White Stuff In Hookah

[morssolis]

i have a mya hookah. i wash it with just water for now but after it dries and a few days latter i go to smoke it there is a white substance on the hose ports. so much near the end that the ball bearing gets stuck.

its starting to taste funny after about 4 times smoking with it. i know i need to clean better but what is this white stuff? any ideas?

[cerealsteak]

to me white stuff would probably indicate that you have fairly hard water. i'd probably just try drying it real good after cleaning.
green or brown would indicate rust or oxidation but white sounds more like something else. then again i could be wrong

[morssolis]

thats what i was thinking hard water. it is well water that passes over a water softener. i dont know if this is what is making it taste bad or if its ghosting. i will try cleaning with lemon juice and DI water

[Canon]

beer should also do the trick

[Svaals]

That is probably salt deposits from your water, as mentioned above. I don't think it should have an affect on the taste of your hookah, though. Drying the thing well should help with the bearings, though. You may try taking them out, and rubbing the salts off with a towel after they're dry.

[delSol_si]

I'd say it is the lime in the water. I don't think there really is a way to get rid of it without using beer or lemon juice or something besides water. Either that or run jet dry through your hookah


I was joking about the jet dry, if try it, don't blame me if it effs things up.

[ilikemyusername]

I used to get it in the hose ports of my Colossus, but not my QT, beats me maybe a type of corosion, i'm not sure though. I ran some olive oil around the inside of the hose ports about 2 weeks ago, everything seems fine now. It was like a white fluffy gritty powdery substance, gone now.

[AKammenzind]

Depending on the model it could be that it's just the aluminum is oxidizing. If you haven't had this problem with other hookahs, or in general with your water then that's probably the case.

[antouwan]

@ "White Stuff In Hookah"

they're used for smoking, man....

hahaha i had too...childish i know, but completely necessary.

[Arcane]

someone made sexy time with your hookah...

[UofLcards]

Hah, You have hard water, no big deal, when you clean it, don't let it air dry, I get this occasionally... the water in Kentucky sucks.

you'll get the calcium hardness deposits from smoking with tap water also.

get used to hand drying everything all the time..

[foibled again]

Depending on the model it could be that it's just the aluminum is oxidizing. If you haven't had this problem with other hookahs, or in general with your water then that's probably the case.

Aluminum oxide is white but it does not build up or flake off like rust. When aluminum oxide forms, it just makes the aluminum duller and protects the aluminum from further oxidation. This shouldn't really matter though because the Mya hearts/chambers are made of brass. Brass oxidation will appear green/bluish or brown/reddish depending on the amount of copper and zinc it contains.

If you have hard water, it is just calcium and magnesium salt deposits. Just do a better job drying them and you shouldn't have a problem with it anymore, ie don't let areas with water build up air dry.

[Sonthert]

I think its calcium carbonate. From hard water. Carbonate ions and calcium ions are naturally present in hard water. They are quite dilute, but they solidify when dried out. It seems like they are more common on aluminum for some reason. Later, larger and nastier buildup might be some form of aluminum reaction.