The Phunnel Hookah Bowl; Tips for Best Performance

Use a Scalli Mod With Your Phunnel Bowl

This is one of the oldest hookah mods in the book. A Scalli Mod is intended to route the heat from your coals down through the shisha and up towards the center hole in your Phunnel bowl. There are many ways to do this. The easiest is to get a tea light candle, remove the candle from the holder, and then either bend the sides in a bit, or cut holes in the sides of the candle holder in order to allow air to flow through.

Then place the candle holder over the center spire upside down, so the holes you cut are near the bottom of the bowl. This will force air down, through the shisha, before it passes up under the scalli mod, and through the center hole. If this seems confusing, we suggest searching youtube for "phunnel scalli mod." There are lots of video tutorials.

Use Binder Clips To Keep Your Foil Up

A problem that can occur with Phunnel bowls, is a blockage of the center hole via either the weight of the coals pushing the foil down, or the air pressure of smoking the hookah pulling the foil down so that it covers the hole. This can be fixed very easily with a binder clip, or some short pieces of fairly rigid, though bendable, wire.

Take your binder clip, and remove the metal arms from the central black piece. You just need the metal arms. Bend the arms so that they will fit down inside the central spire of your bowl. You should end up with something like the photo to the right. The arms sticking out will keep the foil raised above the hole and will lead to amazing airflow.

Keep Your Coal Around The Edge Of The Phunnel Bowl

Since the Phunnel bowl features a single, large hole at the top of the spire, you want to make sure that your coals are placed directly above the shisha, and not the center hole. We always start our Phunnel bowl sessions with the coals as far out to the edge as possible.

If your hookah is particularly stable and you are smoking on stone, concrete, or outside, we recommend having your coals overhang the edge of the bowl ever so slightly. As the coals burn down, move them in just a bit, but keep them over the shisha.

Poke Your Hookah Foil Holes The Right Way

Much like the coal tip above, this tip is helpful in order to keep your heat above the shisha, and not above the center hole. With a traditional hookah bowl (holes on the bottom of the bowl) you want evenly spaced holes across the entire surface of your bowl. With a Phunnel bowl you want to keep the holes above the shisha.

We recommend starting with a ring around the outer edge of the bowl, followed by smaller, concentric rings, moving in until you hit the edge of the center spire.

For a Perfect Smoke, Use A Kaloud Lotus

One foolproof solution for getting a great smoke from your Phunnel bowl is to just cheat and use a Kaloud Lotus. You can spend your time poking holes, and rotating coals, or you can just slap a Lotus on top of your bowl and enjoy a smoke. The Scalli mod trick can still be used with a Lotus as well. Check out our list of all bowls which are compatible with the Kaloud Lotus to see if yours will work or not.