A Few Questions On Bowls

[mustafabey]

I have been looking at the different bowls available and reading Stuie's and others fine reviews. But I have unanswered questions, for example:

Is clay better than ceramic( I have heard) and why?

What does one do with a bowl I've seen on eBay thats divided into two parts'

And there's hemi's,Phunnels,Vortexs,Cobras,glazed, unglazed, Egyptian, Syrian, Chines and modern, different bowls for different tobaccos, its a very confusing world.:wallbash: Which leads to this, I ordered a social smoke hemi. I haven't yet gotten into the pleasures of Tangiers. I smoke for a hour, rarely more and this seemed like the ideal bowl.

[acolorado]

I hear you on how confusing all the bowls are at first .

As for different bowl materials, mostly it seems to be how they manage the heat. Some soak up heat and this can lead to burning the tobacco - some don't and this can mean it's more confusing to figure out how much coal to use and just takes some experimenting.

For smoking on my own I've found I go back and forth between a standard Egyptian and a Tangiers phunnel using a tealight mod. The phunnel is easy to clean up and uses less tobacco with the mod, but the egyptian smokes a little better in most cases - it just drips juice down the stem which is a pain. I've looked at alot of other bowls but it seems at the end of the day that most would do what I need them to so I just stick with what I've got .

The one thing I've noticed on glaze is that glaze doesn't seem to matter on my egyptians for smoking quality, except that the unglazed gets a "build-up" which is just impossible to clean off, so now I use the glazed one instead. Edited June 3, 2010 by acolorado

[F16WarBird]

I don't have an answer to your question, but if it's any help, I alternate between my SS hemi and my Tangs. I have an Egyptian that came with my KM Exotica, but I haven't used it yet.

For now, I'm happy with the hemi & tangs. I'm the kind of guy who sticks with what works once I find it.

Plus, with folks like Stui, I don't need to do the "Pepsi challenge" to know if something is good.

[NitetimeReign]

Stuie has a super great bowl review and I mean lots of them if you haven't checked that out yet. It certainly helped me.

[Arcane]

[quote name='mustafabey' date='02 June 2010 - 03:04 PM' timestamp='1275527086' post='470398']
Is clay better than ceramic( I have heard) and why?[/quote]I believe clay retains heat better....thus making it a more efficient bowl in that you can use less coals to keep the bowl temperature up....

[quote]What does one do with a bowl I've seen on eBay thats divided into two parts'[/quote]try to sell it on ebay Edited June 3, 2010 by Arcane

[thatonethere]

^^ Lmao. But in all seriousness those bowls with the compartments are for those learning how to mix different flavours. Each compartment is for a different flavor of shisha. I've never owned one of those bowls, so I don't know how effective they are. Some folks on this forum don't like them, but I really don't have anything to say against them since I havent' tried one. Edited June 3, 2010 by thatonethere

[ih303]

[quote name='mustafabey' date='02 June 2010 - 07:04 PM' timestamp='1275527086' post='470398']
I have been looking at the different bowls available and reading Stuie's and others fine reviews. But I have unanswered questions, for example:

Is clay better than ceramic( I have heard) and why?

What does one do with a bowl I've seen on eBay thats divided into two parts'

And there's hemi's,Phunnels,Vortexs,Cobras,glazed, unglazed, Egyptian, Syrian, Chines and modern, different bowls for different tobaccos, its a very confusing world.[img]http://www.hookahforum.com/public/style_emoticons/default/wallbash.gif[/img] Which leads to this, I ordered a social smoke hemi. I haven't yet gotten into the pleasures of Tangiers. I smoke for a hour, rarely more and this seemed like the ideal bowl.
[/quote]

[b]1. Is clay better than ceramic( I have heard) and why?
[/b]Yes. Like Arcane mentioned, it all has to do with how a bowl retains heat, and clay simply does it better.

[b]2. What does one do with a bowl I've seen on eBay thats divided into two parts'?
[/b]These bowls are gimmicks, nothing more. If you want to mix shisha, mix shisha. You don't need a special bowl.


Here's what all of this boils down to. This industry is no different than any other - there are quality products and there is crap. If you want to know what is what, you can either try everything yourself or rely on the opinion of others. That's what's so great about this forum. Look around. Notice any trends? They probably mean something. With bowls, most people around here are fans of Tangiers Phunnels. And while you might find the occasional smoker who preferrs something else, chances are you'd be completely satisfied with one.

My advice? Get a small Tangiers Phunnel and be happy. Forget about all that other crap.