Khalil Mamoon Prince

[Chreees]

Khalil Mamoon Prince Hookah Review:

 

You all know the epic hookah that is the Al Fakher Large Solid. Everyone loves it, everyone wants it. But since Syria is in shambles these days, the likelihood of seeing quality pipes manufactured there anytime soon is pretty grim.

 

Since folks keep talking about it, Khalil Mamoon decided to step up to the plate and, for lack of any better term, copy it. Now some may condemn Khalil Mamoon for doing this, but I actually give them major props. Why WOULDN'T you give the people what they want? It's a highly popular style of hookah that no one produces, so they made a smart move, in my opinion. Now, with that said, I believe they even may have improved upon Al Fakher's design. Here are my reasons for thinking this:

 

1. Longer downstem. The downstem on the Al Fakher version was shorter, meaning you were limited in what base you could use, if you deviated from the original Al Fakher blue base. With the Prince, you get to use any base you want. In my case, a Syrian trumpet base, which requires a long downstem. Works PERFECT for me- water level is exactly where it needs to be! I measured and the downstem length is 8.5" depth into the base.

 

2. Etchings. Based off of the pictures I've seen of the Al Fakher Large and from what I recall when owning my Al Fakher Small Solid model, the etchings on the Prince are way better, and they even added more in parts that were just smooth on Al Fakher's version. They're beautiful, and I just can't stop staring at them. The pictures speak for themselves.

 

3. Higher quality hose ports, bigger, and cleaner. Now, this is debatable, but on my AF Small Solid the ports were pretty dinky and seemed more susceptible to wearing down quicker than the ones on the Prince. The threads on the screw-on bowl port and the purge valve part are MUCH cleaner than on the AF Small Solid I owned previously.

 

4. Way better purge valve. It's your Khalil Mamoon purge with the "rattlesnake" sound. Missed it, as I've been smoking Syrians past year or so.

 

5. Larger diameter everything. Now this comes down to personal preference, but with a pipe this large, it's nice. I owned the Al Fakher Large Look-a-like ( http://www.hookahforum.com/topic/45409-al-fakher-large-solid-look-alike-all-brass-syrian-hookah/ ), and it's diameter is a lot smaller, and I just didn't dig it as much. Created a very restricted draw. Draw on the Prince is fantastic, about like your typical Khalil Mamoon.

 

6. Khalil Mamoon is etched into the downstem in both English and Arabic, which is a nice touch. Just spiced it up a bit. Also, it has something in Arabic on the upper brass portion of the shank.

 

Now, let me state some problems-

 

1. This is a hookah that is screwed together at the factory, and not meant to be unscrewed again. There were pieces of plastic left in between some of the pieces. I had to actually unscrew the lower "bulb" looking part up and down to get the plastic out. I'm assuming that the pieces are covered in plastic when they screw them on, then they just rip it off. When I went to smoke the Prince, I noticed smoke coming out of both places where I removed the plastic, above and below the "bulb" part on the shank. It has no noticeable effect on the pull, however. I'm not sure if all of the Prince hookahs are like this, or if it's just mine.

 

2. I found the bowl port that unscrews to be a tad bit too tall. Why they made it this tall, I'm assuming was to just make it more in line with their other pipes (all KMs seem to have taller bowl port areas above that protrude above the tray). I just found this to be unnecessary.

 

3. The upper tray is kinda dinky in comparison to the base tray, which is sad, considering I'll likely never use the base tray. It's just more flimsy, and I wish that it were also a bit bigger.

 

Additional things to know on this hookah:

 

-Inner tube part going from bowl port screw-on area down to the downstem is stainless steel, while outer parts are brass, with the silver parts being nickel-plated brass. Trays are stainless steel.

-Total length of pipe is 32 inches.

-Total setup height with base is 36 inches.

-Diameter of inner tube is 4/8 inches.

-Hose port and purge valve diameter is 2/8 inches under heart, where base gasket goes.

-Hose port diameter where hose goes in is 6/8 inches, and tapers down to the 2/8 inches.

 

Overall, I give it an A-. It's a great pipe, but has some quirks that I think could have been easily avoided. I thoroughly enjoy smoking from it, and will keep it in my rotation of 3 hookahs.

 

Pictures!

 

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And here it is with the base tray on, which is beautiful but will likely never use, as I just do not see the point for, and I think it takes away from the looks with the Syrian trumpet base:
 
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