Hookah Troubleshooting Detectives / Scientists Needed

[Glottis2]

Hey guys, it's been a while since I posted here. Whatever, nobody cares, haha. This thread is kinda long, but if you are really up for a potentially challenging hookah troubleshooting adventure, read on. ANYWAY...

I've smoked a lot of tobacco on many different hookahs and never had a problem like this. It all started when I bought my parents (I know) a Mya Chic hookah a while ago. When I got here to light it up, the smoke was almost non-existant and it had a really gross aftertaste.

Here's the setup that yielded little smoke and bad taste:

Mya Chic hookah
Al Amir tobacco (tried various 50g packages with same result, among them watermelon, mint, and mocha)
Three kings quicklight coals (the smaller size, I think)
Standard bowl, hose, etc.

I figured I would bring my hookah out next time I drove all the way from San Luis Obispo to Arizona. I know for a fact that my hookah works perfectly fine and I thought I'd use it to diagnose the problems with my mom's hookah. I cleaned then lit up my mom's hookah with all of her stuff, except I brought shisha from my house that I had used days before and had no bad taste and good smoke. The smoke was much better than it was last time, but the bad aftertaste was still there. At this point, I put water in my own, functioning, clean hookah and simply picked up the bowl with the tobacco and coal and placed it on my hookah. The bad taste was still there, although the smoke was good.

Conclusions from this experiment:
-it couldn't be her hookah itself that is causing the bad taste or smoke, since the smoke was good with my tobacco and the bad taste still existed with my hookah
-the tobacco batches that she got before must have been expired or messed up or something

Immediately thereafter, I loaded up another bowl with my tobacco, this time using my three kings coals that I brought from home. No difference.

Conclusions:
-It couldn't be her batch of coals, since a coal that is known to be good still yielded the bad taste.

I figured that perhaps the tobacco needed to be acclaimated, even though I've never really been a big supporter of that idea. I put a lump of tobacco on a piece of foil, spread it out so that it got lots of air, and waited over 24 hours. After loading it up again, no change in taste.

Conclusion:
-tobacco acclaimation has nothing to do with it

Then I decided to try using natural coals, which have virtually no taste, on the off chance that somehow the quicklight coals were interacting with some environmental conditions or something like that. No change.

Conclusion:
-it isn't the coals' fault in any way.



Does anyone have any other ideas to figure out why the heck everything tastes bad?

Thanks for reading this thread.

[booya]

use different water.

try a bottle of cheap water.

[waynemagri]

I don't know!

[EternalSoil]

setup without water or shisha and inhale like you're smoking. then put water in and inhale again... do this over and over untill time for coals. process of elimination i figure. maybe give new hookah a good cleaning? no clue other than that man.

[Cheese//]

Maybe you suddenly started setting up crappy sessions.
Get a friend to set up the next session.

[thecoalition]

perhaps it is your hose? ive had some rust after long use because of trapped water vapor. you should get a fully washable or just try a new hose completely.

[Glottis2]

use different water.

try a bottle of cheap water.

I'll try this next. I've been using RO filtered water, which has worked in the past, but something could have changed since then.

setup without water or shisha and inhale like you're smoking. then put water in and inhale again... do this over and over untill time for coals. process of elimination i figure. maybe give new hookah a good cleaning? no clue other than that man.

I've tried breathing through both hookahs when there's no bowl on top, and the bad taste isn't there. (well, it is for a couple puffs, but that's just residue from the bad tasting smoke)

Maybe you suddenly started setting up crappy sessions.
Get a friend to set up the next session.

Haha, not really an option. However, I always set it up, and I set it up at my house in CA a few times last week and had no issues. The smoke is fine, it's the taste that is a problem, and I don't think the taste is greatly affected by anything I can do when setting it up, short of intentionally dunking it in paint thinner or something.

perhaps it is your hose? ive had some rust after long use because of trapped water vapor. you should get a fully washable or just try a new hose completely.

When I said that I switched the bowl from my mom's hookah to my hookah, that includes my hose, so I have already tried a second hose. Again, I just used this hose last week. I'll try cleaning it out again or something, maybe.



Thanks for the help guys, keep the ideas flowing. I'll let you know if there's a breakthrough.

[Cheese//]

You used two different bowls, right?

[Sdzier2]

try a different bowl. youve tried every variable (hookah etc..) but not a different bowl. Put your bowl on your moms pipe and try that. If she had a bad batch of tobacco or something then maybe it got stuck on the bowl somehow (if thats even possible)

[Zildjian]

smell the stem, if it stinks thats your source. my gf mini acrylic had 2 shitty sessions so we tried to narrow stuff down, turns out the stem stunk a lot even though we cleaned it after each use. doused it in cheap vodka and scrubbed the hell outa it, all better now

[Glottis2]

You used two different bowls, right?

try a different bowl. youve tried every variable (hookah etc..) but not a different bowl. Put your bowl on your moms pipe and try that. If she had a bad batch of tobacco or something then maybe it got stuck on the bowl somehow (if thats even possible)

When I was here a few weeks ago, using my mom's bowl, it tasted bad. When I came out this time, I used a bowl from my home that I know for a fact has tasted fine in the past, and it still tasted bad. I'll try a third bowl. Note: the tobacco that I think is a bad batch never touched the bowl that I brought from home.

smell the stem, if it stinks thats your source. my gf mini acrylic had 2 shitty sessions so we tried to narrow stuff down, turns out the stem stunk a lot even though we cleaned it after each use. doused it in cheap vodka and scrubbed the hell outa it, all better now

I tried that, and I don't think it's the case. Remember, I used two different hookahs (and therefore 2 different stems), one of which has never given me this taste before. It does now. I remember trying to wash my mom's stem out with vodka last time I was here and it didn't help. Edited December 13, 2007 by Glottis2

[Cheese//]

Okay, what are the common factors when smoking both the Mya and your hookah?
Try to make as few as possible.
If it still tastes bad then all I can think of is the environment.

Or you've gone crazy
bonkers,
off the rails
etc.

[Dekon]

Suprised no one has suggested the huge glue piece that comes in some hookahs. That might be causing the nasty aftertaste in the chic. To explain it tasting nasty it's probably just a bad batch of shisha. Try setting some other brands in your own bowl and smoke that, if it's a good smoke put your bowl on your moms and try smoking on that to see if it still has that aftertaste.

[Glottis2]

The problem is that for some reason, whatever I try here seems to taste bad, even if I am using my hoohah, my tobacco, my bowl, my hose, etc. I thought it would be the same thing with the chic and the glue like you said, but the same tobacco / bowl tastes bad on my hookah, which I have had for over a year and not experienced that taste.

I'm gonna start over, reclean, retest. Clearly I messed something up before, and I'm an idiot. Or insane. Or both.

[Doubon]

perhaps you should try the tobacco on a different hookah, same procedure, same coals. If it's still bad tasting, you may need to get a new hookah (or clean yours thoroughly). Good luck!

[Doubon]

and the issue here could be the hose. after several months of use, the hose gets worn and retains the flavor and smell of your previoys smoking sessions.

[boulderkid303]

Lime juice me long time! Put it in the base and swish it around with warm water. Then put it in the stem and flip it back anf fourth 8-10 times, and then run hot water through it for 30 seconds and another 30 with cold. Then you should be good.

If I can smoke zaghoul and get the smell out, im sure you can do the same with whatever problem it is your having.

Good luck.

[Glottis2]

Thanks, I used lemon juice and that seemed to fix my setup. Now I just need to figure out what was tainting the hookah in the first place.

[ASUSEAN1]

humidity difference? Edited December 15, 2007 by ASUSEAN1

[Patzke]

Yeah, I was going to seggest dunking the thing in lemon juice, but someone beat me.

That usually does the trick for me.

Are you possible burning stems, etc?

[MechAnt]

When you buy a new pipe, you should always clean it out very throughly. Normally that is the main cause of crappy taste in new pipes.