Heat management help

[Onion]

I've been experimenting with my hookah for a few months now (different bowls, acclimation, cleaning, all that fun stuff) but there seems to be one major aspect that I just cant nail down - heat management. Its only recently (within the last few sessions) that I've realized how poorly I've been heating my bowl.

Sorry, this might get a bit lengthy.

The first epiphany came when I tried my new small egyptian style bowl. It seems that its alot more forgiving when it comes to the bowl over-heating and cooking the shisha compared to my mod-style bowl.
But then last night I was sampling my new tobaccos from H-S (no duties! Hooray!) and started experimenting with my AW After-nine. I think I was using two coals (3 kings, but one had been burning for a while so it was probably close to half the size of a regular one) but that bowl started to over-heat and a bunch got burned on the top so I removed the foil, pulled out the burnt stuff, threw some fresh stuff in, and went at it again (only with the larger coal this time). Maybe it was because the bowl was nice and hot or something and got the new shisha warmer quicker, but I started getting some DELICIOUS chocolate-mint flavouring. Definitely better than I had been getting before. The problem though was that I noticed the flavour would die really quickly (indicative of the shisha getting too hot from what I've read) so I'd have to move the coal around rather quickly. Unfortunately though, while purging I must've blown a bit too hard and some water leaked out from underneath my bowl and extinguished the coal that was resting on the tray. Having decided I smoked enough that night, I called it quits.

Skip to this afternoon, I loaded my bowl with some AF Strawberry, and tried only using 1 coal (since it was going so nicely last night). Anyways, the session ended up being rather bad, and I just called it quits early.
But the thing I noticed today was that I'd leave the coal on the edge, take some good draws, but by the time I was getting a bit of smoke (no big plumes or anything, not much flavour) there'd be a burnt spot of shisha under the foil (not touching the foil either).

So what am I doing wrong? I've been doing quite a bit of reading on coal strategies (clash of culture's recent article, a thread from not too long ago, hookah wiki, etc) and I think I've got the movement down (maybe not. Who knows?)
Was the AW session slightly too much heat, and the AF session too little heat? Should I go with 1.5 3 kings next time right from the get go? Any definitive guides out there?
Please, impart some of your ineffable wisdom on me.

[hookah hippie]

heat management deffinitly takes time to master
what you have to do is experiment through trial and error
if a bowl burns its a giveaway that it is too hot
either use less coals or a brand that burns at a lower temperature
if the bowl is not hot enough to smoke add coals or use coals that burn at higher temperatures
and when your bowl is going start the coal or coals along the edge and move them around in a sort of spiral fashion and end up in the middle
when the coals burn out add more until the tobacco is gone
hope this helped

[Johnny_D]

I've found one of the best ways to heat manage is use a big-assed wind cover.

As i tend to smoke mostly indoors it's works a treat.

Lift it on and off as necessary. I havn't suffered from harsh smoke now in weeks and weeks.

Normal JD setup is 2 QL's on a medium bowl (~15g) Covered with foil.

JD

[Onion]

Here's a question: Is it better to use multiple pieces of coal rather than a single one?
This may be a bunch of bastard science, but when using a single piece of coal, I would have 3/4 of the bowl uncovered by coals. Therefore, on the inhale, 3/4 of the holes would be bringing in air that hadnt been warmed by the coals. Does this make sense? Any other thoughts out there?

[Joseph]

Well, the whole bowl gets mighty hot, so it should be smoking all over. I usually use two pieces of coal, one on each edge.

[imonlyapuppet]

Keep the coals on the edge of the bowl and move them in a spiral towards the center as you smoke. If you're not getting enough smoke, add another coal. If it gets too hot, move the coals farther towards the edge If you just need a little bit of heat and another coal might be too much, put the wind cover on. Your shisha should come out like a big black puck when you're finished.

[Onion]

Hmmm.... maybe I'll experiment with the slightly larger, hotter-faster bowl. But is there a point where the bowl itself can get so hot that it starts to fry the shisha?

edit: I just mention this because with the AW I noticed there was a very fine thresh-hold between no flavour and HUGE flavour. So was the flavour I was getting because of the bowl being nice and toasty?
Gah! There's so much to learn about this.

[Joseph]

If you burn the tobacco you will know it. If it gets too hot it will taste terrible, there will be flavor but it will be the flavor of ass.

[DizzyGuy]

[quote name='Joseph']If you burn the tobacco you will know it.  If it gets too hot it will taste terrible, there will be flavor but it will be the flavor of ass.[/quote]

not just any ass, burning ass

[Calcartman]

AMEN! ^

With AW it just needs a lot of heat overall, if you put a lot of heat in one place you'll end up with good flavor and then bam it burns.

[Speeder]

[quote name='Johnny_D']I've found one of the best ways to heat manage is use a big-assed wind cover.

As i tend to smoke mostly indoors it's works a treat.[/quote]

exactly, except i use HD foil as a windcover.

[40 Thieves]

Split a coal 50/50 and keep it on each side of the bowl (stated before) I've found that AW can take a lot of heat but there is a fine line between burning and just getting it groovy. Foil overall should keep the coals from burning the tobacco better than a windcover + a screen. AF doesn't take as much heat as AW.

[Onion]

For the benefit of other newbs, I'm going to post my progress.

Using the larger bowl. Started with 1.5 coals. Keeping track of how harsh the smoke is. When it gets a bit harsh, I've been moving it further outside. Seems I have much better control over the harshness now

edit: So the two coals are extinguished and it seems like there's quite a bit of shisha left over. I'd add more, but i'm getting pretty low. I spinkled the shisha on and tried packing it down to make sure it had ample room to clear the foil (I remember Tangiers...errr... sonthert.. said something about getting the composure to be the same as in the package. Although that was for his own tobacco). Usually I just sprinkle it on and then push it down slightly to give it a more unified composure (and to make sure all pieces clear the foil). Maybe that has something to do with the leftover shisha or something..
Much experimentation still needed...

Finally, I just noticed when I crumpled the foil that there seems to be some condensation about it. I was probably right on the threshold of a good session if it was starting to evaporate that much.

[Onion]

Had another session in a friend's garage. First bowl was Havana Banana, then After-nine as the second. Two 3 kings both times. Havana Banana tasted reasonably good, no crusty pieces left afterwards. Same goes for After-nine. Seemed there was less shisha left over afterwards with the a-n.
Couldnt get the flavour as strong as the first session I had, although I was using the larger bowl (as opposed to the first session where I was using my smaller egyptian one). Another factor though - it was raining and I didnt let the shisha acclimate.

Here's a thought - Whenever I smoke with the mod (larger) bowl, I never pack it all the way to the brim (for reasons of not wanting to burn it on the foil). Could that in itself be one reason why I may have experience lesser flavour? Is it more beneficial to use a smaller bowl, but pack it more?
Feedback appreciated.

Oh - And a couple times when I moved the coals throughout the session, a wisp of smoke came out from under the coal. Burning shisha?

edit: and in other news, going home this weekend to pick up the mya hose that came in the mail (c/o genuine hookahs ebay store). Maybe the higher quality clean hose will provide a much more pleasant smoke than this "experienced" mitsuba hose.

[Joseph]

Mya Washables are amazing, I just bought two for my older two hose. I typically have a wisp of smoke when I move the coals, it seems like there should be, I mean the shisha is putting off smoke when you inhale.

[Onion]

Possibly my last post for my little experiment.
Had a really good session yesterday with a friend.

I noticed on friday that the shisha started to get really sweet when the coals were starting to get small, and there was a layer of spent shisha insulating the top. Noticing this, I decided to skip the wait and just use a double-layer of foil on saturday. BINGO! Flavour was strong, shisha was less prone to get burnt, and if it did, a quick push of the coals completely remedied that problem. The smoke was thick, and so on and so forth. When the two coals died out, the shisha was nice and evenly cooked.

So I think I may have finally got this heat management business down. Although I may not be experienced enough to pull it off with the single layer, I really dont mind throwing on another piece of foil at all!

Oh ya, I was smoking the AF Strawberry again.
Finally - I love my new mya hose! Its great not to have all that old shisha taste lingering in the hose, its way more pliable, the mouthpiece is alot more comfortable and it looks really nice (blue hose w/ gold stitching). Thanks Genuine Hookahs ebay store!