The Cinese Phunnel Repair Thread.

[mustang_steve]

Yes, I know, everyone says that Chinese phunnels are crap. I like mine though.

Well recently I let a friend borrow mine....him being used to the soft and forgiving mod grommets, pressed too hard on my phunnel (which had a thin Mya grommet), and broke off the inner ceramic that contacts the grommet.

To understand the fix, you need to know how teh bowl was designed.....the base is best thought of as a hollow doughnut, but half a hollow doughtnut (moisture can condense between the outer wall and the grommet wall). This is VERY relevant for this.

What you do is cut the bottom of the bowl off so there's just the outer wall. I used a dremel and a load of cutting discs for this (I suck and keep shattering cutoff discs). When this was done, I could stick a Mod grommet inside...so I did, and made sure it was in there firmly.

Now what I did, was with the grommet inside, I started grinding down the bowl to within 1/8" of the grommet. I used a green stone dremel wheel for this.

The whole operation took me less than an hour. Also make sure to wash expecially thoroughly after this....both the grommet and the bowl will be absolutely filthy...so make sure to get it nice and clean.

When done....it's not pretty, but you have saved your Phunnel....and for far less than what a replacement would have costed. Enjoy.

[alibaba]

Post a picture... I'm having a hard time imagining the design of the base of the bowl (having never seen a chinese one).

For all I know i might have a Chinese one as well... can someone tell if it's a cheap replica:
http://www.southsmoke.com/pd-phunnel-bowl.cfm

[Sherwood]

Yeah, yours looks like a Chinese, not a Tangiers, Ali.

I had two phunnel bowls, both medium. I was told they were both Tangiers. One smoked much, much better than the other. It held heat better, it got better airflow, and it was much less fussy. I used that one all the time. It broke a few days ago while I was trying to clean it out while drunk, so I went back to my older one.

I compared pictures, and realized I had one legit Tangiers, and one Chinese phunnel. Guess which one was legit?

Needless to say, I've got two more Tangiers' in the mail. The brand made a real difference, in my case.

[mustang_steve]

Post a picture... I'm having a hard time imagining the design of the base of the bowl (having never seen a chinese one).

For all I know i might have a Chinese one as well... can someone tell if it's a cheap replica:
http://www.southsmoke.com/pd-phunnel-bowl.cfm

Here you go, the inside of the piece I chopped off to show you what I was saying, and the "base" of the bowl now.

[mustang_steve]

By the way, your bowl is definately a chinese if it's got obvious machine-turning on the stem portion. The difference is Tangiers are hand-made, so there is some variance to those marks.

[alibaba]

I say just get a bigger grommet!!!

[alibaba]

Yeah, yours looks like a Chinese, not a Tangiers, Ali.

I had two phunnel bowls, both medium. I was told they were both Tangiers. One smoked much, much better than the other. It held heat better, it got better airflow, and it was much less fussy. I used that one all the time. It broke a few days ago while I was trying to clean it out while drunk, so I went back to my older one.

I compared pictures, and realized I had one legit Tangiers, and one Chinese phunnel. Guess which one was legit?

Needless to say, I've got two more Tangiers' in the mail. The brand made a real difference, in my case.

I'm gonna have to take some pics of mine tonight, cuz it REALLY doesn't look like the one in the picture... Where could I buy a GENUINE Tangiers phunnel (a really small one )

[mustang_steve]

I say just get a bigger grommet!!!

Well it uses the large Mod bowl grommets now. It would be problematic using a mod grommet on the broken surface..the bowl would be prone to leaning...and with how my entire hookah shakes on a good phunnel session, the coals would be on the floor in no time.

this was mostly an attempt to get a proper mating between grommet and bowl. The more grommet and bowl contact, the better the airseal, thus the better the smoke.

[Sherwood]

I'm gonna have to take some pics of mine tonight, cuz it REALLY doesn't look like the one in the picture... Where could I buy a GENUINE Tangiers phunnel (a really small one )

Well, the *really* small ones are minis, and they're unobtainable now.

The "Small" are sold by hookahcompany.com, for one. They have a pretty decent stock of colors at the moment.

Tangiers are more expensive than Havana and knockoffs, so they're advertised as Tangiers phunnels, rather than just phunnels.

[alibaba]

here's mine!

[Dr. B]

looks chinese to me. the composure of the building material is the giveaway sometimes. chinese are dip cast (I think) and appear smooth, Tangiers phunnels appear somewhat porous.

[mustang_steve]

Yours may be from another maker....it's Chinese alright, but the stem narrows before the bowl, on mine the stem fares into the bowl. Also yours is glazed at the grommet area, which mine was not.

An easy test for the gasket area is to put the scale on a gram-scale dry, then put it in water about halfway up the stem for a bit, shaking it around to assure water gets in where it can, then weight it again...or just tip it upside down and see if more than a surface coating's worth of water pours out.

[Sherwood]

The stem flaring towards the bowl is actually my least favorite part of my Chinese, so yours may well be better.

If it smokes good, it is good.

[liquidglass]

The easiest solution is to get a tangiers bowl. I've pressed and pressed the shit out of my legit phunnels and they haven't broken. The only breaking problem I've had is when one slipped because I hadn't dried it after cleaning it.

I know that you said everyone says Chinese bowls suck, but it really is true. It's kind of like someone trying ot mass produce tangiers in a factory, it wouldn't come out like the shisha we know and love.

Get the real bowl, smoke better, and support Eric/Tangiers. The price is roughly the same anyway right? so what's the big deal?