Cleaning The Hookah Hose

[Winter]

I've had many issues in regards of how to clean hookah hoses recently. I used to never clean them until my friends and I started tasting and seeing bits of charcoal on our tongues while we smoked. I have cleaned out the pipes with running water, but I was wondering if anyone cleaned them any other way?

Also... I know that a lot of hoses are made out of leather and if water touches leather, it ruins it. So my question is how to clean leather hoses?

[OC4111]

I don't think there is a way to clean a leather hose. Best bet is to by a washable one like a nammor or razan.

[Winter]

I'm not familiar with the name brands of hoses - I usually just use the ones that come with the hookah. I'm guessing those are plastic?

[Winter]

Thanks. These look awesome.

Another question - when ordering off of www.hookah-shisha.com, will I be getting any hoses that are similar to the Nammor, or are they just generic brands?

[OC4111]

Not sure what you mean. If you order a nammor hose you should be getting one just like the picture.

[melanko]

I just ordered a Nammor myself. I should be getting it Friday.

Once I wash it, whats the best way to dry it? Just let it hang I'm guessing.

[OC4111]

that would be the best way.

[NUBBS]

Holding the ends smack it on the ground and blow real hard. It might not clean it all the way but, there are more leather hoses out there then Nammors and thats my technique and thats the technique I was told by many others. Edited May 21, 2008 by NUBBS

[Bushbr]

First off, Welcome to the fourm
make sure you read all the rules befor you dive too far in, we aren't strict, just particular

but ya, you dont wanna clean the hoses from hookah-shisha with just running water, inside will rust.

nammors and razans can be washed that way, dunno bout traight leather ones, but there are good plastic ones you can wash easy as spit.

so yeah, hope that was a help

[NickReppinThe909]

Holding the ends smack it on the ground and blow real hard. It might not clean it all the way but, there are more leather hoses out there then Nammors and thats my technique and thats the technique I was told by many others.

all i have ever seen you use zach is your nammors though lol

[filmigeek]

I had some questions about hose-cleaning so I did a search and found this thread, only a couple of weeks old.

I am a total complete noob; I have smoked 4-5 times now all together. I have a Hookah Bros. hookah. (I guess they are a defunct company now; my husband bought the hookah from an Indian grocery as a surprise for me.) I wasn't sure what the hose was made of - it felt like soft plastic but not like garden hose - and it has varnished wooden pieces glued on to either end; the area around each glue joint is wrapped in yarn.

Anyway last night I absolutely knew I had to wash it. After 4-5 uses it had gotten really gritty and disgusting. I'm not sure I was supposed to wash it but it was so nasty that I figured I'd be getting a new one either way, if I didn't wash it or if washing it ruined it.

I wasn't sure how to wash it though. I ended up running hot water through it - as hot as I could stand to have on my hands. When the water came through it was nasty - all red and filled with particulate matter. I rinsed until it ran clear, and then sloshed some water around inside it and blew out. Again, more red particulate matter. I turned it around, sloshed some water around it again, and blew again. More particles. Yuck.

I kept at it until I wasn't blowing crud out of it anymore, and then hung it up to dry. Fingers crossed that it works - I have plans to have a friend over to smoke tonight.

So - is what I did the right way to clean, assuming hose is washable? And is particley crud coming out of your hose normal? Edited June 4, 2008 by filmigeek

[Stuie]

with my nammors and razans i put a little lime or lemon juice in them and some warm water and let it swish from end to end for about 5 minutes. pour it our and hang to dry.

But in the event it's not washable, odds are it isn't, blow it out before each use... if something like dust looks like it's flying out ...it's not...it's rust and your hose is done. You can check out the How-To Funhouse section in the forum on how to turn into a washable or buy a new one.

[filmigeek]

Aw crud, have I trashed my hose then?

I don't think I can wait to smoke again until a new order arrives! I hope it's okay to limp along until I get a new one.

Dumb replacement hose question: will any replacement hose fit my hookah?

[kvtaco17]

Aw crud, have I trashed my hose then?

I don't think I can wait to smoke again until a new order arrives! I hope it's okay to limp along until I get a new one.

Dumb replacement hose question: will any replacement hose fit my hookah?

Si anything should fit for the most part....

about cleaning if you have access to an air compressor I have found that they can and will clear anything out of a hose with enough PSI...

[peterjmag]

It sounds like you have a hose similar to mine. I just make sure to blow it out very thoroughly before every session. Simply cap one end with your thumb, blow on the other end with a good amount of force, and then take your thumb off. Do this a few times, and you should be good. This is the only thing I do to clean my hose, and I never get any particles when I'm smoking, but I usually end up having to replace my hose every 3 months or so (and I have no idea if that's common or not), so that may not be the best method.

Quick story: The first hookah I lived with was an old roommate's from about two years ago. It was a pretty nice "Comet rotator" (I think that's what it was called), but we didn't really know that much about hookahs at the time, so it got a bit... abused. To "clean" the hose, we'd run a bunch of water through it, blow through it a few times, and then take it out on the balcony and spin it around like a lasso to get the rest of the water out of it. Once, my roommate was spinning it around on the balcony pretty quickly, and he accidentally knocked it into the balcony railing. The wooden end snapped off and flew into our neighbor's backyard... Woops. It took us like 15 minutes to convince our neighbor that our hookah wasn't used to smoke anything illegal before she'd let us retrieve the broken piece from her yard ("No, I will not let you get your broken bong!").

We tried to fix it by duct taping it up, but the wood was pretty splintered. We ended up buying a new hose, and soon, we wondered why we were getting all sorts of weird particles through that one too. Then, someone at our local hookah bar finally told us that our hose was most likely rusting out because we were running so much water through it.

Yeah, we were pretty hookah-naive back then. Edited June 4, 2008 by peterjmag

[filmigeek]

Thanks for the great comments everyone. (peterjmag, your story about the neighbor was )

My hose is drying where I left it last night - at home - and I am not at home, so I won't know how it is until this evening. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that it will survive the washing I gave it, and not give it another one. I think I'll still go ahead and order a new hose, because (1) I'll need one eventually anyhow, (2) it will be better to have a decent hose that I know something about. Edited June 4, 2008 by filmigeek