Please help!

[sonfield]

I first smoked a hookah at a friends house, with vanilla, and it was
really nice.. i then bought my own from a swedish place called
www.vattenpipan.com, a pipe called "Anubis Red".. got all the bits, and
6 tobaco flavours.. and loads of rolls with some quicklighting charcoal
tablets "Pyro briqlets"..  the pipe itself was totaly tight, no
air leaking out anywere.. first time, i really packed the apple tobacoo
in the bowl and had the tray thing over with a piece of charcoal a bit
on the side.. big misstake packing it apparantly not good.. tasted
COAL, and nothing else, NO flavour.. only coal, made me throw up
eventually >_<

next day i tried not packing the tobacoo.. and the same effect.. charcoal.. and it tastes hoorible >_<

what am i dooing wrong??

[jmexx]

Welcome sonfield!Firstly, are the water levels correct? I've seen people with problems because they either have too much water or too little water. Before you actually put the head on top, inhale with the hose after you put the water in. You should have a decent amount of bubbles but you shouldn't feel any splash-back of any sort.Next thing to check is how you place your tobacco. I know you said the second time you didn't pack it but did you break it up and sprinkle it evenly?After that, if all is done evenly, make sure the holes in the tinfoil are SMALL. If you have large holes, the ashes of the charcoal actually goes through the holes and onto your tobacco, which is basically what you inhale at one point (thus the charcoal taste.)Other things could be heat management, I never used the coals you have, but normally I put one coal leaning off the edge and move it around appropriately.If you can take pics of the holes you've done and the rest of your setup, that'd be great!Welcome again and happy smoking ;)Jon

[[LB]]

i bet its the coal they sound pretty sh*tty. get yourself some golden
coals, or three kings. They really sound sh*tty, your pipe sounds nice
though. make sure your bowl is loosely packed to allow airation.

it also sounds like your tobacco isnt burning or something and your
just inhaling coal- how many coals do you use? do you refrigerate your
tobacco (dont keep it in a dark air tight place).

if you wanna be of hugggee help to yourself and us, post some picture
of your setup, and in session setup, specifically at the point of time
when your packing the bowl, the foil poke patters, and your in session
pictures of the bowl with charcoal, it would let us get a better
analysis of the problem.

welcome to the forum! hope this helps!

[dizzing]

make sure you light the coal until it is red hot before you put it on, also.  if not, some of the lighting powder residue from the coal can get onto your foil, in through your holes, onto the ma'assel, whatever, it's not good. 

[mushrat]

i'd have to agree its the coal..if that's what he's tasting ...
probably not letting it get all white and ashed to start and they are probably crappy coals to begin with.

[yashman19]

Yeah, has anyone ever lit a coal and seen a small trail of smoke
flowing out of the coal? I use pretty much Nour coals exlusively, and
every once in a while, while lighting them with my torch, smoke
trickles out of the coal, and if you pull on the hookah while this is
happening, that coal smoke gets pulled into my bowl and stains the
tobacco, causing the entire session to taste like coal...

So like said above, light the coal, and wait till its fully lit before
you place it on the bowl and start puffing. You might have to just
switch brands of coals though, if possible. A lot of brands out there
give off odors the entire time they're lit, not just when lighting
them, so this could be a possibility.

Try finding either 3kings or golden quicklight round discs, or Nour
Finger Natural coals. You gotta have a stove or a torch to light the
Nours though, as they arn't quicklight.

[sonfield]

Thanks for the replies.. someone mentioned  that the bowl should
be loosely packed to allow airation? packed where? My hose thing reeks
of coal now, as does every other piece of the pipe, first thing before
i get the thing working properaly is clean it, i got some long pipe
thing i guess was for the hose. But can i use normal dishing washing
soap to clean all parts?

I dont think the tobacco is burning proparly, and i have very small holes yes, and one cole piece ontop, a bit on the side..

Here are some pictures, sorry for the bad quallity.


The actuall Pipe above



the coal.
They basically look like small black charcoal tabletts, and i couldnt find any wrong with their looks or smell.

[dizzing]

the term packed is being used here as a more general term for putting ma'assel into the bowl.  there should be no actual "packing down" of the tobacco.  break it apart with your fingers so the strands of shredded tobacco unfurl and separate themselves, and then just let it drop into the bowl.  just sprinkle it in lightly like that until you are almost to the top of the bowl, then use your fingertips to STIR (NOT PACK) the tobacco, moving any loose particles towards the sides of the bowl as this is where they will absorb heat the most readily. a bowl should be filled in a bowl shaped pattern, not in a heap.

[dizzing]

oh, and the lighting is poor but i THINK (tHINK, dont know) that your hose is washable.  don't use soap (try not to use soap anywhere on the hookah, instead try 10:1 water:rubbing alcohol [according to tangiers] to boil it and then rinse it out thoroughly); the hose should actually never be touched with any chemicals.  simply hook one end up into your faucet (you may have to unscrew the screen) and blast hot water through it.  blow all the water out, then take the hose and smack it on the ground vigorously 2 -3 times.  repeat this process until the water coming out is clear.  then, go outside and whip your hose around like a helicopter for about 30 seconds.IF YOUR HOSE IS NOT WASHABLE, this will DESTROY IT.  you have been warned.  i believe you have a mya hose, though, which are.  check to see if it says "mya" anywhere on the hose's silver rings.  if it does, you are free to wash it as explained above.

[sonfield]

Thanks for the reply

Thats what i did with the tobacoo the last time, sprinkle it about and
all that. But i cant really tell the effects, because the rest of the
waterpipe smelled like coal..

About the hose. What will happen if it is not washable, and i wash it? It says "Bultan" near the mouth piece of the hose.

[dizzing]

well if it's non washable then you can either damage the leather (if it's leather, which it might be) or rust the metal inside (some hoses have metal coils, others have synthetic.).  either way, it will ruin the hose by screwing up the flexibility, breaking seams, or adding rust to your session.  and since it's not mya, i hesitate to say you can wash it.  what you can do is smack it against hte ground and blow through it as hard as you can a few times, but do NOT use water.