The Suspension Bowl!

[Geiseric]

... Deleted posts make for for disjointed conversations. I, for one, am severely confused. Follow the rules, dammit!

[Cheese//]

Is this thing gonna be modified any time soon?

[Stealth]

Is this thing gonna be modified any time soon?

Hey, Yea, sorry, I got a few different projects going on right now and unfortunatly I'm at school right now in an apartment. So the little free time I have usually doesnt get far because of my lack of tools/workspace. I still plan to do something with this though, probably wont be for a few weeks though.

[Boersnoes]

Nice to see people being all experiment-y
Uber cool would be if the propane tank could fit under/above the water container.
That way it would feel more "finished".

Just thinking out loud.

[Sdzier2]

So I was thinking about this, and I know some people use an electric hot plate to heat their coals, so isnt there a possibility that you could make some sort of electric heating source which in turn could possibly lead to a hookah that you plug in? If your just heating up the bowl with a torch I suppose you could do it the same way as a hot plate, and im guessing you could even control the heat a bit better as well electronically. What do you guys think?

[Cybersist]

So I was thinking about this, and I know some people use an electric hot plate to heat their coals, so isnt there a possibility that you could make some sort of electric heating source which in turn could possibly lead to a hookah that you plug in? If your just heating up the bowl with a torch I suppose you could do it the same way as a hot plate, and im guessing you could even control the heat a bit better as well electronically. What do you guys think?

Your definatly not the first one to think of is idea.... But you will certainly stand out if you can get something like this working. Until then, I'm sticking to my coals

[Stealth]

Nice to see people being all experiment-y
Uber cool would be if the propane tank could fit under/above the water container.
That way it would feel more "finished".

Just thinking out loud.

I'm actually building a home made hookah right now that already has a built in area that conceals the propane tank. This is killing me not being able to work on this stuff here. It's about 90% done.

So I was thinking about this, and I know some people use an electric hot plate to heat their coals, so isnt there a possibility that you could make some sort of electric heating source which in turn could possibly lead to a hookah that you plug in? If your just heating up the bowl with a torch I suppose you could do it the same way as a hot plate, and im guessing you could even control the heat a bit better as well electronically. What do you guys think?

Fore sure the electric coal will be what one day will be a practicle alternative. What I wanted to do was figure out a different way to heat the tobacco. By that I mean not the standard pather of air being drawn through the heat source, drawn there tobacco, and down into the hookah. Also, experimenting with propane my heat range, from high to low is greater than what at least I could safely do with electricity.

[meanswing]

Y dont u use a ceramic bowl instead of the metal bullet to put the shisha in? it'll probably heat more evenly

[Stealth]

Y dont u use a ceramic bowl instead of the metal bullet to put the shisha in? it'll probably heat more evenly

It would heat more evenly but it absorbs heat a lot slower i understand. The idea is for the design to use as little fuel as possible. My current idea to fix the problem is cut a thick disk of copper to paste to the bottom, much like modern cookware.

[dyzel]

Ok...
There are a few simple mods to ytour idea, that would solve the problems you are
 having, with the harsh smoke.

First off... The main cause is the intense heat. The simplest way to solve this is by means of using a porous material such as clay or other heat capturing solids (ensure that they are food safe)

now... into the tobaco bowl, place a metallic partition bridge, under which, the clay (or whatever you used) chips are layed, with plenty of airspaces between them.

The effect this has is that the clay chips take in high heat, and release it slowly to heat up the tobbacco.

Second of all... would it not make sense to cover the top of the bowl, so as to prevent escaping of the smoke etc??

[Kalutika]

I hope you guys realize that the reason we use coals is because they are inconsistent heat. The coals get hotter when you draw air over them and thus heat the shisha more at the times when you draw. If the heat is high all the time it burns. If it is lower it doesn't smoke.

Also there is a product that was created with this exact same purpose but it was proven to be ineffective and relabeled as a coal heater (and a bad one at that). It was electric with a precise temperature control.

[dyzel]

That would be where the clay chips come in. They trap heat. and will get hotter once a drag is taken. the heating would be consistent, to an extent.

[Kalutika]

That would be where the clay chips come in. They trap heat. and will get hotter once a drag is taken. the heating would be consistent, to an extent.

The clay chips would get cooler as air was drawn over them. They are not burning and are not producing the heat. The reason that coals get hotter is because you are rapidly adding oxygen to a smoldering piece of wood. If you pass air over a piece of clay basic thermal physics tells us that the heat will move from the clay to the cooler air and be taken away, thus cooling the chips.

[fifthmanstanding]

if you used a ceramic crucible you could throw it on the eye of the stove to heat it evenly, and so long as it's as hot or hotter than the flame from the propane (meaning start with a very low flame) you wouldn't have to worry about it cracking and it would also stay hotter longer and use heat more efficiently than any metal.

also, do you have any access to a kiln for firing enamel on metal? Edited June 3, 2008 by fifthmanstanding

[chromecarz00]

Updates?

[jimmyspacebob]

I don't see why a hookah company doesn't persue this idea. It would make things easier for sure. You could try some type of elecrical heat source. That would probably be more effecient and eleminate the carbon monoxide from the room, cough cough.

[MeHT]

There's an 'electric coal' in a sheesha store nearby. Gonna ask the vendor about it next time I'm there. Somehow I don't trust it though.
a) You have to plug it in an outlet - which limits you and presents a cable one can get entangled in, especially after smoking.
Heating elements consume a lot of power. Not that I'm in greenpeace or anything, but still, coals may be cheaper in the long run.

[chromecarz00]

This probabaly wont work. Reason being that we do not burn our shisha, but simmer it. Its the air from the coal which creates the smooth, cool smoke, not the coal itself.

[chsajid]

wow great, i have an soldering iron , i wonder if that will produce enough heat to smoke the shisha

[Chip]

do any of you know if someone has tried making something that works like the rear defroster of a car with all the wires that heat up and keep it dry... I've never tried this but you guys think it could work? In fact i just took the time to look into this and for those who didn't know that stuff that drys of the rear widow is just conductive paint... so maybe just paint that onto your bowl and then connect some sort of power supply up to that. Any suggestions on what to use, it would have to be something that you could control the amount of heat that you put into the bowl so you could find that "sweet spot." Anyway just a thought, let me know what you think.

[hday]

The problem with electric hookahs is always going to be heat regulation. It has to stay warm and only get hot when you take a drag. Unless the heat is suspended above the bowl, the only way an electric hookah would work is if the heating element got hot really quickly when you took a drag.

If you wanted to go high tech, make some sort of one-way valve that triggers the bowl to get hot when air passing through the hose opens the valve.

[wongxiao]

I think the greater problem is getting enough electricity through the thing without having to use an outlet, and the overall power consumption would probably be pretty high. I imagine it would represent less health risks though...

[hday]

Less health risks? Unless you're using coals from your grill, the biggest problem is the tobacco. Regardless of your heat source, you're taking full lung breaths laced with poison and nicotine.

But it is very delicious.

[wongxiao]

Well that's a given, but unless you wanna go with herbal shisha or something...which I've heard is less than stellar. And besides, pretty much anything other than atmosphere in your lungs is a bad thing, so even then it isn't healthy.

No matter how you cut it, a chemical reaction (such as burning coal) will have products that simply don't exist when using heating elements... of course we could go on and on about how much of a difference it would actually make (a la the infamous copper debate), but when it comes down to it, its a personal decision as there aren't really any solid clinical studies floating around.

[hookah hippie]

Well it is a decent idea except that as stated before propane is highly toxic and will kill you if you leave it running inside also knocking over a propane tank is a lot more hazardous then knocking over some coals could start a huge fire or explode. As for now I will stick to coals but good luck my friend