New Hookah Design

[john_smith]

I've recently made myself a small hand held hookah out of common household materials, yet have been left unsatisfied with the way it smokes. The pipe all told is probably less than 10", and the stem is probably only 7 or 8". For its size, the pipe functions decently, yet all the smoke it produces is warm and uncomfortable on the throat, and nowhere near as nice as my 22" egyptian. The reason for this is not in the filtration, as the smoke still travels through 1.5 to 2 inches of water, but in the shortness of the stem, which gives the smoke less time to cool down. So I thought, how could I modify the stem in order to make the smoke cooler without compromising the ease of use of my HHH? After a little while, I came up with this:

http://img529.imageshack.us/my.php?image=stemdesignvv3.png
Grrr can't figure out how to embed it so here is the link.

This should still be within the width of the mouth of the bottle, so it should fit in easily. It will have the added bonus of sending the smoke through 3 times the amount of stem submerged beneath water, which means that section of the stem will be colder than the rest.

Has anyone tried anything like this before? If so, does it work? If not, do you you think it could work? Edited September 11, 2007 by john_smith

[hookah hippie]

I think that your plan could work the longer stem will provide for more time to cool

[oggie505#2]

I have always had the mind that the smoke is not in the pipes long enough to make a difference of cooling, especially wqhen it comes to like a 10 inch stem to a 20 inch stem, the smoke is in there for about a millisecond longer. And the surrounding air around the stem will be at a constant temp. But haveing the stem going in the water more times than once, like in that pic it possibly could cool down more

[john_smith]

I have always had the mind that the smoke is not in the pipes long enough to make a difference of cooling, especially wqhen it comes to like a 10 inch stem to a 20 inch stem, the smoke is in there for about a millisecond longer. And the surrounding air around the stem will be at a constant temp.

I would have thought so as well, but there is a really noticeable difference when going from a big hookah to a smaller hookah where the main difference between the two is just stem length. 

[oggie505#2]

I have not notice a huge difference between big hookahs and the micro hookahs. But I have always said hookah is a personal thing some people can notice a difference between at QT and a bigger one

[Johnny_D]

That looks like it might work really well acutally!

As Oggie pointed out and I agree with, stem length makes little difference, however the water and vase makes all the difference!

My own personal preference is a small stem with a large deep vase. Looks stupid, but smokes really well.

Good luck with it!

JD

[Allia22]

May work, but it would be impossible to clean. Also, where are the hoses going to come from?

[eyece87]

ya id say it should work Edited September 11, 2007 by eyece87

[The King]

I think you should try and run as much of the stem under water as possible...

|
|
|... __
|...|...|
|~.|~.|~~~~~~~~~<< water level
|...|...|
|...|...|<<<stem
|__|

Edit:ignore the dots, it won't hold spaces when i post it. Sorry bout shitty diagram
Not sure if that makes sense, didn't feel like taking time to draw in paint or something, the stem would curve around under the water for longer, but I think it would have to come up out of the water and back in just an inch or so before it ends so that the stem wouldn't fill with a lot of water and effect the pull Edited September 11, 2007 by The King

[[LB]]

All i can say to this my friend, is give it a try, and who knows- it might just work great

Plus it makes for a fun project. Have you thought about coiling or spiraling the stem instead of making it wavy like that? It might be easier to insert that way as well.

[Allia22]

Another question - how are you going to bend the tubing without kinking it? Maybe the spiraling method like LB said would go more smoothly... Also attempt to decipher TK's dots, he has a point.

[The King]

Another question - how are you going to bend the tubing without kinking it? Maybe the spiraling method like LB said would go more smoothly... Also attempt to decipher TK's dots, he has a point.

Haha I know, the drawing is garbage, but when I made the post all the spaces would disapear so the lines would get all out of place... But yeah, just ignore the dots and I think you could get the point...

[OPR234]

It would be hard to get water out of those bends once it gets in there from cleaning or something, I think the spiral idea would be the way to go on something like this.

[Glottis2]

Good idea, but I doubt it would help much. People have ice chambers on the warm part of the stem already and from what I hear, they aren't super effective. As said before, the smoke spends only a small amount of time in the stem (usually) and the mass of the smoke is so low that it doesn't hold on to temperature changes very well.

To the people suggesting other ideas: If you think about your designs, think about how much water is going to be resting in the tube when it's not being smoked. The more water volume in tubes (especially depth-wise), the harder it will be to pull off of, because you basically have to blow all the water out when you pull on the hookah.

[The King]

Well if you look at mine there wouldn't be any more water than normal... That's why I said it would have to come out of the water and back in so that water would not be able to fill those bends

[john_smith]

May work, but it would be impossible to clean. Also, where are the hoses going to come from?

The hose is just a plastic tube (like a big straw) that sits in a hole I drilled into one of the diagonal planes leading towards the lid
. And you're right, it would be difficult to clean. Not too sure what to to about that
.

I think you should try and run as much of the stem under water as possible...

|
|
|... __
|...|...|
|~.|~.|~~~~~~~~~<< water level
|...|...|
|...|...|<<<stem
|__|

Edit:ignore the dots, it won't hold spaces when i post it. Sorry bout shitty diagram
Not sure if that makes sense, didn't feel like taking time to draw in paint or something, the stem would curve around under the water for longer, but I think it would have to come up out of the water and back in just an inch or so before it ends so that the stem wouldn't fill with a lot of water and effect the pull

Unless I'm mis-interpreting your diagram thats basically what it does now.

All i can say to this my friend, is give it a try, and who knows- it might just work great

Plus it makes for a fun project. Have you thought about coiling or spiraling the stem instead of making it wavy like that? It might be easier to insert that way as well.

That was my first idea, and I discarded it for a couple reason. The main reason though was that it will be much harder to make something that coils, and I have very limited building skills/access to materials. Also, the stems should be pretty easy to insert provided the stems diametre isn't too large.

Another question - how are you going to bend the tubing without kinking it? Maybe the spiraling method like LB said would go more smoothly... Also attempt to decipher TK's dots, he has a point.

Yes, this seems to be the main problem at the moment. I have no idea how I'll make it without kinks. I was thinking of simply using seperate sections of pipe/tubing and running them into a connector of some kind, but I don't know how practical or bulky that will be. 

Thanks for all your replies!

[OBY]

I think it will work.... All you have to do is get a perfect seal so that you always get a good drag.... I think the longer snakelike stem will def work for cooler temp. Also handheld hookah's will transfer a lot of heat through body temperature.... Holding onto the base will heat the water up quite a bit.... Also maybe get those beer cozies and modify them to fit the base it might help with water temperature.

I have no experience with hand helds... just personal opinion.

[SafeSearchOff]

how long is the stem supposed to be again? it may just work.
i'd say instead of heating it and trying to bend it, just put it into like an already made 180 adapter sort of thing. this way it will be able to be cleaned too...

[Glottis2]

Well if you look at mine there wouldn't be any more water than normal... That's why I said it would have to come out of the water and back in so that water would not be able to fill those bends

You are right. You could actually customize a hookah to test your idea out... here's how.

1. Go to home depot or some place like it
2. get some tubing that is wide enough that it matches the end of your current stem, maybe get a hose clamp to tighten it on
3. make sure that the tubing is stiff enough that the water pressure won't collapse it at all (might have to be reinforced)
4. attach to end of stem
5. feed it to the bottom of your hookah base, coil it around in circles or whatever
6. curve it back up, and bend it 180 degrees so that it points down again and only goes in the water a bit
7. try it out
8. post results

At least it might work.