Mouthpieces Matter: How the Top of Your Piece Changes the Draw

TLDR: The mouthpiece is the last part smoke touches before it reaches you, and on a modular build it swaps like any other module. Vitae Glass sells two standalone mouthpieces, the UFO with a flame polished percolator and ice catcher, and the straight tube Hourglass with an ice catcher at its base. Both are 10 inches tall with a 35mm opening.

By Vitae Glass

Most buying guides start at the base and never get to the top. That is backwards. The mouthpiece is the part your lips touch, the part that sets the final draw, and the part that decides whether a hit feels smooth or sharp. On a fixed piece you live with whatever neck the factory gave you. On a modular build the mouthpiece is a choice you make, and a choice you can change later without buying a whole new piece.

This guide compares the two standalone mouthpieces Vitae Glass sells, explains what each one does differently, and shows how to swap, ice, and clean the top of your build. If you are choosing a first build or a Black Friday upgrade, start here, at the top.

The mouthpiece does three jobs at once. It sets the seal your lips make, it sets the final draw resistance, and it gives the smoke its last bit of cooling before it reaches you. A narrow or rough lip makes every hit feel tight and scratchy, no matter how good the base and percolator are. A comfortable opening with a clean, open path lets the draw stay steady from the first pull to the last.

On a standard bong the mouthpiece is simply the end of the neck, and the general anatomy is the same everywhere, a base, a downstem, a bowl, and a mouthpiece, as the Bong entry on Wikipedia lays out. What makes the Vitae Glass version different is that the mouthpiece is its own module. It is not fused to the base, and it is not an afterthought. It is a 10 inch section of laboratory grade borosilicate with its own job to do, and you pick it the same way you pick a base or a percolator.

Both Vitae mouthpieces share the same mouth opening, 35mm, which the Hourglass listing describes as engineered for a comfortable fit for most lip sizes. That shared opening matters, because it means the lip feel stays familiar when you swap from one top to the other. The difference between them is what happens below the lip, and that is where the choice lives.

Every Vitae Glass module joins the same way. The glass carries a single helical thread, one rounded ridge winding once around the tube mouth, about 360 to 390 degrees, with its ends slightly offset so it reads as a real screw thread with a lead. A bamboo ring, an open annular ring with a visible hollow interior, sits at each glass to glass joint. You thread one section onto the next by hand, the ring closes the joint, and the piece holds together.

Because the mouthpiece uses that same joint, it unscrews like any other module. The top is not a commitment. You can start with one mouthpiece, live with it for a month, and swap to the other without changing your base, your percolator, or your bowl. One base can wear two tops, and the swap takes under a minute once you know the motion, which we cover below.

That is the practical meaning of modular here, and it is the reason this guide exists. On a fixed piece, a mouthpiece guide would be a lecture about living with what you bought. On a modular build, it is a buying decision you can revisit. The full system logic is laid out in Modular Bong: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Lasts Longer, and the fixed versus modular tradeoff is covered in Modular vs. Fixed Bongs: Which Is the Better Black Friday Buy?.

The UFO Mouthpiece is the filtration top. It stands 10 inches tall, with a 35mm mouth opening, 5mm laboratory grade borosilicate walls, and a volume of 9.3 fluid ounces. Inside the chamber sits a flame polished UFO percolator, a disc that breaks smoke into fine bubbles for a second round of filtration and cooling after the base has done its work. Stationed above the percolator is an hourglass ice catcher, so the smoke passes over ice on its way to the lip.

The product listing calls the UFO a distinguished percolator, one of the better performing percs out there, and that matches what the piece does in a build. The extra perc stage makes the draw smoother and cooler, and it asks for a slightly slower, steadier pull than a straight tube. If you like long, cool draws and you want the most filtration the top of your build can offer, this is the mouthpiece built for that.

The UFO Mouthpiece ships with a cleaning cap and a custom cut foam box, the same as every Vitae module. It threads onto any base in the system, and it is the top you see on the 16" Voyager UFO Bong, where it pairs with The Voyager Base. For the full percolator picture, including how the UFO perc compares with the Matrix and Tree percs, see UFO vs Matrix vs Tree: The Percolator Head to Head Before Black Friday and Percolators Explained: Honeycomb, UFO, Matrix and Tree Percs. The glass itself is laboratory grade borosilicate, the same material the Corning Museum of Glass borosilicate story traces from laboratory glassware to heat resistant consumer glass.

The Hourglass Mouthpiece is the direct top. It is also 10 inches tall, with the same 35mm mouth opening and the same 5mm laboratory grade borosilicate, and a volume of 8.5 fluid ounces. The difference is what is not inside it. The Hourglass is a straight tube, and its listing says it plainly, with minimum obstructions that restrict airflow, allowing for quick, effortless draws and most importantly a strong hit.

Do not read the name as a shape. The Hourglass is a straight tube with a subtle pinched waist near the bottom, not an hourglass silhouette. The pinch is the ice catcher, an hourglass ice catcher that rests at the base of the piece, so a few cubes sit low in the tube and the smoke passes over them. The wall diameter is 45mm, slimmer than the UFO mouthpiece, which widens to 60mm around its percolator chamber.

Pick the Hourglass when you want the most direct draw in the catalog. There is no extra perc stage between the base and your lips, so the pull stays quick and the flavor stays close to the bowl. It is also the simplest mouthpiece to rinse, because a straight open tube has nowhere for film to hide, which matters more than most buyers expect, since the mouthpiece is the section your mouth touches. It ships with a cleaning cap and a custom cut foam box, like the UFO.

The two mouthpieces share more than they differ on. Both are 10 inches tall, both open at 35mm, both are 5mm laboratory grade borosilicate, both carry an hourglass ice catcher, both thread onto the same 50mm modular system, and both plant one tree per module through One Tree Planted. The choice is one thing, filtration or directness.

• Pick The UFO Mouthpiece if you want the smoothest, coolest draw the top of your build can give. The flame polished UFO percolator adds a second filtration stage, and the ice catcher above it cools the smoke again on the way out. The tradeoff is a slightly slower pull and a chamber that needs a proper rinse, because a perc has more surface than a straight tube.
• Pick The Hourglass Mouthpiece if you want the quickest, most direct draw. Nothing sits between the base and your lips except a straight tube and a few ice cubes, so the pull stays effortless and the rinse stays fast. The tradeoff is that you give up the second perc stage, so the base and any percolator module below it do all the filtering.

If you can only buy one and you chase smoothness, start with the UFO. If you chase directness and easy cleaning, start with the Hourglass. And if you are torn, remember the swap. The mouthpiece is the cheapest section to change your mind about, because the rest of the build stays exactly as it is.

Both mouthpieces carry an hourglass ice catcher, a pinched section in the glass that holds ice cubes above the waterline so smoke passes over the ice on its way to the lip. On the UFO Mouthpiece the catcher sits above the percolator. On the Hourglass Mouthpiece it rests at the base of the piece. The job is the same in both, cool the smoke without putting ice in the water chamber.

Use it simply. Drop in a few cubes from the top, never force them, and never fill the whole tube. Ice belongs in the catcher, not loose in the base, and not wedged into the joint. When the session is done, tip the cubes out and change the water, because melt water drains down into the piece and stale water is what makes the next session taste off. Water levels for each build are covered in How Much Water Should You Put in a Bong? A Build by Build Guide, and the same fresh water rule applies whether you use ice or not.

One caution worth stating plainly: ice cools the smoke, it does not change the glass. Do not pour hot water into a cold piece, and do not put a frozen mouthpiece straight onto a warm base. Let the glass come back to room temperature first, the same way you would with any borosilicate. The material guide in Borosilicate vs Regular Glass, and How Thick It Should Be explains why borosilicate handles temperature change better than regular glass, and where its limits still are.

Swapping the top is the easiest module change in the system, and it follows the same motion as every other swap. Do it over a table, with the piece stable and the bowl out, and let the glass do the work.

1. Set the piece down on a stable surface and lift the bowl out of the side arm, so nothing tips while your hands are busy.
2. Grip the mouthpiece above the joint, not at the lip, and unscrew it gently along the single helical thread. If the seal feels stuck, a slow twist breaks it free, never a sideways pull.
3. Check the thread for grit and wipe the bamboo ring dry. A damp ring and a gritty thread are the two things that make a joint feel loose later.
4. Set the new mouthpiece down onto the joint and thread it on by hand until it sits snug. Hand tight is enough, forcing it risks the thread.
5. Do a dry pull before you pack. If the draw feels open and even, the seal is good. If it whistles or feels loose, back the mouthpiece off, check the ring again, and reseat it.

The whole change takes under a minute once you have done it twice. That is the point of the system, and it is why the mouthpiece decision is low stakes. You are not choosing a forever top, you are choosing a first top.

The mouthpiece is the section your mouth touches, so it gets the strictest rinse standard in the routine. Separate it from the base first, because a mouthpiece cleans best on its own, with water running straight through it, and because the joint and thread need their own check at the same time.

Rinse the mouthpiece under warm water, then seal it with the cleaning cap that ships with it and add isopropyl and a spoonful of coarse salt. Shake it for a minute, turning it so the solution reaches the lip, the ice catcher pinch, and, on the UFO, the percolator chamber. Rinse until the water runs clear, the glass feels smooth rather than tacky, and no alcohol smell remains at all. A straight open tube rinses fast, which is one more reason the Hourglass cleans quicker than the UFO, and the UFO rewards the extra minute with a perc that stays clear.

Cleaning Caps seal the section while you shake, and Universal Cleaning Plugs seal the base the same way, so the whole kit is two small parts. Clean the mouthpiece when the draw tightens, when the glass stops looking clear against the light, or at least once a month of regular use, whichever comes first. The timed daily version of this routine is How to Clean a Bong in Under 5 Minutes: The Modular Routine, and the section by section deep clean is How to Clean a Bong Like a Pro: The Section-by-Section Deep Clean.

Yes, and the simplest way is the set that lets you choose. The 16" Starter Set includes a Classic Beaker, a mouthpiece of your choice, a bamboo ring, a slitted downstem, two cleaning caps, two cork cleaning plugs, a Leaf Bowl, three custom cut foam boxes, and an optional carry case, with a 1 year glass protection warranty. The set stands 16 inches tall in total, with an 18mm joint and a 14mm bowl, in 5mm laboratory grade borosilicate with a reinforced 20mm base.

That "mouthpiece of your choice" line is the useful part. You pick the top when you buy the set, and because the set uses the same 50mm system as everything else, the other mouthpiece threads onto the same beaker later as a standalone addition. So the honest Black Friday move is to buy the set with the top you think you will use most, then add the other mouthpiece when you want to compare them in your own sessions, instead of guessing from a product page.

The same logic applies to the bases. The Voyager Base, THC Base, and The Swiss Sphere Base all take either mouthpiece, so the top you choose never locks you into a base, and the base you choose never locks you into a top. The base decision is covered in Beaker vs. Straight Tube: How to Choose a Modular Base Before Black Friday.

A mouthpiece is a small purchase with an outsized effect on how a build feels, so check the right things and skip the rest.

• Pick by draw, not by looks. Filtration or directness is the whole decision, and both mouthpieces look like plain, clear glass from the outside.
• Confirm the fit. Both Vitae mouthpieces thread onto the same 50mm modular system, so either one fits your base, but check the joint on any piece you do not already own.
• If you buy a set, choose the mouthpiece deliberately. The Starter Set includes a mouthpiece of your choice, so do not let the default pick decide for you.
• Count the cleaning kit. Each mouthpiece ships with its own cleaning cap, and a set of Cleaning Caps and Universal Cleaning Plugs covers the rest of the build.
• Check the material the same way you would for any module. Both mouthpieces are 5mm laboratory grade borosilicate, and the material and thickness checklist in Borosilicate vs Regular Glass, and How Thick It Should Be applies to the top exactly as it applies to the base.
• Remember the tree count. One tree is planted per module through One Tree Planted, so a two module build plants two trees, and a mouthpiece on its own plants one.

Are the UFO and Hourglass mouthpieces the same height?

Yes. Both are 10 inches tall with a 35mm mouth opening, so they swap onto the same base without changing the height of the build. The volumes differ slightly, 9.3 fluid ounces for the UFO and 8.5 for the Hourglass, because the UFO chamber holds the percolator.

Does the UFO Mouthpiece have a percolator inside it?

Yes, a flame polished UFO percolator, with an hourglass ice catcher stationed above it. That is what makes it the filtration top. The Hourglass Mouthpiece has no perc inside, it is a straight tube with its ice catcher at the base.

What is the ice catcher for?

It is a pinched section in the glass that holds a few ice cubes above the waterline, so smoke passes over the ice on its way to the lip. Put a few cubes in from the top, never fill the whole tube, and change the water after an iced session, since melt water drains down into the piece.

Can I put the Hourglass Mouthpiece on a Voyager Base?

Yes. Both mouthpieces thread onto the same 50mm modular system, so either one fits The Voyager Base, THC Base, and The Swiss Sphere Base. The swap is the same motion in every case, unscrew along the single helical thread, check the bamboo ring, thread the new top on by hand.

How do I clean a mouthpiece?

Separate it from the base, rinse it under warm water, seal it with its cleaning cap, add isopropyl and coarse salt, shake for a minute, then rinse until the water runs clear, the glass feels smooth rather than tacky, and no alcohol smell remains. The Hourglass rinses faster because it is a straight tube, and the UFO needs the extra minute for its percolator chamber.

• Percolators Explained: Honeycomb, UFO, Matrix and Tree Percs
• UFO vs Matrix vs Tree: The Percolator Head to Head Before Black Friday
• Modular Bong: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Lasts Longer
• Modular vs. Fixed Bongs: Which Is the Better Black Friday Buy?
• Beaker vs. Straight Tube: How to Choose a Modular Base Before Black Friday
• Borosilicate vs Regular Glass, and How Thick It Should Be
• How Much Water Should You Put in a Bong? A Build by Build Guide
• How to Clean a Bong in Under 5 Minutes: The Modular Routine
• How to Clean a Bong Like a Pro: The Section-by-Section Deep Clean
• The 2026 Holiday Gift Guide for Glass Lovers