Quick Repair On A Manufactured Hookah?

[lqstuart]

Hey, I just bought a new hookah (not my first) and I was hoping someone can help me out with a mechanical problem it seems to have. It's a double hose piece and inside one of the intake pipes from the stem there seems to be a metal crosshatch missing. The result is that this hose has no resistance at all and barely draws anything--I don't really know the lingo but it doesn't cause bubbles.

Is there a quick fix for this?

[Kathrynx]

What kind of hookah is it? Can you take pictures? Did you do an air tight test? Is the other hose being plugged while trying to take a draw off of it?

[lqstuart]

What kind of hookah is it? Can you take pictures? Did you do an air tight test? Is the other hose being plugged while trying to take a draw off of it?

I don't know the brand or anything, but here's a picture. The blue arrow points to the spot where I think something is wrong. I've tried plugging the other hose, not sure what you mean by an air test but I've confirmed that the problem is not the hose, it's that part of the stem.

[AKammenzind]

I think you're trying to say that one of the auto-seals is missing. Simple fix would be to have the person with the faulty side just cover their hose when not taking a hit, more difficult fix would be to (very carefully) solder a small piece of wire or mesh in to hold up a bearing. Unless I completely misunderstood what you're trying to say...

[hippomania7]

Heres a way to help find the leak source:
-get another hookah set up and running.
-take a big hit of the working hookah
-take the hose of your broken hookah, and exhale into it to get a smoky chamber.
-On the broken hookah, slowly blow into one hose while your thumb is plugging up the other hoses mouthpiece
-youll be able to see where the smoke escapes.

[Zinite]

It sounds like you're saying that one hose port has an autoseal valve, and the other one does not. Are the hose ports removable? Are there ball bearings (little metal balls) in either one?

[modisess]

confusing.... umm, what do you mean by no resistance? if you can still draw from the hose, bubbles will still appear but not as much. so next time try this, everytime another person is inhaling from one hose, the person holding the 2nd hose should be plugging the tip of the hose, with their thumb.

[lqstuart]

It sounds like you're saying that one hose port has an autoseal valve, and the other one does not. Are the hose ports removable? Are there ball bearings (little metal balls) in either one?

Yeah, I unscrewed them just now and the one that works has a ball bearing in it, the one that doesn't has nothing. Is there a place where I could get replacement valves and bearings or something? I think I'd need the little mesh thing in addition to a ball bearing

[Cerritus]

You can use a normal BB or airsoft pellet for the ball. I have that in my purge valve and it works perfectly.

As far as the screen goes, it may not be needed. In the 3 hoser we use for parties the balls have a place to sit with no screen. If yours doesn't have a similar setup you can get a window screen repair kit from any hardware store. They have small squares of metal mesh that you could cut to fit easily. You can also get pipe screens from a smoke shop. They're about the same with a bit smaller mesh.

Hope that helps