Hookah Height Effects

[Estariol]

Hullo,

I'm Australian looking into investing in a hookah set for my student room. I had a few questions.

1)
What effect does the Hookah height have on its operation? Does it change the smoke density, or the flavour intensity (I don't apologize for the rhyme)?

2) What is the difference between Syrian and Egyptian (and other) types of Hookah and hookah components? For instance hookah-smoking.com lists them in two different categories suggesting a noticeable difference. What, for instance, is the difference between a syrian and egyptian hose? Also, how can you tell that a hose is cleanable (from reading I hear this is a must).

3) Does having a hookah with a special ice chamber make it much smoother? Does placing ice cubes in the glass bowl at the bottom compare to a separate ice compartment, or are there other techniques for cooling parts to smooth out the taste? Like one of my friends (who's Qatari) who places the shaft in the frezer for half an hour beforehand.

4) Just wondering, what purpose does the ball bearing serve?

That's all for the moment, thanks.

Estariol

[EvansLight]

1)
What effect does the Hookah height have on its operation? Does it change the smoke density, or the flavour intensity (I don't apologize for the rhyme)?

From around 18inches up the smoke doesn't change much. Smaller than that and theres less room for the smoke to travel meaning it doesn't dissipate as much heat so it might feel a bit harsh. Anything about about 26inches tends to be slightly unstable, and as you get up to the tall ones, like mine, 36inches and above, the height gives a slightly harder drag, and of course unstable as all hell. But you dont really notice the slightly tighter drag, and as long as you smoke only on hard floor, not carpet your fine But for the most part, around the 26inch range is just about perfect.

2) What is the difference between Syrian and Egyptian (and other) types of Hookah and hookah components? For instance hookah-smoking.com lists them in two different categories suggesting a noticeable difference. What, for instance, is the difference between a syrian and egyptian hose? Also, how can you tell that a hose is cleanable (from reading I hear this is a must).

Mainly where its made, and most of what is different is cosmetic. But some functional things tend to be different. Most Syrians I've seen have male bowls instead of female, and if you get into things like the modern category of hookahs, you find allot of useless mainly cosmetic changes, and a few useful ones such as the auto seal system.

As for hoses, hoses are just hoses XD Theres different brands and styles, but just about all hoses work with most hookahs. And as for cleanable, they will usually say cleanable. But most of them rust eventually anyways, so if you want truly washable, go buy some plastic tubbing

3) Does having a hookah with a special ice chamber make it much smoother? Does placing ice cubes in the glass bowl at the bottom compare to a separate ice compartment, or are there other techniques for cooling parts to smooth out the taste? Like one of my friends (who's Qatari) who places the shaft in the frezer for half an hour beforehand.

The hookah works by heating the tobacco to the point where the liquids in and around the tobacco evaporate, and then condense into a vapor. So yea ice does help. By adding ice you cool the smoke faster condensing more of it into visual vapor. As for an ice chamber, it does help some, but i find ice in the base or my personal favorite, a sitting the base in a bucket of ice water (be careful, make sure the base has already slowly gotten cold, if its warm and then you put it in below or close to below freezing water, you gonna have problems), works better than the ice chamber. But a combo of ice in the base, the bucket, and an ice chamber, oh my dear god XD Add in hitting off 4 hoses at once, it looked like the fog in that room XD

4) Just wondering, what purpose does the ball bearing serve?

In either case, purge or auto seal, it works to keep that exit/enter hole sealed when its not in use. In purge valves, it stops up the valve when your inhaling, and opens when you blow out. For auto seal, much the same idea, when you inhale the other hoses auto seal ball bearing drops sealing the hole, and when your hitting that one, the same happens for the others.

[mushrat]

Howdy,

Well, here on the forum we agree on one thing, and thats that we'll never all agree on anything. So the answers you'll get will be personal and often contradictory...

In MY personal experiences:

The size doesn't really matter in terms of the quality or taste of the smoke. The taller hookahs will take a little more effort because there is a longer distance to pulll the smoke. I think of my 34" Egyptian as a V8 engine, longer, slower bubbleing hits, but still great smoking power and all. My 14" Mya qt is like a little 4 banger sports car, easier hits, faster bubbling, hits fast and hard. Both offer great smokes and its really a personal preference. The smaller QT is base heavy and almost impossible to knock over, good for crowds and parties. Especially in a cramped dorm room perhaps. Also fits on a table top easily. The 34" is easier to knock over, harder to store, and if you are in a crowd, if you put it on the floor look out...and if you put it on a table...look out....



Generally speaking, Egyptian vs Syrian refers to the bowl configuration, though there have been a few threads discussing other possible differences. If the bowl goes OVER the top of the stem, its Eqyptian style, if the bowl fits INTO the top of the stem, its SYrian configuration. Functionally there is no difference. Most bowls you see for sale on web sites are Egyptian configuration. I have both, I've noted 2 distinct advantages with the syrian and one disadvantage. With the Syrian the juices flow down the inside of the stem and dont make a mess of the outside of your stem and you are less likely to break the bowl socketing it IN the stem than on top of the point as with an Egyptian. The bad thing is that most bowls sold are Egyptian configuration as mentioned above. You can buy an adapter from www.hookahcompany.com made by our own Sonthert that will allow your syrian to take an egyptian bowl.

While not perfect, the Mya Hoses are all washable, come in 2 different diameters and all sorts of handles and are the mest in my opinion.

Never used an Ice chamber, but cubes in my vase have neevr relly made a noticible difference to me.

The ball bearing in the purge valve allows you to blow "bad" smoke out of the vase. Acts like a one way valve so it sucks down and seals when air is drawn through the hose, and allows the smoke to be blown out when you blow into the hose. Always a good udea t tap your check valve before blowing, if its stuck the water will end up shooting up the shaft into the bowl. end of session.

That help?

(so Evans types faster than i do.... )

[Bob_760]

I dono I have a 19" mini and a 34" and the 34" has less resistance than any other hookah I've ever smoked (all of which were smaller many of which around 24") it's allmost no resistance at all, you can just keep on dragging on it and its just like breathing air. Smoking the 19" and 34" at the same time the 19" has way more resistance, gets too hot (harsh) easier. I don't know if it's just something about mine or my setup or whether I just haven't smoked better smaller ones but thats my $0.02.

[cymptom]

I'm kinda starting to feel silly popping this into every thread that mentions hookah height, but again:

There was a study done, which I lost the link to, revealing that smoke from small hookahs contains 4x the amount of carbon monoxide as smoke from large hookahs. Of course we all know these studies can be crazy sometimes, but I wouldn't just discard that info -- it's something to keep in mind at least...

I dono I have a 19" mini and a 34" and the 34" has less resistance than any other hookah I've ever smoked (all of which were smaller many of which around 24") it's allmost no resistance at all, you can just keep on dragging on it and its just like breathing air. Smoking the 19" and 34" at the same time the 19" has way more resistance, gets too hot (harsh) easier. I don't know if it's just something about mine or my setup or whether I just haven't smoked better smaller ones but thats my $0.02.

There are plenty of other variables that can effect the draw -- the only "mini" hookah I've smoked that has a good draw is the QT. Many others tend to have narrow stems, connections and hoses. But I think at least in theory, if you had a large hookah and a small hookah with all those variables identical, the large would be slightly harder to draw just because there is more volume to pull. Not much more, because it's just the small space inside the stem, but it's a little more.