Confused And Annoyed

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

hi.

I have been smoking hookah for a year now roughly, with friends and now recently bought my own hookah.
Problem is I am having heat management problems that i have never ever had!!!

I am using a small'ish egyption
using a medium clay boal and using foil
quicklights from soex ( its the best kind i can get here in s.a.) 1 quicklight per session

the thing is that if i pack my bowl about half full, put foil over and make lots of about 1/3 of a milimeter holes in the centre just big enough for the coal, then i can get thick smoke but then the flavour starts burning.
I also tried it with a little less holes more spread out and it still burns.
So what i have had to do is put one layer of foil as normal with holes etc.
and make another foil covering that one and the bowl which has about 1 cm distance between the first and second foil.
Problem is that it works but i still dont get my usual thick smoke and i don't want to do 2 foils each time.

Please help me out I am going crazy about the stupid shisha burning!!!

thanks

H&S

[HookahDude831]

dont pack half a bowl, pack it so its right under the rim, and more holes

[SupremeOstrich]

I used to kind of have that problem. I think we're using similar bowls.

In a bowl like that, I usually break 2 coals into halves, and put three 1/2 coals on the top. Two on the foil, a space between them, and then the other one bridging them on top.

I used a Soex pack of coals once, didn't have the greatest results in the world. But if that's all you can use they're not THAT horrible.

As long as you're sticking to the basics (sprinkle the shisha in, press it in very gently, making sure the black stuff has burned off of the coals) then you should be good.

What kind of tobacco are you using?

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

I am using al-waha tobacco....

Also what i did right in the beggining i packed very little in the bowl and i mean VERY little just enough to cover the holes on the bottom of the bowl and that then got burnt to Sh1t in like 2 min ......so i thought i should pack more, so i packed it half full and now its still burning .....sigh

so should i pack it all the way but just under the rim?????

[SupremeOstrich]

Yeah, if you're only using that much, you're probably going to burn it. I sprinkle mine in, then pack is down VERY gently.

But I bet if you cut the coals in half and spread them a bit, that will help.

[HookahDude831]

your underpacking your bowl, too much heat for too little tobacco='s burns and tastes like shit.

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

okay cool thanks I am gonna go eat something, but will be back just now and give it another go with filling it all the way to the rim!

Thanks alot

-H&S

[HookahDude831]

fill it just under the rim so there is a little space between the tobacco and foil, then holes

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

fill it just under the rim so there is a little space between the tobacco and foil, then holes

Now that you mention holes ....is it okay to do, just enough holes for the coal to fit over, or should i do fewer holes, spread out over the whole bowl???

thanks again

-H&S

[Canon]

they are all missing it.. you put less coals on, or break the coal and put it on opposite ends, when it starts burning then move a piece of a coal and take the other piece off. a wind cover also is useful in helping to regulate the heat. just do everything as you normally do it but use less heat.

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

Now I am really confused....sigh

i smoked al-waha mint the other day same set-up etc and it smoked perfectly same when i did a mint mix with mixed berry bot al-waha.

Now with the burning thing i was smoking orange cream.
Now i swapped to mint to see if it was the flavour and it still is burning it doesnt matter what i do ...
if i use like a tiny bit of coal i couldnt taste burnt shisha not much anyway....but then I also don't get
any thick smoke only thin thin smoke with that little heat...sigh

i really don't know what to do now????

-H&S

[Canon]

try using a wind cover with a little bit of coal, or starting with more coal and moving onto less when it starts smoking