Hookah Experiment - Water Temps

[chromecarz00]

Hello all,
In the interest of science (and avoiding final prep) I decided to undertake a hookah experiment that has been the subject of heated debate; what water temperature is best?
Now in the past, it was generally shown that colder = more smoke, hotter = more flavor, so thats pretty much what I was expecting.
So I light up a bowl of Kamal mixed berries and AF mind, with ICE COLD water in hte base and of course many ice cubes, and begin to smoke it. Suprisingly, the smoke was relatively thin, so I checked for leaks and found none. I continued to smoke, adjust coals, etc, got an acceptable amount after a bit of tinkering. After I was satisfied with my recording, I moved on to regular cold water, by emptying the base and filling it with cold water.
I checked the temperature of the base using the finger test, and it was definately warmer than the ice water, so I checked how it was smoking at the time. The smoke was not as thick as it was with the ice, but suprisingly, it was more dense. Less volume but more density, and more flavor. The density suprised me, and after I was happy with the recording, I moved on again to warm water.
Same process, empty and refill with warm water, and as we all have heard more flavor and less smoke. Heres the suprising part; I actually got noticably less flavor than with cold water (but more than with IC water) but even more suprising, the smoke had gained volume and near the same density as with cold water! I was shocked so I kept going at it to see if it had by any chance been a fluke or anytinhg, but the same results consistently.
Now as most of you know, I am a pretty experienced hookaholic by now, with a good grip on techniques of smoking and setting up and heat managment, so the only REAL factor that changed was the temperature of the base water. Considering that this is contrary to mainstream belief (and my un-documented experience in the past), I am rather lost for words; does anybody have any idea as to why this happened?
Perhaps the shisha responds better to cold water? I'm open for suggestions, or explanations, but be assured that it was only the base water that changed temperature and nothing else.

[redjako]

I dunno

Experimentally the ideal situation would get 5-10 hookah smokers, 2 hookahs, SAME coal pattern, setup, WATER LEVEL, shisha and packing and Bowl.

"Blind" experiment them (cover the hookah's (edit:) the base, ensure they can't / won't touch them to note the temp), and note the thinness, harshness, flavor, and "temp" of the smoke.


My own personal experience: I've since stopped filling my mya base nearly to the top with ice, and just use 8-10 cubes (half / 1/3 of the base) I get good smoke / flavor everything.

Sometimes I'll be smoking for 6 or so hours (with groups or whatnot), and I just change out the shisha / coals, the water at the end of this IS warm.

I notice you CAN to an extent taste the flavor better, but it kicks / burns your throat more vs cold water.

I've also (due to reading the "science of shisha" or something thread, tried just Warm water in the base as a starter, and smoked it for three hours w/ two bowls.

Same smoke levels (I don't think the ice effects the smoke, more the packing etc), and a "different" / more acute (slightly) flavors, but that small amount of burning at the back of the throat. Edited March 20, 2009 by redjako

[Sonthert]

I find it interesting. It would make some degree of sense. Cold water is denser than hot water, so the warmer the water, the "less" water the smoke has to travel through, so the less flavor and vapor would get filtered out. It makes sense, I used to think that warmer water would filter more out...but perhaps not...I would figure warm water was a better solvent than cold water. Thanks for the research!