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Coal making bowl harsh?


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Me and a couple friends dispute how often you should ash and rotate your coals. Usually I only use Romman Lemon wood natural coals, lighting them is a bitch, but worth it. But when we use the insta-light coals, my friends always complain it is hitting harsh about 10~15 mins into the bowl, so how often should we ash the puck coals? I usually wait till the outside is completely ash and then drop it into the pan and scrap off what grey i see and place them back on and repeat.. but they still complain its harsh.So I then lift of the foil to see if any ash has made its way into the bowl, sometimes there are some specks, but most times, its just tobacco. Honestly I don't notice a damn thing, harsh or not I smoke it, but if they are complaining I wanna get to the bottom of it.Wind covers? Are they a nice addition or just something used for looks. I honestly can't see the purpose since the coals usually don't last long enough, you wouldn't need to maintain much heat.*Also* Has anyone seen or heard of coals are shaped like balls? Like a full sphere shape to them? I've seen a few pictures of them and I wondered what brand they are? Or if anyone has any tips on ashing plz share, natural coals and instant lites.
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Couple tips:-Make sure the quick-lights are red all the way through before even putting them on your bowl-ash them fairly often-move them around on top of the bowl so no one spot gets too hot.Hope that helps
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It all depends on several factors:
- shisha: brand and wetness, for example with AF Esk it takes me about 30-35 minutes and the bowl is done, all burnt and flavor is gone, but with AF Bahraini I soke the bowl for almost an hour, I get a period of harshness but then it goes smooth again when the tobacco in the buttom starts heating.
- Type of Coal: Nour coals are not that hot, need alot of de-ashing, quicklights as mentioned above need to be lit all the way before using to get best results.
- If there is wind or a fan close by, makes the coals burn the tobacco faster and might cause harshness.
- Thickness of foil (layers one/two), or screen., plus the size and number of holes.
- Type of smoker, you are.  Some people smoke it like they want to get rid of their lungs and others just nipple on it.
 
Besically, It all depends on several things, and it is always a trial until you get the best results on a case-by-case. 
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ghost thats hard to say for me. I have a semi dried out Nakhla orange
that was wet at one time and its dried even though its in a ziploc bag.
Anyway it smokes better than the Grape Nakhla which I just opened
yesterday and is wetter then, well I dont need to say anything.

So, my half dried out orange smokes better than a brand new 250g bag of grape.
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I never ash, I don't think it makes a bit of difference. I can;t imagine (not to say that its not true) why ash would affect how the tobacco smokes unless a coating of it insulates the bowl from heat which would make it less harsh...?Charcoal burns at different temperatures for the most part. The vaporization of the glycerine, et al, moderates the temperature to the effective boiling point of the mixture at least on the side touching the foil/screen/tobacco. It is possible that your lemon wood coals burn at a lower temperature than insta lights, which would explain why the instalights tend to scorch more. Also, natural lump coals tend to have a lower heat concentration (in my estimation) because they tend to be larger and the burning of the surface is spread out over a larger area, so the heat concentration of a smaller instalight coal would be higher (all engineering guesswork).I have not seen spherical coals. Not that they don't exist. I don;t like wind hoods...they tend to make the charcoal burn poorly and overheat the bowl.
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okay guys heres my problem also, i switched from golden coals to romman lemonwood and i havnt been able to get a decent bowl yet, and i know its the coals. i clean out my qt,(as per suggestion on the forum lemon juice and water). my hose was shot so i got a new mya long handle hose, and i even got a new bowl (thanks to tangiers). its not the tobacco(again tangiers as well as al-waha). what else could ti be but the coals. any suggestions.
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regular coals getting you down? are you tired of not getting the hookah experience you desire? well look no further, try Scalliwag's new natural coals. lol im sorry i was board
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