The All-Powerful "Paper Towel Trick"
Have you found yourself without a bowl grommet? Perhaps you picked up a new bowl and the bowl grommet you have on hand happens to be just slightly too thin. Maybe the type of bowl you’re using isn’t working with the extra juicy shisha you’re smoking and it's causing your bowl to start slipping off the bowl stem.
These are all common issues we’ve experienced here at Hookah-Shisha and have heard of plenty of times. Bowl slipping, bowl wobble, or no bowl grommet; all of these can be fixed with materials you probably have readily available.
If you are having trouble getting your bowl to bowlstem connection with any of these issues here’s a quick and easy fix using a piece of paper towel or napkin!
The heat from your coals on your hookah bowl may soften your bowl grommet over time, so don’t worry when you start to notice it sliding up your bowlstem. A new hookah bowl may also have a wider opening at the bottom compared to your original bowl, or a replacement bowl grommet may be slightly smaller in thickness. Here we are demonstrating this on a MYA QT with the tray removed for illustration purposes.
All you need is a roll of paper towel (and only a smidgen of elbow grease). A piece of a napkin will also work. The goal here is to either thicken your bowl grommet or recreate a bowl grommet to ensure an air-tight fit. Tear (or cut) a strip of paper towel about 1 inch wide. The wider the opening of the bottom of your bowl may be, or the more wobble you notice, the thicker you might need to make your makeshift paper towel grommet. I tend to fold my strip of paper towel in half to do so.
Wrap your strip of paper towel around the existing bowl grommet (or bare bowlstem if you’re missing your grommet) as shown. You can also wet it slightly for a more snug fit and a little more grip.
Place your hookah bowl back onto your newly thickened bowl grommet (or your new paper towel grommet) and give it a push down with a little twist. Make sure that the connection is tight, but be careful not to push down too hard to avoid cracking the bottom of your bowl.
An extra benefit of the “Paper Towel Trick” is having the paper towel under the bowl helps soak up any extra shisha molasses that may seep down while smoking. This is particularly useful for extra juicy shisha like Fumari or Azure for example. Plus, cleanup is a breeze!
I use this trick almost daily. In fact I often find myself using a paper towel grommet most of the time! I personally find that having a soft, pliable piece of paper towel as a grommet ensures I’ll have a strong bowl connection and not have to worry about shisha molasses mess [I am old school and do tend to use Traditional Style Bowls most of the time].
Have you found yourself in a pinch and used this Paper Towel Trick before? Give it a go sometime, even if you don’t have bowl connection issues and try it out - you may be surprised at how well this simple modification works!
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