How To Set Up a Hookah | A 9-Step Guide

BY ANTHONY B · UPDATED JANUARY 18 2023

When you bought your first ever hookah pipe, you might have a reasonable question of how to set up a hookah. There are a few different ways of preparing hookah, though the same basic steps apply in every case. Hookah can be prepared utilizing regular aluminum foil as well as the Heat Management System.In this tutorial, we’ll demonstrate how to set up hookah using aluminum foil.

To set up hookah we will need:

hookah (we offer some great hookahs for sale at our store)
hookah bowl
water
shisha tobacco
aluminum foil
board
foil poker
hookah tongs
fork
hookah coals
electric burner

1. Separate the stem and glass base.

While some hookahs have stems that are screwed into the base, others have stems that are attached with a rubber grommet and that you must separate by twisting and pulling.

2. Fill the glass hookah base with cold water.

How much water to put in hookah? When reattaching your stem, make sure the bottom of it is not submerged more than 1 – 1.5 inches into the water. The smoke won’t be filtered enough if you do not add a proper amount of water. Then again, if the water is too much, it will be hard to inhale. You will master it after a few tries.

3. Join the stem to the glass base.

Make sure it fits tight. Next, attach the hose to hookah through the hose port. Put the tray on top of the stem.

4. Place three coals on your electric burner to light them up.

We do not recommend using quick lightning coals, as they give your smoke an unpleasant odor. The best choice would be to utilize natural hookah charcoal.

5. With a fork, scoop some hookah tobacco into the bowl.

The measure of tobacco depends on the size of your bowl.

You can remove leaf veins from the tobacco as they might produce an unpleasant odor when burnt.

You need to gently pack the tobacco two or three millimeters under the bowl’s edge, so it will not be too close to the foil. At the same time, try packing it as fluffy as you can so that air can flow through it freely.

Our blog also has a more detailed guide on how to pack a hookah bowl.

6. Make a funnel the width of a pencil at the center of the tobacco to help get the air flow going.

7. Prepare the foil

Now it’s time to prepare the foil so that it can be wrapped over the bowl. Tear a piece of foil and fold it two times. Wrap foil around the bowl’s top and make small holes in a cylindrical fashion with your poker.

When you finish, attach the hookah bowl to the stem, and don’t forget to use a rubber grommet to ensure that it sits air tight.

8. Check your coals

Next up, we have to check on our hookah coals. If they are red-hot, then it’s time to place them around the edge of the bowl using hookah tongs.

Arrange the coals evenly around the top of the bowl to prevent heat from being distributed unequally, which will heat and burn your tobacco much faster.