Shishapedia - Multi Hose Hookahs
Shishapedia – Multi hose Hookahs
If you regularly use a Hookah pipe and are thinking about buying a pipe for your home, there are many issues to consider but in this article I am going to explore one key question. Should I buy a hookah with multiple hoses or a single hose?
Firstly you will want to decide whether you are ready to actually buy a hookah pipe, and if so, for what purpose you are buying it? Buying a hookah pipe is going to be cheaper than going out to all the time; but by no means is it a much cheaper option.
A hookah pipe is used mainly in social environments and occasions. The vast majority of shisha smokers do so in company. Weather it is with family of friends you will often debate whether you want to share a pipe or have one each. Just imagine you have three friends over, you all want to have a relaxing shisha, but you only have one hookah pipe. Now you each have to wait in turn, for each member of your “circle” to enjoy their ‘toke’ then pass the hose on, to the next one in the circle. You could be waiting ten to fifteen minutes between each ‘toke’ you get! Remember when an interesting conversation rises the hose often gets forgotten in somebody’s hand.
This methodology does work in some situations and doesn’t in others. On top of that you have to worry about health contamination. If one of your friends has a cold or a contagious illness / disease you could catch it just by using the same hose. Of course using individual mouth pieces is a cheap easy solution to this but from my experience people prefer an individual hookah per person (If they can afford it).
If you are not able to afford to go out to a shisha lounge, or supply a shisha per person, and you still want to share the experience with friends you are left with only one other option; the Multi hose hookah.
The Multi hose Hookah
The Multi hose Hookah is a thing of beauty and practicality. In design it looks exactly like a normal Hookah pipe, with only one difference. You have more than one hose outlet and it can be shared by up to six people at once. Most multi hose hookahs have two or four hose outlets, but there are others with up to six outlets readily available. Using the same hookah pipe means you have only one ‘shisha head’ at the top, this will save on your molasses and coal expenses and will let you all share the same mix. If you are heavy and regular user you will often still want to rotate your “pull” as there is space for only so much smoke in the chamber at one time, and it’s often not enough for people to share. If you are light users this issue won’t affect you at all.
The air valve issue
Multi Hose hookahs operate just like normal hookahs in the fact that they also need an air valve to remove the old excess stale smoke. A good multi hose hookah will incorporate air valves into the base of each hose. This means you can suck the pipe; and smoke will rise from the chamber into the pipe you are using, but smoke or air cannot travel past the valve when you do not pull on the pipe.
This is very important because you do not want smoke or air to flow freely in and out of a hose that is not being used. Imagine you are smoking from one hose and air is being sucked into the base from another hose. You are going to be sucking in air and nothing else. This is how old fashioned multi hose hookahs were. When using one of these alone you would have to cover the other hose’s tips with your fingers or thumbs to stop air being sucked into the base.
When buying ensure that the hookah you buy does incorporate air valves in each hose outlet otherwise you are seriously going to be disappointed.
In conclusion if you expect to have friends or family sharing with you at home all the time I recommend you purchasing a multi hose hookah. It might cost you up to 50% more than a regular hookah pipe but it is certainly worth the money when you think of all the shisha flavour and coal expenses you will save.