Another One Of My Hookah Ideas.

[Twang]

My idea (may not be very practical) is to attach some copper tubing to your hookah where your hose usually goes. Run it into a bucket of ice with some water, then coil it up to the top. Attach your hose to the copper tubing. I think this would cool the smoke... ? I just love the feel of cold smoke, colder the better.



Comments? Edited January 9, 2007 by Twang

[high_society]

seems like it should work... Im not a scientist though

[rattler]

Instaed of ice water put crushed ice and salt in there and a few tablespoons of hot water. The end result will be much colder than ice water. Not sure how much such a contraption would cool things down, but I would think it would be effective.

[Whodat1004]

Definitely add salt to the ice and water mixture. Try to get your copper tubing as small as possible, preferably the size of your stem, and thin too.

[rattler]

I don't know what they are made of so I don't know if they are safe...What about those little radiators they use for water cooling a PC? you could run the smoke through the inside of that and put the little radiator in the ice/salt bucket...you should have more surface area to exchange heat than a simple coiled copper tube that way.

[Allia22]

Yeah, but the draw would be tighter. Is it worth it?

[SanguineSolitude]

if you like really really cold smoke, then yes it would be worth it. if you dont, then no.

[Jeff_T]

Seems like it may work. They did this on mythbusters, but with beer to see if they could cool it down quickly. Should be interesting and fun to try

[Twang]

Yeah, but the draw would be tighter. Is it worth it?

The draw would be a little harder, but I don't think it will be that different. As long as you get the right size tubing and don't make it too long.
Try sucking through the stem where the hose connects, then through the hose as normal. I think it will be about that much difference.

[camelflage]

yeah, the trick is making sure its not so long as to really make it hard to draw from. from your diagram it looks as if you have the right idea, with the suggestions of rock salt and ice. about 10-15 coils of tubing should give you the same effect as a radiator. as long as the half-pipe circumference of your tubing adds up to enough volumetric space (a bunch of math that is boring) then you will have a really effective chiller for the air passing thorugh it. same trick they use with rear-mount turbos on cars.

[art_official]

good idea, but ya think about the cleaning that is involved...ehch

[Allia22]

urgh... yeah, that kills the idea.

[Adi]

In the old-days they used a coil in ice to chill beer from a keg.

[ASUSEAN1]

i like the pic.

[Twang]

Thanks for the comments. I like the salt idea. I might have to make a trip to Home Depot soon.

good idea, but ya think about the cleaning that is involved...ehch

I'm not too worried about cleaning. Hopefully a lemon juice bath will do the job though.

i like the pic.

Jealous of my mad skills?

[yashman19]

Moving this thread to the appropriate section.

Anywoo, if you want to get a bit more technical, you can do what I did and add a second chamber to your hookah, like I did. Depending on what you use for a second chamber, you can really cram a ton of ice into it. I didn't have ice in the chamber in these pictures, because it was my contraptions maiden voyage, and I didn't want to waste a bunch of ice incase it didn't work...

You should be able to tell just from the pictures what exactly is going on and how I made it, but just for clarification, the clear vinyl tube that starts as a regular hose in my Stargate is actually going INTO the second chamber down into the bottom and submerged in the water, as if it was a regular hookah stem. Then the regular hookah hose is just sitting at the top.

And no, this contraption didn't make the pull at all harder. I thought it was going to happen, but to my suprised it felt normal.







I made a thread YEARS ago close to when I first became a member, so I doubt I could find the thread, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer as many of them as I can. No I still don't have this. It got lost in the Great Dormroom Move of 05!

[rattler]

Well that contraption would certainly add volume for a smoke chamber to a QT wouldn't it....Hmmm I don't suppose a plastic pickle jar (what I have readily available tonight) would impart a pleasant aroma to the project though unless I could find some pickle flavored tobacco. LOL I bet a contraption like that with a diffuser in the hookah and a diffuser in the jug and load both up with ice water would be pretty effective at cooling too in addition to the larger smoke chamber size.

[ghostofdavid]

Several of you mentioned that salt is used as an cooling agent similiar to when homemade ice cream is made... does that cause rust in your hookah? It seems to me that it might corrode the hookah in one way or another.

[Twang]

I tried a contraption similar to Yash's a long while ago, with ice water. It did help cool a little bit, and make it slightly smoother. I think I did notice a little bit of taste lost though. I'm hoping this will idea will cool the smoke better.

Several of you mentioned that salt is used as an cooling agent similiar to when homemade ice cream is made... does that cause rust in your hookah? It seems to me that it might corrode the hookah in one way or another.

I wouldn't think so, but maybe I'm missing something. No part of the hookah or smoke is coming into contact with the salt.


Edit: Here is the double filtration I did similar to Yash's. Edited January 9, 2007 by Twang

[rattler]

No it should not cause any rusting of the hookah. It should perhaps cause a nice green patina on the copper tubing though.

[tingjunkie]

It's a good idea Twang.

The only problem I can forsee (besides the possibility of a hard draw) is with that much copper tubing being submerged in ice water. I can see how water could easily condense on the inside of the tube, and when you went to draw, you might get a smoke/water mixture in your mouth.

In other words... I know a glass of ice water will "sweat" on the outside. Wouldn't the copper tubing sweat on the inside? I'm not sure, just throwing it out there. Maybe you can experiment with a smaller piece of tubing first before you commit time and money on the real thing.

[rattler]

That's a good point! Since the air you are inhaling through the tube should be of high humidity lowering the temperature decreases the amount of moisture the air is capable of holding and condensation will be the result. There are variables that will tell whether or not this will work without condensation. If you are in phoenix in July the humidity in the air is very low, therefore condensation should be less of a problem. New Orleans in August...it's just not going to work.

If you find out that moisture is a problem you could add a simple and relatively inexpensive system to strip the condensation from the tubes before it made it to your hose. Last time I purchased one (for a air compressor) I think it was about 15 bucks...Not much to it other than aluminum and glass and a valve to drain off the collected liquid. Not sure if it would work at the low pressures involved in hookah smoking or not though...Perhaps it requires high pressure.