipes and bongs, so the inhale will be much easier. Focus on lifting the diaphragm and bringing the smoke deep into the lungs. Hold for 1-2 seconds.
5. Exhale deeply
Often an overlooked step, you want to exhale as deeply as you inhaled to push out any smoke from your lungs. This is a healthy habit when smoking that protects your lungs.
Still confused?For a more thorough breakdown of each step on smoking a one hitter, keep reading below for more expert insight on each of the above steps.
Can you use a one hitter multiple times?
Yes, it’s common to use a one hitter multiple times both in the same hit and consecutive hits. In many cases, if the bowl is packed too loose or the cannabis is too chunky, the cherry will extinguish midway, forcing you to relight, taking multiple hits to finish the bowl. This can be avoided by packing the bowl correctly.
Using a one hitter multiple times consecutively is very common. As your tolerance increases you may find you need two full bowls to feel the same effects. If you find your tolerance growing past a one hitter’s potential, you can always try a different type of weed pipe that has a larger bowl capacity like a steamroller or spoon pipe.
Do one hitters hit hard?
One hitters hit hard because they’re dry pipes with a short smoke-to-lung path. They feature no water filtration or buffers like bongs. But their tiny .1 gram capacity limits smoke and heat, making hits gentler than bongs or pipes with carburetors which use oxygen to push smoke into the lungs.
How do you get the most high off a one hitter?
To get more potency from a one hitter you’ll need to increase the packing in the bowl. Use the three-layer packing method by placing a layer of medium-ground cannabis into the bowl and packing each layer separately with a dowel (gentle pressure). This gives you more cannabis to smoke while also promoting a productive cherry for the most potent extraction of cannabinoids.
Did you know? Even though a one hitter doesn’t have a carb like a traditional pipe, you can still tap your finger over the bowl mid-hit. Once half the bowl is lit, carefully place your finger over the bowl end leaving a tiny room for air to enter. Inhale and tap back and forth to promote more combustion for a stronger hit.
Make sure to inhale very deeply, lifting the diaphragm which exposes more THC to surface area in the lungs. Hold for no more than 2 full seconds for a deeper absorption.
How to grind weed for a one hitter
A one hitter needs a specific type of consistency of ground weed. Since the bowl sits horizontally you lose the benefits of gravity that helps upright bowls lock the ground cannabis in place.
Grinding mistakes: If you do not grind the weed enough the pieces are too chunky and big, and do not hold structure in the bowl. If you grind the weed too much, you get an ultra-fine powder. A one hitter has no filter so tiny particles can fly through the stem into your mouth wasting cannabis.
How to grind:When grinding weed, rotate the grinder in full circles three times going clock-wise, then three full swings going counter clock-wise. Next, tap the side of the grinder with your palm to knock any large chunks or medium ground weed through the holes. This prevents pieces that are too large or too fine. Repeat this a few times depending on how much weed you are grinding.
How to pack a one hitter
Packing a one hitter is one of the most overlooked steps. This one simple step, if done correctly will increase the potency and productivity of your smoke. When you light your cannabis and inhale you are introducing oxygen and fire to the plant which causes combustion. Combustion extracts all the cannabinoids and terpenes for you to inhale.
Packing incorrectly: By packing the bowl of the one hitter too loose the fire cannot catch evenly and no cherry will trigger, leading to bowls extinguishing before finishing. If you pack the bowl too tight there is not enough oxygen when you inhale to pull through the cannabis so no cherry will form, which leads to charring just the top layer of weed, which wastes cannabis.
How to pack: Pack a one hitter by filling the bowl with medium ground cannabis, then in an upright position tap the bowl on your palm or gently on a flat surface to let the cannabis settle into place. If the bowl is not full place more ground cannabis in and repeat. Once finished, take a dowel or chopstick and tamp softly and evenly along the top surface.
Why the top surface: Do not pack so the entire bowl is packed tight only the top 20% of the bowl. The reason why is this allows a cherry to form and then the cherry will ignite the rest of the cannabis without the need of a lighter.
How to light and smoke a one hitter
To smoke a one hitter you need to first learn how to use the lighter less. This may seem counterintuitive but you only want to use the lighter to ignite a portion of the cannabis and use your inhale to provoke a cherry. Once the cherry is activated the bowl will produce a steady stream of THC-rich smoke for you to inhale.
Why lighters are bad: One of the most common mistakes with beginners when smoking a one hitter is depending too much on the lighter's flame. The flame of a lighter can reach temperatures over 600°F which is significantly higher than the boiling points of many terpenes and cannabinoids found in cannabis. That means using your lighter too much, can destroy the THC and terpenes, reducing both flavor and potency.
How to smoke a one hitter: Use the lighter and inhale gently pulling the flame only onto the upper layer of cannabis in the one hitter’s bowl. Inhale with gentle consecutive puffs to ignite a cherry. Once the cherry is activated do not use your lighter anymore and continue to inhale, extracting all the cannabinoids and THC into smoke down the stem and deeply into your lungs.
How to inhale from a one hitter
Inhaling from a one hitter is different than a bong which requires a large deep breath because you are forcing much more smoke into the lungs. Because you inhale much less smoke the inhaling is much easier, gentler, and usually never involves any coughing.
Inhale slowly: The inhale isn’t just about moving smoke into your lungs, it’s feeding oxygen to the bowl for the combustion which is what extracts the good stuff from the plant and converts it into smoke. Don’t inhale too fast, make sure it’s a steady and slow inhale to help promote productive combustion of the plant.
Inhale deeply:Unlike a bong rip that forces all the smoke into your lungs in one hit, a one hitter sends the smoke gradually into your lungs. As you inhale slowly you also want to inhale deeply, moving all the smoke deep into your lungs for absorption.
Exhale: Most important, as deeply as you inhale you want to exhale just as deeply removing any of the smoke from your lungs. So a good rule-of-thumb is if you inhaled for 6 seconds you want to exhale for 8 seconds. Compress your ribs and lungs to push out any leftover smoke to protect your lungs.
How to empty your one hitter bowl
To empty your bowl use a one hitter poker and push through the mouth end up to the bowl to push any resin, ash, or plant particles out of the stem and bowl into an ashtray. You can also use a dental pick to help pick out any stubborn ash in the bowl that has latched to sticky resin.
Why is it so sticky: One hitters, unlike other pipes and bongs, have the smallest bowls and stems. During the combustion phase, heat causes the release of oils, tar, and ash that accumulate and combine clinging to the surface of the glass or metal.
On the first hit of a clean pipe, you’ll notice immediately the sticky resin that begins coating the bowl and stem. This is why you need to clean your one hitter often or else it will begin to clog. Cleaning a one hitter is the same as cleaning a pipe, it’s fast, easy, and will make bowl clearing much faster.
Why is my one hitter clogging?
One hitters are notorious for clogging because of how small one hitters are. When cannabis is ignited, it releases oils (sticky resin) that coat the bowl and the stem. Frequent smoking causes plant particles, ash, and tar to catch along the resin that coats the interior of your one hitter.
Over time this begins constricting air flow and leads to clogging.
Make sure to clean your one hitter regularly. While you do need to clean a one hitter more frequently than a bong or pipe, one hitters are extremely easy to clean. Just drop your one hitter in a ziplock back, submerge the pipe in Isopropyl alcohol, and fill it with a generous amount of salt. Swirl the pipe around in the mixture and let sit for 20 minutes. Pull the pipe out and rinse with warm water, detail, and air dry.
Pro-tip: To prevent one hitters from clogging, make sure to clean the poker more than you do the pipe. Take any alcohol wipe and rub down the poker to pull the resin off. This makes sure when the poker goes through the one hitter’s stem it doesn’t bring more resin into the pipe and helps push it out of the bowl end along with any ash.
Metal vs glass one hitters
Two of the most popular materials for one hitters are metal and glass. Metal one hitters are usually anodized aluminum metal and glass is usually scientific borosilicate glass. Both are safe to smoke from but handle heat differently.
Glass one hitters: commonly known as scientific glass, are the industry standard for professional-grade smoking devices. It’s clean, safe, and resistant to thermal shock (doesn’t crack from heat), but it differs from metal in how it absorbs heat. Boro glass distributes heat into the body and out more effectively than metal. This means one hitter can be smoked back to back in glass much better than metal without overheating.
Metal one hitters: a metal one hitter is great for travel, and portability, and is indestructible compared to glass. They handle heat well, only in the initial hit. Once you smoke back-to-back, metal absorbs and retains heat differently compared to glass. Metal one hitters get hot to the touch after consecutive use. This in turn makes the smoke much hotter to inhale, delivering harsher hits which can lead to coughing.
If you plan on taking consecutive hits with a one hitter, we recommend choosing a glass one hitter.
Final thoughts
Mastering the one hitter is all about precision and technique. Start by grinding your cannabis to a medium consistency, then carefully pack the bowl using a folded card and gentle tamping. When lighting, angle the pipe slightly upwards and inhale slowly to nurture the cherry. Remember, the key is to use the lighter sparingly and let the cherry do the work.
Key points for optimal one hitter use:
- Grind cannabis to medium consistency
- Pack bowl gently but firmly
- Use lighter sparingly; let the cherry do the work
- Take slow, deep breaths
- Clean regularly to prevent clogs
Take slow steady breath to maximize cannabinoid absorption, and exhale fully to protect your lungs. Regular cleaning prevents clogs and keeps your one hitter pipe smoking smoothly and freely. With practice, you'll find the one hitter offers unparalleled control over your dosage, making it an excellent choice for both medicinal users and those looking to manage their tolerance. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced smoker, the one hitter's simplicity and efficiency make it a valuable addition to your cannabis toolkit.
