Funny Taste

[xipander]

OK, I've started to get a funny taste out of my MZ and I can't tell what's causing it. I've been smoking out of my MZ 2 - 4 times a day for the past two months. I don't leave it sitting with water or smoke in it and I scrub it out with hot water and dish soap after every two smokes and rinse it out with hot water after every smoke. When I scrub it good I can get the smell out of everything, but once I start smoking about 30 - 45mins in to it I can taste it again. The rubber vase grommet smells the worst, followed by the base and the bottom of the stem. The top of the stem and the inside of the bowl smell alittle. It does it with both my egyption bowls and my phunnel, and with all different types of shisha. The only things I can think of it being that's a constant is the tap water I put in the vase (Jacksonville, FL tap water doesn't taste that great anyway), the plastic bowl grommet, or maybe I've just used it enough for the taste to stain in even though I rinse it out and scrub is all the time. Or could it be the coconara's? Those are the only coals I use. Even shisha with stong flavours like mizo peach and SB get overpowered by it in 45mins.

I'm at a loss...

[Sonthert]

Dish soap leaves a residue...to keep your hands soft. That might be it.

[xipander]

Could be. I'll try something else to clean it with and see if that helps. If it was just soap residue I would think it would start strong then wear down, especially after the second bowl of just rinsing. It's more of a plasticy taste then soapy though, but I can taste both. I'm wondering if it's the bowl grommet because it's not real tight, it hangs down over the chamber by about 1/4 - 1/2 inch, but it's rubber with 4 1/4inch rubber pieces that stick perpendicular to the rubber part that slips over the chamber, and it's not hard at all to get in and it moves around a little when I put it in, but the 4 "flanges" keep smoke/air from leaking in or out... if that makes any sense to anyone. And I usually stick my vase in the freezer to frost it, so I'm wondering if the frost is melting from the heat and staying in between those flanges and either soaking in to the rubber or mold/mildewing. But I dunno, I'm a computer scientist, not a real scientist.

[TizaNabi]

check out my just posted on charcoal and what it's "ingredients of quick light charcoal".are, occaisionally out of 500 quick lights, I'll get a "bum Wrap" of one lousy roll with bad taste.Changing hookahs,hoses,shisha, it messes them all up. What do you want?With metal fillings ground down well, coke,charcoal and dried SEWAGE SLUDGE? Edited April 12, 2009 by TizaNabi

[Zinite]

check out my just posted on charcoal and what it's "ingredients of quick light charcoal".are, occaisionally out of 500 quick lights, I'll get a "bum Wrap" of one lousy roll with bad taste.Changing hookahs,hoses,shisha, it messes them all up. What do you want?With metal fillings ground down well, coke,charcoal and dried SEWAGE SLUDGE?

... that is a list of things coals can be made out of, not what's in the coal we use.

Clean your hookah with lemon juice or cheap vodka.

All of my grommets smell like ass. I've tried soaking them in everything... doesn't work.

[SimplexCoda]

I would agree in trying something else to clean it. I typically use anti-bacterial efferent. It works well.

[larken]

check out my just posted on charcoal and what it's "ingredients of quick light charcoal".are, occaisionally out of 500 quick lights, I'll get a "bum Wrap" of one lousy roll with bad taste.Changing hookahs,hoses,shisha, it messes them all up. What do you want?With metal fillings ground down well, coke,charcoal and dried SEWAGE SLUDGE?

... that is a list of things coals can be made out of, not what's in the coal we use.

Clean your hookah with lemon juice or cheap vodka.

All of my grommets smell like ass. I've tried soaking them in everything... doesn't work.

Don't use grommets, actually. Smiley, the guy that owns Smilies down here, was telling me a bunch of stuff but basically you just use strips of paper towells and wet it a tiny bit and it actually seals a lot better then a grommet, giving you a slightly greater pull.

[xipander]

I'll have to go buy a gallon of Burnett's or something for $5. The only vodka I have now is some Stoli and I'm not cleaning anything with it.

I'm resorting to smoking out of my Sahara Infinity tonight because I can't stand the taste any longer.

[Vladimir]

I'll have to go buy a gallon of Burnett's or something for $5. The only vodka I have now is some Stoli and I'm not cleaning anything with it.

Stoli is cleaning material .

I would try replacing the grommet, if it is nasty it wouldn't hurt to replace it regardless. I do not clean my hookah with anything other than seriously hot water, but I normally rinse it before every use, and everything gets blown dry (air compressor). I wouldn't think your cleaning routine would start a bad taste randomly, something must have changed. Unless of course the one bad time ruined it all and now it just tastes bad because its stained or something.

[mitchard]

Why not just use rubbing alcohol? I use it in my base sometimes and it works fine.

[xipander]

I'm starting to think it's my foil or just me. I'm smoking out of the hookah i never use now and after 30mins I can taste it here too, different hose, different bowl. But I'm useing publix (store brand) aluminum foil double wrapped. Does anyone think that's a possibility? I doubt it's the coconara's. Maybe I should try a screen a few times?

[Charley]

some cheaper brands of foil can taste like plastic. I used to work at a family dollar and there brand of foil would sometimes melt and was basically foil covered plastic

[xipander]

I'm useing the screen now and it's not as bad/strong, but I can still taste it. I'm starting to think it's this nasty city/apartment water. I might have to run up to the store and by a few gallons of filtered water to try next and see if that helps. Other then that unless the taste is burned in to my pipes or hoses.

[outbreakpb]

im no expert by any means... but maybe its your hose, just throwing that out there.

[Canon]

im going with sonthert on this one, if you wash your hookah with dish soap a few times you wont have that taste, but the film could build up time and time again of using dish soap and eventually give you that taste.

it could also be your tobacco, if you store your tobacco in anything other then glass then some of the flavor can go away giving you a different taste.

i dont believe it to be the grommets, the hose (unless you got a new one), the foil or the coals.

[Zinite]

check out my just posted on charcoal and what it's "ingredients of quick light charcoal".are, occaisionally out of 500 quick lights, I'll get a "bum Wrap" of one lousy roll with bad taste.Changing hookahs,hoses,shisha, it messes them all up. What do you want?With metal fillings ground down well, coke,charcoal and dried SEWAGE SLUDGE?

... that is a list of things coals can be made out of, not what's in the coal we use.

Clean your hookah with lemon juice or cheap vodka.

All of my grommets smell like ass. I've tried soaking them in everything... doesn't work.

Don't use grommets, actually. Smiley, the guy that owns Smilies down here, was telling me a bunch of stuff but basically you just use strips of paper towells and wet it a tiny bit and it actually seals a lot better then a grommet, giving you a slightly greater pull.

My grommets seal fine. With the phunnel you can put your thumb over the hole and suck in to make sure everything is air tight. I've used paper towel strips in the past, and I haven't noticed a difference. Air tight is air tight, you can't really improve on that.

[TiLLooR]

ok so i have cleaned my pipe a few times and w/e but I still get a random flavour and i think it might be the hose, its a washable hose im just wondering what the best thing is to clean the hose with? or how many smokes it takes to get the host "broken" in or w/e like it does with a car etc.

Cheers

[xipander]

OK, so I cleaned the hookah out with hot water and a little bit of vodka and broke out the leather hose that's never been used and used purified water in the vase and a wet paper towel as a grommet and I after about an hour I could just barely pick up on the taste. It was the best I've had in a while. Next I washed it out and let it sit for a few hours, broke it back out and did the same thing except used tap water instead of purified water and now after about 20mins I can taste it pretty bad. I'm starting to think it's the tap water. I also noticed that I put the water in the freezer for about 20mins before I smoke, and with the purified water when I took it out there was a sheet of ice over it i had to break a hole thru to put the stem in, with the tap water in for the same time there wasn't. So I hope I've gotten it narrowed down to the water. I'm going to try a few more times tomorrow when I get some cheap vodka and lemon juice to clean it out good with and use purified water in it for a few days and see what happens.