kram Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 okie with all this talk on bad hookahs, i'm curious as to wat makes a good hookah? is it material, cause i heard there are different grades of brass for hookahs. is it the method of production? innovations? are chinese made pipes bad just because they tend to fall apart easily? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cypherkk Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 personally, I think it's all about the H.... LOL sorry. Had to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakemonster Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Well....Several factors...1. Material.2 Craftsmanship.Obviously there are alot of materials that go into making a hookah.... glass. Steel or some other ferrous alloy ("pot metal") and brass. Sometimes (often) copper line is used as a stem sleeve.Aluminum and pot-metal parts seem to be inferior in that the aluminum has a nasty type of corrosion and buildup when it comes in contact with the smoke or the drippins. Pot metal ( like what you find on the Chinese hookahs is a very brittle... prone to tearing and easily corroded. Im not sure.... but I think it has to do with amounts of zinc in the mix (possibly)Brass doesnt rust... it corrodes mildy, but nothing dramatic.Craftsmanship is a key point. Some hookah makers have lower quality levels when it comes to "fit and finish". Sometimes you find sloppy soldering or parts that dont fit closely or tight as they could be.... sometimes lathe work or spun metal is rushed leaving all these little "lines" on the metal parts... sometimes theres poor polishing or a l;oushy chrome plating job.The trick to figuring out what is what is having enough first hand inspection of the hookahs out there.... and thats tough if you dont have a shop you can walk into and them letting you yank the suckers apart to inspect them closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookahETC Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Everything that Lake said...on top of:At the bottom of the shaft...where the tube exit from the bottom, there are holes. These holes are probably the most important factors when choosing a Hookah. Most Hookahs will have 2 holes. 1 for intake, and 1 for outtake. The size of these holes plays a very important role in how good a hookah actually hits. The hardest hitting hookahs will have the bigger holes. Period. Most chinese made hookahs have holes that are quite small compared to the handmade egyptians, syrians, or lebanese hookahs. Syrians usually have the biggest holes out of the group...hence why the hit the best out of all other hookahs.On a very rare occasion...you can come across a 4 hole hookah. I have 4 of these...but they are all straight from Ramallah (a suburb of Palestine) Its my hometown. These hookahs hit extremely hard compared to any hookah. Most of these hookahs are impossible to find in the states. With the 4 holes...sometimes its 2/2 or 3/1 for intake/outtake. Any other questions, just ask! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rattler Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 QUOTE (HookahETC @ Jan 21 2007, 08:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Everything that Lake said...on top of:At the bottom of the shaft...where the tube exit from the bottom, there are holes. These holes are probably the most important factors when choosing a Hookah. Most Hookahs will have 2 holes. 1 for intake, and 1 for outtake. The size of these holes plays a very important role in how good a hookah actually hits. The hardest hitting hookahs will have the bigger holes. Period. Most chinese made hookahs have holes that are quite small compared to the handmade egyptians, syrians, or lebanese hookahs. Syrians usually have the biggest holes out of the group...hence why the hit the best out of all other hookahs.On a very rare occasion...you can come across a 4 hole hookah. I have 4 of these...but they are all straight from Ramallah (a suburb of Palestine) Its my hometown. These hookahs hit extremely hard compared to any hookah. Most of these hookahs are impossible to find in the states. With the 4 holes...sometimes its 2/2 or 3/1 for intake/outtake. Any other questions, just ask!A suberb of Palestine? Isn't Ramallah in Israel outside of Jerusalem? Do they actually make them there? That would be great since I could have one of my buddies who lives over there pick one up for me. Would you mind starting a thread and posting a picture of them? It would make it easier for me to make sure I'm getting one of the good ones . He smokes hookah too, but does not have a camera to be able to send me pics of what he finds over there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kram Posted January 22, 2007 Author Share Posted January 22, 2007 yah thts really interesting man, i didn't think those holes wld play a part. yesss i pic wld be gd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookahETC Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Yea I can take pictures of the holes, and a picture of my personal favorite hookah...Im telling you it smokes like a beast....Ramallah belongs to the Palestinian people, but as you all know there as been a long battle between the Israeli people and the Palestinians over their land...I wont get into it haha.Who do you know there rattler? My family owns 3 Appartment complexes there and 2 Fruit farms. I go there every couple of years, and each time i go I get me a hella nice hookah. Its too bad these American companies cant make or manufacture Hookahs like they do over there.But then again, if they did, the hookahs would cost like $200 a pop haha Any more questions, feel free to ask! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnchain Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Yeah, my 3 hose hookah has 4 holes, but i'm not sure which are intake or outake. I get some great hits off of it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rattler Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 QUOTE (HookahETC @ Jan 22 2007, 06:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yea I can take pictures of the holes, and a picture of my personal favorite hookah...Im telling you it smokes like a beast....Ramallah belongs to the Palestinian people, but as you all know there as been a long battle between the Israeli people and the Palestinians over their land...I wont get into it haha.Who do you know there rattler? My family owns 3 Appartment complexes there and 2 Fruit farms. I go there every couple of years, and each time i go I get me a hella nice hookah. Its too bad these American companies cant make or manufacture Hookahs like they do over there.But then again, if they did, the hookahs would cost like $200 a pop haha Any more questions, feel free to ask!The person I know there (Maxim) does not actually live there though he lives fairly close. I'm just unaware as to whether Ramallah is on his list of places he will not go or not There are certain places in Israel he says it's just not safe for him to go. Even though I guess there is a possibility he could find one of the same hookahs local to him??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakemonster Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I had one of those four hole jobs..... wait... I still have a one like that.basically the 4 holes lead into the conical part that stabs into the base..... then all your hose connections and purge valve are connected to the top of that. kind of a little air chamber in there.Mine had a adjustable carb on it instead of a purge... was interesting..... but modded it to be a purge valve ater a few smokes.The lathed persian hearts are pretty much the same thing.... just lathed and machined from a casting instead of spun sheet metal pressed together or soldered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonthert Posted January 24, 2007 Share Posted January 24, 2007 Four words for you man: brassI have never met a poor quality brass core hookah. There are poor quality Syrian ones that are made of steel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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