Heat Management And Moving Coals: How Often?

[punkonjunk]

So, my hookah lounge always had us move the coals about every 2 minutes, or when you start to taste too much heat.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that they threw tangiers into a traditional bowl and one quicklight 40mm right on top, so it was a hot nightmare, but I still picked up the habit. What i'm wondering is how much I should normally be doing that: I picked up some cocanaras to work with instead of quicklights, as I'd read that naturals are a little cooler.

So, should I still be in the habit of moving these every couple minutes? Last night I had QL's broken into 1/4's, and while they burn out in about 20 minutes, I let them sit for the whole 20 before I threw more on, and it didn't toast the bowl at all. So I'm wondering, how often do you guys rotate your coals, on top of a small phunnel? How often do you NEED to be doing this? I'm going to play with it myself a lot tonight, but I also don't want to ruin the bowl waiting.

Also, foreplay on the peach birquq smells like seriously, amazing. that's what I'm getting ready to set up tonight.

[Bawhee]

I dont do tang much but generally, for every kind of bowl etc. its coals on, smoke full duration of coals with windcover towards the end, replace coals when theyre done, put the new batch on a different part of the bowl than the previous batch, repeat.

[Skoozle]

I dont do tang much but generally, for every kind of bowl etc. its coals on, smoke full duration of coals with windcover towards the end, replace coals when theyre done, put the new batch on a different part of the bowl than the previous batch, repeat.

This. I will adjust them if I need to for heat but if you are doing that every 2 minutes you are using too much coal.

[ezxen]

I dont do tang much but generally, for every kind of bowl etc. its coals on, smoke full duration of coals with windcover towards the end, replace coals when theyre done, put the new batch on a different part of the bowl than the previous batch, repeat.

This. I will adjust them if I need to for heat but if you are doing that every 2 minutes you are using too much coal.

How I roll

[mattarios2]

Agreed, if you move them that often you are over heating. You should be able to drop the coal on and leave them alone until they start to die.

[mustang67n]

I'll ash and fllip my coals about 1/2 way through their lifespan. So about 20-30 minutes in I'll ash and flip them over. Thats about when my cloudage starts to dwindle and it revitalizes the bowl again until the next set of coals..

Natural coals are a WORLD of difference from quick lights.. you'll be very happy with them

[Pavo21]

musical chairs with the coal :)

[Coyote]

For Tangiers in a Egyptian try packing Tangiers density around the outside edge of the bowl right behind the bottom holes and then slightly fluffy in the middle. Kinda like a hostess cupcake. When I pack this way I start with 2 coco nats on the outside edge. or three japanese style. 

 

For regular phunnel bowls I really only adjust my coals if the ash is preventing the heat from reaching the tobacco or if there is two much heat I might sit it up stonehenge style or hang it off the side of the bowl. Sometimes if I noticed the flavour drops but the clouds are still good I'll just shift the coal to a fresh spot. I find that different flavours and contexts require more/less coal moving...

 

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[â€On]

Not much else to say that hasn't already been said. 
 

Katie, how many japanese style coals do you use on a tangiers small? 3 or 4?
 

Edit: To clarify, a last-generation tangiers small, not the new ones, though I'm sure the heat is about the same.

[Pavo21]

Not much else to say that hasn't already been said. 
 

Katie, how many japanese style coals do you use on a tangiers small? 3 or 4?
 

Edit: To clarify, a last-generation tangiers small, not the new ones, though I'm sure the heat is about the same.

 

I can answer this for you ty, :) 2 coals on old and new gen smalls but if you like turning up the heat 3 is fine,

 

Personally i start the bowl with 3 then bump down to 2 just to get the bowl started and with a medium i do the same. but with the medium it depends on how its smoking i might move between 3-2 and for a large aka #0 4 start go to 3 and stay with 3

[â€On]

When you say 3, you mean 3 individual squares right? Do you place them at like 12, 4 and 7? I'm still getting used to canaries. I like them a lot better, but after using coco's for so long and getting used to them, it's strange having coals with lower heat.

[Pavo21]

yes 3 cubes, and canaries are a lower heat them most silver tabs placement in the beging is not important but some thing it is, just have them evenly placed around the bowl. not to close to the middle and not to close to the outter rim.  Also when they start to die down move them toward the center. but when starting a bowl i rotate them every 3-5 minutes roughly 2-3 times because that way you heat up the bowl evenly :)

[punkonjunk]

3 split and arranged like in chreees' guide worked pretty well, only had to move to flip. I didn't do the "palm test" with the foil this last time, and I think that help. Shisha getting stuck to the foil makes a damn mess of the coals and gets you scorchy flavor, I just tested the pack with the tangiers with my thumb after it looked nice, then stretched the foil tight, poked holes, stretched the foil back out and it was good to go. 3 halves of cocas is what I was using. Those things are amazing, and that's probably a lot of it, too. QL's are hot and gross.

[Chreees]

I found out over time that if you constantly fiddle with your coals, it will actually decrease their longevity. What I recommend doing is placing them on the edge across from each other, and only touch them to scoot them further in towards the middle, or to ash/flip them if they've formed a thick layer of ash and you need more heat. Other than that, I don't touch them. I also never rotate until the next round of coals, which goes where the previous coals were not (the untouched parts of the foil).

[Coyote]

I usually have 3-4 GC or Fumari's on my medium... so 2-3 on a small sounds good too me. I usually need a lesser amount as the session progresses.