Tall Shisha vs short Shisha.
Does a tall hookah really smoke better than a small hookah?
One of the most common prejudices against small hookahs that they smoke worse than tall hookahs, may be simply a myth based on our perception of the appearance. Let’s take a closer look at some of the claims made about the differences:
- Mythos 1: Tall Shisha cool the smoke more than small hookahs.
Once the smoke leaves the bowl and enters the shaft, it will be quite warm. The smoke travels in 3 stages: through the shaft, the water, and the hose. While the temperature of the shaft (cooled by the ambient air around the shaft) will cool the smoke somewhat, the temperature of the water will be the determining factor of the smoke.
Essentially, the temperature of the smoke in the shaft becomes irrelevant when the smoke passes through the water, for the water will always adjust the smoke’s temperature to its own temperature. Once the smoke leaves the water, it will have adjusted to the water’s temperature before entering the hose. The water becomes the most critical governor of temperature. Therefore, we can rule out the length of shaft as having a major impact on the smoke’s temperature – thus a short hookah and a tall hookah with water of similar temperatures in the base will deliver smoke of the same temperature.
- Mythos 2: Tall Shisha “hit harder”, or deliver easier draws, than small hookahs.
While the length of contained passage for airflow will impact the draw when the air is traveling moderate distances (such as several meters), the difference of dozens of inches in the air’s path will have little impact. Far more important than the length of the air’s pathway is the width of the air’s path. The width of the air’s path through the hookah is determined by the diameter of the shaft, downstem, hose connector, and hose.
If all of these openings are large, air can pass through them without resistance, and the draw on the hookah is easy. If these holes are small, there will be constriction in the air pressure as you’re trying to move air through the hookah, creating a “tight” or “hard” draw. Therefore, as long as the openings of the shaft, downstem, hose connector, and hose are similar between a tall and a short hookah, they will smoke the same.
- Mythos 3: Tall Shisha yield more smoke than small hookahs.
The responsibility for smoke production primarily rests on the bowl setup, quality of the tobacco, type of coal, and the interaction of all these elements. As the hookah itself only transports and filters the smoke, we can conclude that the height of the hookah is unimportant to the production of smoke, and consider this myth busted.