UNGH ... I'm not sure that I'm willing to stomach these prices, but I may be forced to in the name of convenience and maintenance hassle.
You see ... bongs are a real hobby, and maintenance is always something you need to perform on them regularly. Unfortunately for me, this means A) turning off the pump (a given), B) unscrewing and disconnecting the hose at the top of the bong, C) blowing water through the system, out of the pump, and back into the reservoir D) turning my valve WHILE blowing (to prevent water from coming back) to stop the flow of water and keep it in the reservoir, and then E) unscrewing and disconnecting the bottom connection from res --> pump.
a hassle? Well ... in the grand scheme of bongs, this is actually much more portable than others
lol.
Anyways ... after realizing how gunked up I had let my reservoir become over time (before just recently I had been flushing the system every few weeks ... mainly because I was making a lot of changes and it needed to happen anyways) and how much of a hassle it really was to disconnect the entire system to replace the water in the reservoir with clean stuff .... I realized I needed to invest in some quick-disconnect fittings.
The catch? Well ... it appears to be PRICE! Ungh. I was looking through
www.mcmaster.com, specifically page 232, and it appears that it'll cost me 29.86 for the sockets, and 24.26 for the plugs ... when you're talking brass barbed connections that are 1/2" (the biggest they make 'em unfortunately ...). Typically, single-valve connections work in most situations, and are much cheaper ... but when you're talking about water flowing either way, you've gotta have double valved systems, and thats where the price seems to have nailed me.
Ideally, I'd like to have two sets. One for the res -> pump connection, and another from the pc -> bong connection. This would reduce my maintenance hassles to A) disconnecting pump, and B) CLICK CLICK of two quick-disconnects ... that'd be it.
I'd LOVE to have that kind of convenience .... but at what cost? Well ... according to mcmaster, that cost will be $106.44 ... BEFORE shipping!
<insert oh-jesus-why-me look here>
So I come to you guys. Are there cheaper alternatives? Some amazing nugget of info that I missed that could save me money? A better place to buy from?
Or am I stuck with what appears to be one HELLOVA fee for a little convenience?