New Hookah Arrived This Morning!

[Pabst Blue Robot]

Hello all! This is my first post on the forum and I wanted to share some first impressions of my latest Hookah, the KM Chiller Black Pear from John. This is my first KM, and my fourth Hookah. Here is a link to the new pipe, I will post pics after I take some of my own:

http://www.hookahjohn.com/product.sc?produ...p;categoryId=24

I placed my order on Tuesday and it arrived this morning via Fedex home delivery and was well packaged and included a 50g box of Nak Cinnamon as a freebie. I would highly recommend placing an order with John if you haven't before, great service.


The pipe itself consists of essentially five pieces: The vase, the stem, the coal tray, the Egyptian style bowl, and the hose.

The vase: This is my first KM and I don't know if it is typical, so I will give my impressions vs. the Mya Colossus. The vase is decorated with some sort of silver, glittery swirl paint that forms the designs. There is also a layer of silver paint on the top section, and a semi opaque black on the bottom. The glitter bits have a rough, raised feel to them and will shed a bit if perturbed. The vase bottom sits flat without rocking and appears to be of ample thickness, but it is noticeably less so than the Colossus. The Colossus is a much heavier and taller pipe, however, so that makes sense.

The volume of the base is generous compared to my other pipes and there is plenty of room for a whole tray of ice, which brings me to my favorite part of the base: The mouth. It is substantially wider than that of the Colossus, allowing whole cubes from the ice tray to be inserted without chopping or crushing. Big points there, I hate chopping ice and I suspect the larger chunks last longer. This reduces setup time and is a big win for me.

One flaw that needs to be noted is that the semi opaque black paint layer completely flaked off after the first session. The silver layer has begun to in places as well, but the black came off with minimal handling. The condensation from the ice water in the vase was enough. Honestly, I think it looks nicer now and it is certainly easier to see the fill level, but it's something to consider.

The stem: There are some noticeable welds but they all look sanitary and it passed the vacuum test. The stem is lighter than I would have expected, but that's not a complaint at all. It is very aesthetically appealing as well. Compared with the Mya, there are some major differences: The down tube is permanently welded to the stem. There are two ports on the bottom of the stem on each side of the down tube, and one feeds the hose and the other the purge valve. The inside diameter of the entire stem is larger than that of the Colossus.

The gasket for the vase appears to be rubber instead of silicon. The fit of the stem into the vase is extremely tight. It required some warm water and a little muscle to go in, and some absolute horsing to come out. I was afraid of breaking the vase with the amount of force required to remove it. I ended up applying some keg lube (a food grade petroleum based lubricant made for the rubber parts of Cornelius kegs) and that fixed the problem. It now sits very snugly but comes out with a few twists and much less force. I feel that this will prolong the life of the rubber as well. Keg lube can be obtained from a local home brew supply store, or on the internet if anyone is interested.

The ice bucket portion of the stem is welded to the top. It does not leak at all and actually provides a very stable seat for the coal tray.

The coal tray: A beautiful piece, and wider than that of the Colossus. Sits well and does not rattle excessively.

The bowl: I haven't used this yet so I can't appraise the function, but it looks to be hand made. The holes in the bottom are much wider than the Mya Egyptian style bowls. The gaskets that came with it are plastic and fairly rigid compared with the silicon ones used on the Mya, I'm not sure if they'd form a proper seal.

The hose: I've been told that this is an improved style hose over the traditional KM. The diameter is quite wide, wider than the Mya but not quite as wide as a Razan. There is a long, decorated handle that is comfortable and attractive. The mouth piece is the same diameter as the Razan and appears to be acrylic. The mouth piece and part that plugs in to the hose port aren't detachable but appear to be glued in place. No gasket was included for the hose port so I'm not sure if it's intended to be a friction fit or if it's just missing one, so I used an extra silicon one from the Mya and it sealed fine. I don't understand the purpose of the rigid handle-like section that connects to the hose port, it seems this would only reduce the stability of the Hookah, but it does look nice.


Now that all of that is out of the way, the important part...how does it smoke?

Setup: Base filled 1" over bottom of dip tube with water, full tray of ice. Added extra broken ice bits to the ice tray at the top. Small Phunnel bowl packed with Nak double apple. Three Coconara's toward the edges at 120 degrees of separation. Regular Reynolds foil.

Draw: Simply amazing. It actually is just like breathing in, even with the included hose. Hands down this bests the Colossus with a Razan, and by a substantial margin. I attribute this to the wider ports and possible more head space in the vase. The bottleneck from the look of it all is probably the port on the bottom of the stem, but even that is as large if not larger than the entry to the hose. The free draw of this pipe make for a very relaxing, effortless smoke. Very impressive.

Smoke: Wispy on the first hit, took perhaps 3 or 4 before it really got going, similar to the Colossus. The smoke was thick, extremely cool, and dense enough to obfuscate the Hookah itself for a few seconds. The clouds dissipated quickly however, I'm not sure if this is due to the low temperature or not. For cloud size and density, it was satisfying but it does not compete at the same level as the Colossus, which is like some sort of black magic fog machine. I suspect that there may be some connection between draw and clouds, and while the draw was much easier the clouds were less glorious and didn't last as long. This did not seem to impact the flavor however, which was just as nice as the Mya. The smoke was also slightly cooler it seemed, but this is probably a result of the higher volume of whole ice.

Purge: Hands down, this Hookah has a purge valve of superior design to that of the Mya pipes. Looking at the dual port design on the bottom of the stem, it's fairly obvious why. I was able to easily purge the entire vase and less smoke escaped the bowl during the purge as well.

Noise: I know this is important to some folks who like to smoke while watching a movie. This is probably my loudest pipe, but not by a lot. The noise seems to come mostly out the top of the pipe. It is higher frequency than the Colossus which can range from nearly silent to a deep glug depending on the fill level. The mini has a louder glug, and this one has higher pitched, more impacting glug, probably due to the wider stem pipe and the cylindrical shape of the vase. Not unpleasant, some might even find it satisfying.

Cleaning: I'm split on this. On one hand, the KM is simpler to disassemble than the Mya because it has less pieces. On the other hand, it is much more difficult to run water through in the sink, and insure that each piece is adequately clean. The included long brush was very useful and fit from one end of the stem to the other. As noted earlier, the paint on the vase is quite susceptible to flaking, peeling, and coming off. It looks almost like it was sealed on the top part but not the bottom. There was a lack of thought here in the design as the base is inevitably going to get wet, and requires handling to carry the pipe or remove the stem.

Overall: This is a fantastic pipe. It has a lot of class yet is not cumbersome. Durability does not seem as good as the Mya, but the hand made aspect adds to the appeal and in no way does it impede the functionality, quite the opposite. This pipe smokes very well, and I believe it will become my regular for solo smokes. The Colossus, while probably my grandest and most beautiful pipe, is a lot of work to set up and to clean, and it is best suited for group smokes. The KM is 11 inches shorter, much lighter, and simple to set up.

Is it worth the price tag? As with all things that depends on your situation. For me, I say yes. The black/silver and pear/chiller combination is excellent, pictures don't do it justice. The hose is respectable, and it meets my needs very well. I'm sure you could get a pipe that smokes as well for less money, but that's not the whole of the thing. This Hookah is pure class from top to bottom and very impressive to look at and to use. I have a Mya mini acrylic that was free and smokes nicely enough with an easy setup, but it's not very attractive, hard to put ice in, it has a finicky gasket, it's top heavy, and it ghosts. The KM makes a perfect replacement for day to day solo smokes and smokes a lot better to boot. I would recommend.

[NIGHTS OF BAGHDAD]

great write up and a very sexy KM

[Matchew]

Damm..thats clean

[ilikemyusername]

For cloud size and density, it was satisfying but it does not compete at the same level as the Colossus, which is like some sort of black magic fog machine.

seconded, My MZ has a better draw than my colossus, but the smoke density is weaker.The colossus has some freaky voodoo that comes free with the pipe.

[sportsfan6216]

I really want to thank you for posting what you did and didn't like about your new pipe. I think this is a great first post and hope you hang around here........ much better than......


OMG got my KM its GREATS!!!!!!!

glad your overall enjoying your KM..... I know mine is my favorite pipe of the three i have (i have the pharonie which i smoke more than my QT or my new AF solid Medium)

[ProbablyTaken]

We should encourage more posts about people's new equipment with this much detail, its very nice.

[newjacksm]

Good post!

[vqturbo]

Congrats, can never go wrong with KM or HJ..

[joytron]

very nice! thanks for the thorough review