Hello from Miami

[Abyssmal]

Hi everyone.  I've been looking around for a place that i can learn more about the hookah, and also chat with fellow smokers...Recently i just purchased a nice little 21" hookah, green vase/3 green hoses.....i've got a question thoughi rinsed out the hoses before i used them, as per instructions....like 10 minutes per hose and green water was still comin out it brought a charcoal screen, but i didn't like how it was so i opted for some foil. i know that i don't know alot about the hookah, so who knows where my faults came loli filled the vase up with water so that the stem is submerged about an inch or soi had originally picked pineapple to smoke, so i took some of the shisha, picked it apart so that the bowl was loosely filled......i cut a square of foil just large enough to cover the bowl and got it nice & tight so that the top of it would stay tight under the charcoal.......i poked some holes with a push pinlit the charcoal, let it grey up & put it over the bowl and then started working on itnow, here come my problems lol1) could the hoses still be dirty?2) after a few puffs, the foil started to get loose under the charcoal and eventually started touching the tobacco (i removed the foil once and all the shisha was clumped together stuck to the foil)3)  where am i going wrong?i tried pineapple, mango, coconut & cherry, and they all tasted the same.  no distinguishing flavors of what they're supposed to bei tried mango/cherry @ a local hookah bar here in miami and it tasted amazing (mine tasted....rather rubbery)HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP lol

[DownZero]

Welcome to the forum... Well it seems you are doing everything fine. Did you clean your entire hookah by running water and scrubbing through the stem, wash out the vase and the bowl? When you run water through the hose now, does green still come out? Your going to want to wash it out completly, till the green stops coming out.. and when it does go ahead and keep water running through a little longer just in case.  What brand of shisha & coals are you using? It's natural for the foil to get loose.. You are applying heat to it so it is going to slightly expand and get loose. If anything, pack the bowl a little less so the foil doesn't touch, if thats what you want to avoid.

[Abyssmal]

I think i'm using Al Waha // Nakhla, my coal is three kings quick lightingthe foil i'm using is just the plain jane home variety lol..........what i was worried about when i saw the foil dropping was that the coal was going to burn teh tobacco too hot (which from what i've read isn't good because you don't get the taste)first thing i'm going to do when i get home is give the whole thing a thorough cleaning, since it was all brand new when i smoked it

[DownZero]

When the tobacco gets too hot.. You will know it's too hot because you could feel it burn, the smoke won't be smooth at all and may cause you to cough. So the foil touching the tobacco isn't that big a deal. I use a screen and my tobacco is almost always stuck to the screen when I take it off to clean out the bowl. I use 3 kings myself, good stuff. Let us know how the smoke is after you clean everything out.  Good luck

[Abyssmal]

well so far i haven't felt it burn or anythingto be honest i didnt know how hot that the actual coal got so hot, i'd put my hand over the coal and i couldn't keep it there for too longquesiton--do i just leave the coal in the center? break it up and spread it? make 2 1/2s?

[DownZero]

Well I usually place it on the center.. then when it feels like the smoke is less, I'll move it around. Some brands of shisha do well w/ 1 coal.. some 1 1/2 etc.. It's all a matter of testing brands out. If you have a wind cover, use it when you can.. The cover retains heat, then if you feel the smoke getting harsh (burning) simply remove the wind cover.