Hookah gives you the opportunity to enjoy a pleasant taste, a thick smoke, and a fun time. But while smoking, problems can arise that spoil the experience. Don't worry, they can be solved quickly. Find out what problems arise when smoking a hookah, and how to solve them quickly.
In fact, if the device is intact, the shisha tobacco is normal (not expired), and the correct puffing, there won't be that many problems. You will need a minimum knowledge about the preparation of hookah, you can read about it in our previous articles. If, however, difficulties arise during smoking, they will be easily resolved if you know how to proceed. Let's look at the most common problems when smoking hookah, and how to solve them.
Hookah is starting to get bitter
The most common problem when smoking hookah is the appearance of bitterness. If the hookah has started to become bitter, there is no need to "enjoy" this smoke. It is enough to understand why it happens, and how to fix it. There is a bitterness because the shisha tobacco has burned. It either stuck to the foil or heat management device (HMD), or caught on fire from a large amount of heat. The solution is simple: remove the coals and let the shisha tobacco cool down a bit. You can help by blowing into the hookah pipe (but not too hard so that the water doesn't reach the shisha tobacco). Ideally, get access to the tobacco and look at its condition. If you're using kaloud, it's easier to do this. So, to restore flavor and eliminate bitterness, you need to do the following:
- Remove the coals.
- Blow the hookah.
- Access the shisha tobacco and stir it. You can additionally blow on top of it to cool it down.
- Place the charcoal, wait 20-30 seconds, and start to stretch the hookah not harshly.
The shisha flavor will be restored. If it doesn't, the tobacco may have either burned too much or the problem is something else. Bitterness can be caused by poor-quality charcoal or by a large amount of syrup getting into the shaft. In the first case, you need to replace the charcoal. In the second - stop smoking, disassemble and rinse the hookah, reload the shisha tobacco. It is recommended to use molasses catcher, so that the syrup does not get into the shaft.
Missing smoke while smoking
If while smoking a hookah the smoke is gone, or greatly reduced, you need to look for the causes. There can be several of them:
- Not enough heat from the charcoal, so the shisha tobacco does not warm up;
- The shisha tobacco has burned and there is simply nothing to smoke;
- The sealing of the hookah is broken.
The first two reasons are solved as simple as possible: add charcoal or replace shisha tobacco. But most often the smoke disappears precisely for the third reason - leakage is broken. If during smoking the smoke became too little, you need to do the following steps:
- Find exactly where the hookah has lost its tightness.
- To do this, you need to blow air into the hookah and look closely at where the smoke comes out (besides the hookah bowl and blow valve, as it should be).
- Find the spot and insulate it. The easiest way is to use food wrap. It will wrap around the hookah and create an airtight seal. At least you will be able to finish the hookah.
Of course, breaking the seal is quite a serious problem. So you need to solve it by repairing or replacing parts. Most often the tightness is lost at the joint of the parts, between the hookah base and the shaft, between the pipe and the connector. We recommend replacing the hookah with a new one, because you just can't smoke normally.
These are the main problems when smoking hookah. If you encounter others, write to us in the comments and we will help solve them. Most smoking difficulties arise from using old, low-quality hookahs. These include bad smells, weak draws, extraneous aftertaste, rapid loss of shisha tobacco flavor, and others. Choose quality hookahs at iconhookah online store, and there will be much less problems.