Tips from Other Smokers

• The small, unscrewable appendage with the tiny ball bearing in it on the opposite side of the hookah from the hose is a release valve. (Don't lose the ball bearing investigating it -- the ball keeps air from coming in when you suck on the hose.) If your shisha gets too strong, blow through the hose and the excess smoke in the base will escape here. -- SnarkDreams
  
  
• It's generally a good idea to keep your hookah on the floor. -- SnarkDreams
  
  
• Get your rubber collar wet before putting your hookah together or taking it apart. -- guy from the local hookah store.
  
  
• Use a bit of washing up liquid [dish soap] on the big rubber fitting; after a couple of goes it becomes nice and easy to dissasemble. -- Swallabat, UK
  
  
• It's easier to use a few layers of masking tape around the main pipe rather than a rubber collar. -- guy from the other local hookah store.
  
  
• A hole-poked layer of aluminum foil over an almost full bowl of shisha means you can smoke for a long time and that you can easily knock off the old coals and add fresh hot ones. -- local shisha cafe
        (Of course, not all of your shisha may burn up this way: a concern if you want to conserve tobacco.)
  
  
• I find it extremely important to use the aluminum foil between the tobacco and the coals, else the shisha never lasts long. -- Magnus
  
  
• Using much coal (more than three medium-sized pieces) creates more smoke, but the smoke tastes less. Using less coal creates more taste in the smoke, but less smoke, which results in one pipe lasting much longer (a couple of hours or even more). If you are hooked on the thick, smooth smoke, then use more coal; in all, you get the same amount of taste in one puff. However, if you are smoking for the taste, then use less coal, and make your tobacco last forever. -- Magnus
  
  
• A good way to smoke pot out of your hookah is to smoke your shisha normally for a few minutes, then lift up the coal and sprinkle some pot "shake" into the bowl and put the coal back on. -- A.S., Michigan USA
        (This is a good alternative to mixing your pot with shisha beforehand; the shisha that sticks to the coal insulates the pot from direct heat and allows it to simmer like shisha rather than burning up in a minute or two.)
  
  
• Mixing your pot with honey works well too. -- A.S., Michigan USA
  
  
• A bit of hash oil works wonders mixed in with pukka shisha tobacco. -- Swallabat, UK
  
  
• You can make a home-made double or triple-hose hookah:
  Get a 'T' or '+' garden hose splitter and stick it where you usually connect the hose. If it doesn't sit tightly, wrap some Teflon around it (the stuff plumbers use to seal hosing). Connect two or 3 short (about 4 inches) pieces of garden hose the same diameter as the splitter. Connect 3 hookah hoses to the garden hoses and you've got yourself a super-hookah. It is best if only one guy inhales at a time while the other smokers place their thumbs over their hoses. -- Shai Yallin
  
  
• You can put several things in the water to improve the taste or the amount of smoke the hookah produces. Milk will make the smoke thicker in the cost of having to wash the different components carefully after smoking. Mint leaves or slices of lemon will improve the taste of the smoke. -- Shai Yallin
  
  
• Squirt an orange all over a bowl of apricot shisha. Mmmm!! And I threw some cuts of the orange in the water . . . which made a very very slight difference in itself . . . but seeing fruit bubble around in the jar was cool to look at, in the least. -- Jared Paul, California USA
  
  
• Try mixing different shisha flavors in your bowl. Mixed fruit + almost anything is tasty. Apricot + strawberry is tight. Sometimes we put a LITTLE lemon in a bowl, but not too much because lemon shisha is overpowering. Oh, and mint is good for after dinner. -- Jared Paul, California USA
  
  
• There is a rumor that half alcohol and half water in the base is good. I've tried it with tequila. Though it did make the smoke "fumier," it also changed the flavor and had little physiological affect. -- SnarkDreams
  
  
• For smoking in an open place, make a small chimney from the top of a 2 liter Coke bottle to protect the coal and put it on the ash dish. -- Shai Yallin
  
  
• If you break your glass hookah base, it doesn't mean the hookah is lost. Get a plastic bottle with a wide base, cut it so the brass part fits in and it works perfectly. In some occasions, it came out better than with the glass bottle... -- Shai Yallin
  
  
• Doors music sounds great while smoking a Hookah. -- Shai Yallin
  
  
• Hookah after sex is very good! -- Joe R.
  
  

If you have any tips, advice, or experiences to share, please email me about them.
More tips can be found in The Search for a Homemade Shisha Recipe.

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