El Setup Guide

[EvansLight]

Here is my method for setup when I smoke the hookah. This is a general kinda guide for any bowl and hookah. Remeber this is only how I go about my setup. Diffrent things work for diffrent people. Just use this as a base, and work out what works best for you :D

[b]-----------------------------------------------------------[/b]

[b]1.)[/b] Place clean stem and base into fridge.
[b]2.)[/b] Place a cup of ice water in freezer.
[b]3.)[/b] Wait 30 minutes.
[b]4.)[/b] With the other supplies still in the fridge/freezer, get your bowl, tobacco, and coals of choice out and ready.
[b]5.)[/b] Stir up the tobacco to get the juices going, and also to fluff it up.
[b]6.)[/b] Lightly drop the tobacco into the bowl, till it comes up to the rim.

The next steps are split in two, one for screen users, another for foil users.

[b]Screens:[/b]
[b]7.a)[/b] Pack the tobacco down very good.
[b]8.a)[/b] Use a toothpick or the poker on some tongs, and poke up through the bottom of the bowl through the holes in the bowl, and through the tobacco to give the best airflow.
[b]9.a)[/b] Place the screen onto the bowl, and check to make sure that the tobacco is not touching the screen.

[b]Foil:[/b]
[b]7. B) [/b] Gently push the tobacco down, and add a bit more to come just over the rim of the bowl.
[b]8. B) [/b] Snuggly place a large peice of foil over the bowl. Poke holes through the foil in one of many patterns. My most common is just random holes, with more concentrated towared the center.
[b]9. B) [/b] Turn the bowl over and blow through the bottom to make sure there is good airflow. (thanks to Tangiers for this)

Now we move on to the rest of the setup.

[b]10.)[/b] Get out the items from the fridge and freezer.
[b]11.)[/b] Pour the ice water into the base, up to 1 1/2 inches above the bottom of where the stem will be (differs from hookah to hookah)
[b]12.)[/b] Put together the hookah: Stem into base, Hose into hose port, bowl ontop. (some hookahs have more to do)
[b]13.)[/b] Give a test pull on the hose with your hand covering the bowl to make sure that the hookah is air tight.
[b]14.)[/b] Light your coal, however you light them. Tips for each below.
[b]15.)[/b] Place the coal on top, and do some pulls to get the hookah going.

As with packing the bowl, heat management differs slightly from screens and foil.

[b]Screen:[/b]
[b]16.a)[/b] Start with the coal directly over the center.
[b]17.a)[/b] Once you get smoke, move the coal out to the outer edges.
[b]18.a)[/b] Once the outside of the coal is almost fully coverd in white ash, take coal off into the tray and knock off the ash.
[b]19.a)[/b] Place the coal back onto the bowl, once again on the outer edge, but move it around the bowl in a circular patern once you put it back on.
[b]20.a)[/b] Just keep ashing and rotating till you go all around the bowl. Once the coal dies, place a fresh one over the center, and that should last till you are done.

[b]Foil:[/b]
[b]16. B) [/b] Star with 1 coal on the edge, and half a coal (for quicklights, varries for natural) in the center, and get the hookah going good.
[b]17. B) [/b] Ash the coal, and as you do move it around the smaller center peice.
[b]18. B) [/b] Once center coal is burned out, move rest of whol coal onto center, and light the other half of the broken coal.
[b]19. B) [/b] Rotate the broken coal around the edge of the bowl, working it like you first did the large one.
[b]20. B) [/b] Once both are done, just keep a fresh coal and move it to where needed.

[b]Some tips:[/b]

[b]A.)[/b] The ice water, and cold base/stem is to condense more of the vaporized glycerin, giving you thicker smoke. It also can cool the smoke some.
[b]B.)[/b] To keep things cool through the whole smoke, place the base of your hookah into a bucket filled with ice, water, and some salt, up to 3/4 of the way to the top of the base.
[b]C.)[/b] Once youve gone around the bowl one time on either foil or screens, i usually take off the screen/foil and remove burnt tobacco, and mix up the bottom a bit, to give some fresh tobacco a chance, instead of burning already burnt shisha XD BE CAREFUL EVERYTHING IS BLOODY HOT!!
[b]D.)[/b] Lighting coals differs from not only natural to quicklights, but also differs between brands. For most quicklights, a wooden match is all that you need, while others require a constant flame for longer to get all the lighting material to catch, and to fully light the coal. For natural coals, just place the coal directly on the burner on your stove. Some use propane torches you can buy at hardware stores to hand light them much faster. I use a propane torch to quickly light my quick lights :D
[b]E.)[/b] Experiement. Just because it works for me and my hookah, doesn't mean its going to work perfectly for you. Theres so many factors; hookah design, coals used, tobacco used, your hose, the humidity, how cold your setup gets, etc, that makes this just really just a base guide. You still need to figure out what works best for you :D

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[b]Well I hope this helps anyone new to the hookah scene, or just anyone in general looking for tips from someone who has way too much free time on there hands and therefore smokes too much XD[/b]

[Skimo]

Nice guide man, I do most of this already besides the base in a bucket of ice water with salt, have to try that one out

[pauldavis]

you just have to be careful with putting it in a bucket/pot of ice water. the way i would do it is to put the base in there with the ice for a while then add water and salt (and salt only for the brave...or acrylic base owners) so that the glass base cools down more gradually and has less tendancy to crack

[EvansLight]

[quote name='pauldavis']you just have to be careful with putting it in a bucket/pot of ice water. the way i would do it is to put the base in there with the ice for a while then add water and salt (and salt only for the brave...or acrylic base owners) so that the glass base cools down more gradually and has less tendancy to crack[/quote]

thats why i place the base and stem in the fridge for a while, so that when i put it in the bucket it doesnt have a huge temp. diffrence. Goes from cold to cold

[ioannisds]

C'est manifique! Good job dude.

[[LB]]

[quote name='EvansLight']thats why i place the base and stem in the fridge for a while, so that when i put it in the bucket it doesnt have a huge temp. diffrence. Goes from cold to cold [/quote]

be careful. I broke a big jezebell vase 2 weeks ago cause i left it in the fridge. And trust me, vases are impossible to fix. impossible.

[nuschultz]

I like the guide. Just be careful on the ice and u would be good to go.

[EvansLight]

well i havent had any problems as said just be careful. Of course if u like nunu, u can put it on the wiki once i get the pics done tommorw

[nuschultz]

evans: in case i dont catch it, which i may not since ill be busy most of the day, email it to me
andrew.schultz@hookahwiki.com

[The Dude Abides]

Cool, but that's a lot of steps.

I just add water, ma'assel, and foil, quickly poke random holes (pattern doesn't matter at all), and head outside with a few coals. Up and running in a minute and a half.

[EvansLight]

lol well i tried to split em up. ill start taking the pics tommorw. Ill pack a bowl on my qt with screens, then one with foil

[Sonthert]

I have an engineering degree and I have no idea what you are talking about.

No, kidding its good.

I would remove the tips, A &B...some of them are contentious. I say hot water theoretically smoothes the smoke more.

Maybe a more simple list would be better, like the whole thing with icing the shank. Add pictures and it will 80s fab-u-lous! Step 9b is pure brilliance...Nobel-damn-Prize-Well Stuff.

[xpimpitox]

9b is a excellent technique that i been doin years b4 i discovered this board

[Skimo]

I like the hot water idea. I was thinking about it but didnt want to ruin a smoke since I dont have to much shisha to be smoking as it is lol

[EvansLight]

lol well i might try hot water, but i like the amount of smoke you get from ice water since it condenses more of the glycerin and ill revise this tommorw. im gonna do step by step pic's tommorw, and ill rewrite the guide a bit, without the ice stuff, and maybe without a few others, just a real basic guide, but more in depth. Also ill make another soon for the funnel bowl, since ive just about got it down

[EvansLight]

Ok about to start on shotting the pics in a bit, any request for steps to be added in? Or maybe a request for a small video porition for a certain step?

[DizzyGuy]

Might as well get a small vid of you packin the bowl

[EvansLight]

lol too late XD already did the screen set up pics. Ill do the foil tommorw. i might do a vid of me packing a bowl for a screen tonight, once the new stuff gets here mmm i just got done smokin the after nine i had used for the guide pics XD

[EvansLight]

ok well im gonna start re-working this today, since i need a break from working on mnh XD oh yea this was also a small bump

[Sonthert]

The title of this is "EL Setup Guide"...so if we follow these steps, we'll have our own...Evans Light? OK, let me get a pencil.

[EvansLight]

yup, im not one of a kind, im sold for a penny on the new mnh site XD

[Sonthert]

I'll go a whole nickel.

[EvansLight]

what are we bidding on me now... hmmm ill slef myself for another bag of licorice XD

[EvansLight]

Hmm i think a small bump of this thread would be fine, its been a while XD i got the pics i took of the setup, guess i really need to get around to posting em XD

[SanguineSolitude]

this is a particularly good setup thread. better than the one currently being discussed so ill just wait my turn and ... here we go time to play the card.



El setup Guide rises from the dead