The funnel bowl design is a relatively young one in regards to hookah innovation. The concept is that the bowl has a single hole in the middle with a raised edge to stop the tobacco and juice from dripping into the hookah. Supposedly this will not only enhance but prolong the session. I have been using a Tangiers small funnel for quite some time and it is easily one of my favorite purchases I have made for my hookah hobby.
As you can see here the funnel is a large bowl. Even the small is just about the biggest I could see ever needing for my purposes. To get it smoking properly you need a good amount of coal. Most tobaccos need coal equaling around three coconut coals. For Tangiers and other heat resistant blends you should use four. In this picture I am smoking Tangiers so four coals is treating my very nicely. The sessions can go for a very long time but the bowl does have some issues.
First is the size. This bowl is huge. Plan on using a lot of tobacco if you order a small funnel. Packed lightly it can hold around 25g of tobacco. Tight and you can get close to 50g.
The second issue is that while the design will keep the tobacco moist for a very long time once you burn through the flavor on the top layer there is still allot of tobacco on the bottom that could be smoked. I have had a lot of bowls where I can still taste the unsmoked tobacco but the already crispy stuff on top is adding the flavor of spent tobacco. I have heard of people letting the bowl cool, stripping the foil and mixing up the tobacco to continue smoking. This just seems like extra work to me.
8 out of 10 for me. This is one of my favorite bowls but the faults it has keep me from giving it a perfect score. I would like to try out the mini and see how that one behaves.
i live in a country where phunnel bowls cost less than an us dollar but they actually take years to find after going from shops to shops 🙁
That sucks. Aren’t there online shops selling it there?