How Good Is My Hookah?

[kagy]

Hello,

So I recently went to turkey, without the intention of getting a hookah but I got one anyway.

I got it from a legit Hookah manufacturer, who had a store with like 200 hookahs. He looked like he was doing this for a living and who actually knew what he did. His english was not really good too, but since my sister can speak turkish, we got to communicate with him, so I guess that it wasnt a Tourist store - I think locals actually buy shisha from there too.

So apart from the rumours I heard I got a hookah from him that cost 80 Lira, which is about 44 Dollars. Its about 2 foot high. Sadly, when I got home and wanted to try it out, I noticed that the clay-Bowl smelled really salty, since it really bugged me i just bought a new one at home. But also, the body was already a little rusty and dirty, but that doesn't seem really fatal. [url="http://imgur.com/a/dwUNe"]http://imgur.com/a/dwUNe[/url] to see how exactly it looks. How does it look? Does it look like a good, high quality hookah? I know it may be hard to tell from just pictures, but maybe i can get some intel anyway.

Problems I have with the hookah:
- Vase isn't transparent, therefore its hard to find the right water level. Until now, I just sucked on the body to see if its easy to suck or too hard. Is there a better way to do this?
- When i connect the hose and have the hookah all set up, its really hard to suck. How can i fix this?
- There is no valve to blow out the "old" smoke. Is there another way i can remove the smoke from the vase?

Thanks in advance.

[plasticmanzor]

That's a cool little hookah. I think 44 dollars is a pretty good price. I don't know anything about Turkish hookahs so I'm not sure about the quality. I'd give it a good cleaning though. Maybe try to scrape some of the rust off if that's possible or recommended. (some of the hookah veterans can give some input on that) I've never had a rust issue so I don't know what to do about that.

Bowl- maybe its made out of play-doh. The salt might be natural to the clay, but it also might add saltiness to the tobacco, and depending on the flavor it may or may not complement it. It's probably a good thing you got a new one.

Base- I think what you're doing is pretty much all you can do. One of my hookahs has a black base and I have to use the sun or a very bright light to see where the water is, so if I don't have those I pretty much do what you do. Try using a measuring cup or just use the same cup and see how much water you put in and what works and go from there. Trial and error.

Suction problem- try sucking without the hose when it's set up and see if there is still a suction problem. If there is, the bowl might be packed too tight or there is too much water in the base. If not, then you should get a new hose.

No purge valve- you could take the base out, but that's a huge pain obviously. The only other thing you can do is just take fast puffs maybe, if you don't want to/can't inhale the smoke. I assume the only reason you would need to purge the smoke is if you burn the tobacco in which case you should research heat management. I tend to have issues with that myself. Again, trial and error.

I hope this helped. Good luck with your hookah.

[kagy]

I just washed the bowl with soap, and the salty smell is still there, but it isnt as agressive as it used to be, and it even smells a little good. The bowl wasnt my problem anyway.

Very bright light doesn't help, the base is made out of porcellain.

Thanks for the input though!

[Pavo21]

Turkish hookahs dont have purge valves, and the reason its to hard to smoke could be your water level could be to high and making it hard to inhale or something in stuck in the stem or hose lol. as for the water level jsut keep guessing get it right then pour it out and see how much it is

[vendetta_revived]

Porcelain vase? Fancy.

Can't think of anything to get the water level right in that, but try this.

Fill the vase to your satisfaction, then wipe the downstem of your pipe so it's dry, and put the stem in the vase VERY carefully! Then take it out as carefully, without disturbing the level of the water much. Now see how much of the downstem is wet. You want the water to be covering about an inch of your downstem, so if the wet part is about that long, your water level is correct, and if not, then you wipe the downstem again, add or lessen the amount of water in the vase (depending on the result you got), and repeat the process till you get the desired result.

After getting the water level correct the first time, you may want to empty the vase into a measuring cup so you know how much water you have to fill in it.

[kagy]

thanks for the input. Going to try all this out.

One more quick question. Where to keep the tobacco? I accidently removed the zipper where starbuzz (etc) is packed in a week ago. Today, the tobacco is kind of dry. I do have molasse to wet it again. Should I keep the tobacco in the fridge?

[Epoch]

[quote name='kagy' timestamp='1340130041' post='549581']
thanks for the input. Going to try all this out.

One more quick question. Where to keep the tobacco? I accidently removed the zipper where starbuzz (etc) is packed in a week ago. Today, the tobacco is kind of dry. I do have molasse to wet it again. [u][b]Should I keep the tobacco in the fridge?[/b][/u]
[/quote]

Nope! Fridge is not for mu'assel.

I'd say store it in an airtight container like Gladware or Tupperware. Also, just a ziplock bag will work fine.

[mushrat]

Far the pull issue, make sure there isnt glue or wood blockign the hose where the mouthpiece connects to the rest of the hose. Also, run a coat hanger from the hose port out the bottom to make sure the air way isnt blocked.

[littlec]

For $44? not bad at all! it's not solid or ornate and the base is probably worth as much if not more than the stem but heck you didn't even spend $50.