I know it sounds stupid… but i honestly want to learn!
Thanks!

Not a stupid question at all. In fact people as us all the time. In fact, I am making another blog as we speak about the ways to light and smoke from natural hookah charcoal. In the meantime, here are some quick Hookah Tips:
- When smoking your natural coals, be sure to fully burn the charcoal before using it. Meaning, make sure it is red hot all around or at much as you can get it. I typically flip it twice when on an electric stove.
- Place the hookah charcoal directly onto the stove coils so that he gets REALLY hot. You want it to get as hot as you can so that it burns to the core.
- When the charcoal is red hot or close to it, I will typically place it in a charcoal holder or a pan of sorts and push it up against other natural charcoal and let it sit outside. That way, the hookah charcoal are feeding off of each other’s heat and they are lighting up together. This is a great way to add more un-lit charcoal and not have to light it up on a stove. When working with natural charcoal, I typically light more than I need because it is designed to burn much faster than quick-light charcoal.
- If you don’t want to put it on the stove coils and or don’t have a charcoal holder, you can use an old frying pan and put the coal in their. That takes a lot longer and it can depend on your pot/stove. It does work though, and the advantage is that it also doubles as a hookah charcoal holder. The problem is that it is scorching hot and you can’t really put it anywhere after it is done heating.
- And finally, if you are indoors, I will typically use a vent. I will also watch the charcoal because occasionally you can get a piece that I like the call a “smoker”. You will know it when you see it. It is a piece that gives of an exceptionally larger amount of smoke than other hookah charcoal. I believe you can get a “smoker” for one of two reasons. Either it is not the same wood as you are using and might be remnants of another piece of wood being used or it is a natural wood charcoal piece that has residue from other things like leaves or other wood. If you are outdoors, they are no problem and will eventually burn away all the “smoker” elements to it, but when it is indoors, it can make your place smell like a campfire or set off your smoke detector really quick.

Hope this helps…

If you are already doing all of the above, I would try and switch hookah charcoal to a cleaner burning brand or kind.

I have also heard that some people use the Heba Smoke Diffuser to decrease carbon monoxide levels by creating more bubbles in your water and thus having more surface area for the smoke to touch the water and thus allowing it to filter more. I personally use a Heba Diffuser no matter what since it makes smoking your hookah much smoother. I’ll talk more about that when I get to the base of the hookah in a future How to Smoke a Hookah series.

One last thing I would try is use if you think it is coming from your charcoal is use an Ultimate Combo Hookah Lid Bowl or you could use a hookah wind cover. What this will do is allow you to use half as much charcoal. The Ultimate Combo Bowl or a wind cover traps the heat in near the bowl, thus requiring about half as much charcoal and thus (if the charcoal is what is causing your carbon monoxide detector to go off) you have much less charcoal that could be causing any problems.

Try those Hookah Tips out (or use them anyways to get a better hookah smoke) and tell us how things went and if it solved your problem.