Hookah Cost Vs Quality!

[Sonthert]

Myas have untubed bells which pose problems with cleaning and maintenance. This is one of my strongest objections. They finally started removing the bottom plate of the bell, so it could be cleaned, but then the inner surfaces of the bell ned to be cleaned as well. A tubed bell hookah needs more or less just water run through it and a light brushing of the main tube. The tubed bell hookahs are basically maintenance-free. I have known quite a few people that have noted that their Chinese pipes without tubed bells begin to work more poorly and have less resounding flavor as time goes on...its a subtle process to be sure. Some people won't even notice it. The water-insoluble material builds up but gets partially redissolved when vaporized solvent comes in contact with it. This redissolved material has a dull, blah flavor. People who like to take a puff every couple of minutes will have more problems than people who are hitting the pipes continuously, obviously. The most obvious case of this is mint flavor. Mint flavor is poorly soluble in water and will form a transient flavor (AKA ghosting) that takes many smokings to remove. Its not really removed though. Its just inperceptible. All sorts of other stuff gets stuck on there too, some of it almost imperceptible by itself, but has the distinct tendency to dull the flavors coming through the pipes.

Of course, you can clean the bells like you do the main tube of the shank (if there is no tube plate), but this is just more work and even without a bell plate, getting something in there to clean out the rough cast parts is difficult. Clearly Myas are superior to their Chinese rip-off cousins. I don't recommend anyone buy a hookah that doesn't have a tubed bell though.

[Zinite]

I have my Mya Petite and that sucker was about $24 I think ...and let me say that thing smokes very nice ... and because of that I would consider another Mya product down the line.

True that. I got my Petite like 2 months ago, and since then have used it about 60 times and my KMs like 3 or 4 times. The thing is so damn easy to set up and clean.