Electric Tobacco Heater

[Loumeer]

So some friends of mine and I were outside smoking some Tangiers when
one of them brought up a pretty good idea, why not have a heating coil
instead of a coal.  We than discussed all the minor details about
all the energy required by a battery to make it work well (engineering
school, I know) and we figured that it is pretty feasable to have a
coil that would sit above the tobacco and heat it instead of a coal
that ran off of a battery.  It would be rechargable and reusable
of course.

What I wanted to know is, how many people would want to buy something
like this and how much would you be willing to pay for something like
this?  Call it market research.

Thanks guys

--Amichai Israeli

[HookahDuck]

Sorry... but a few of these are already on the market. All of them have had less than spectacular reviews...Do a search

[aronparsons]

If a good design could be made, I think this would be awesome.  However, I've read the descriptions of what's out there and it doesn't sound like anyone's done that yet.  It makes perfect sense though since heating the bowl is really what cooks the ma'assell.

[sheeshabum]

Zeh Pashut Bilbul Baytzim. Chav"laz.
[url="http://www.hookah-shisha.com/item.html;$sessionid$P0ANEZIAAALPHTZENUGUTIWPERWRJPX0?UCIDs=354899%7C354900&PRID=1469588"] http://www.hookah-shisha.com/item.html;$se...onid$P0ANEZIAAA[/url] LPHTZENUGUTIWPERWRJPX0?UCIDs=354899%7C354900&PRID=146958 8
This has been out for at least two years and the thermostat seem to be irregular. Sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold. Sheeshabum
 
 

[Sariél]

My suggestion for those who are designing it: two coils, one baked into the bowl, and one in the screen that fits on top.

[thebastard]

I don't think that the 'heating' of traditional coal can be matched by any electric coil. When you suck from you shisha, the suction of air pulls on the coal making it burn just when you take your draw cooking the ma'sell which is why coal works so well. With a coil there would be a constant heat source makin the overall experience less efficent, so coals it is!

[mushrat]

Bum: you'll notice that they have changed what they say the thing is...it is no longer a replacement for coal. It's now a portable charcaol starter!
They went from setting it over the bowl to turning it upside down and fillling it with bulk charcoal. Guess they figured out it wasn't working too well in the original use.

[Seandoo]

Ah, no wonder we get the different discriptions for the same item on different sites.

Yeah...a thin coil that ran all throughout the inside of the bowl would
probably work really well. No coal to mess with, no carpet burns, no
charcoal chemicals, less danger of sh*t hitting the fan in general. You
know...if you could design a heater that cooled significantly when not
in use then heated a bit more depending on the draw would make it
rather realistic. Have fun designing sensors to pick that kind of thing
up..it would like making a saxophone MIDI controller (has been done and
supposedly works really well).

Anyway yeah you'd have to work out some design issues before it could
be practical, but if that were done...I'd sure as hell get one! Not to
mention if it were battery powered.... =)

[sheeshabum]

Yeah, the old one did become a coal "starter", thanks for pointing it out.
I like what they are thinking about doing with a wire element. Good luck.

[c4r80n]

damnit i really want one (that is baterry powered) and one that works.I'd pay 30-45 bucks

[Sonthert]

The control issues are too complex...a thermostat won't work in the instance...mumblemumbleFoil is best, and the electric heaters don't have a proper thermal response curve. If you create an electrical circuit with a nominal induction component, then you would have a weight issue. I think water and electric bowls should be not together. Lots of accidental electrocutions. I think the British are consulting in this conspiracy, although the players have been lost to trades with the National Basketball association. The democrats will take back the big washroom, the Washington washroom...named so because Abraham Lincoln was reported to have done the plumbing work on it, before his wife caught him. Apparently, when his brother was using an electric heater, his hookah exploded. He was smoking with John Wilkes Booth at the time, and Major Rathbone. Other than that, how did you like the hookah, Mrs. Lincoln? Something. Druuuugs!mumble.

[Seandoo]

Good point on the whole electricity issue. I wonder if it's possible to
make a chemical heater, kind of like a heat pack sort of dealy that
gets much hotter. That might be too hard to control as well, though.
Just an idea...