One of my purchases at this year’s Chicago Pipe Show – The Radiator Pipe!
The Radiator Pipe was created by Hekthor Wiebe of Canada and provides a cool dry smoke, thanks to a deep calabash-type chamber in the “Radiator” base. The removable bowl is made from Italian briar, the Radiator is anodized aluminum with a stainless steel shank fitted with a black ebonite stem/bit. All of that combines for a beautifully designed smoking machine.
This design breaks every rule of traditional pipe making. It consists primarily of metal components. The Radiator base is made out of anodized 6061 aluminium. The shank is made of 304 grade stainless steel. The bowl is turned from Italian briar and the stem is made of Italian ebonite. The flow has right angles which cause turbulence.
The concept behind this pipe is to harness the moisture condensing nature of cooled metal rather than avoid it. The moisture is collected in a reservoir below the flow of smoke – thus producing a gurgle-free, dry, and cool smoke. The bowl is removable via a threaded connection allowing you to smoke several mixtures in one pipe without ghosting -simply swap bowls. This also allows for future additions of a variety of bowl materials.
Once the bowl is removed, the rest of the pipe can be cleaned by running it under warm tap water and passing a pipe cleaner through the shank.