Pipe Filters and Systems

Pipe filters and systems is the collective name for solutions aimed at reducing the amount of moisture and tar that reaches the mouth during a smoke. Three main approaches have developed: absorbent filters fitted into the slot between shank and stem (activated carbon, balsa, paper), metal condensing devices that gather the moisture in the smoke (the stinger), and "system" pipes that carry a reservoir for moisture within the body itself.

All share the same goal — a drier, cooler smoke, which in turn reduces the risk of tongue bite. Filter use is largely a regional tradition: the 9 mm filter is the de facto standard in Germany and Central Europe, while unfiltered smoking dominates the English-American world.

Absorbent Filters: Activated Carbon and Balsa

The history of the modern pipe filter begins with the German firm Vauen. The "Dr. Perl" brand, based on the smoke-filtering work of Berlin chemist Jacques Perl, was registered in 1921; the first product was a paper filter in 6 and 9 mm lengths. The Dr. Perl junior, launched in 1934, was the world's first activated-carbon pipe filter, and Vauen held the patent for this invention for about twenty years. The innovation gradually led most German and Austrian pipes to be drilled with a 9 mm filter chamber. Savinelli, taking a different path, uses rods cut from porous balsa wood; balsa works by absorbing moisture and is considered neutral in taste.

A filtered pipe can also be smoked without the filter; because the empty chamber can increase condensation in that case, using an adapter (reducer) is common.