What can you use as a substitute for hookah charcoal?

Nils Große •Updated August 11, 2026 •7 min

Hookah charcoal is the part of your hookah you only think about once it is missing. Charcoal supplies the heat your hookah tobacco needs, and without it nothing works. That is exactly why this part is so critical and can tip over the whole session: the hookah is set up, the tobacco sits fluffy in the bowl, and then the charcoal pack turns out to be empty or the burner gives up.

We have collected the most common problems around charcoal and give you an answer for each one so you still get to your session. The content is split into three parts. First, what you can do when you run out of charcoal. Second, what helps when only the burner is missing. Third, which electric solutions take most of the charcoal topic off your list.

When you run out of hookah charcoal

There are plenty of things you can light and put on a hookah. Grill charcoal, a piece of wood left over from the last campfire, a few tealights, briquettes from the basement. But the question is not whether something burns. The question is whether it works as a heat source above a bowl full of hookah tobacco. And that list gets very short.

Put differently, there is no usable household substitute for hookah charcoal. Anything sitting in your kitchen, basement or by the grill was not made for this job. We go through the options one by one so you know where each of them falls short.

Hookah charcoal substitutes compared

Can you use grill charcoal, wood charcoal or briquettes?

No, and the main reason is temperature. Refined natural charcoal made from coconut shells reaches 650 to 750 °C. Typical grill charcoal often only gets to 300 to 400 °C. That heat is not enough to warm the tobacco evenly across a whole session.

On top of that come shape and burning behaviour. Grill charcoal is irregular and not a cube, and those uneven pieces are not made for smokeboxes or chimney setups. It breaks apart, throws sparks and burns unevenly. That comes through in the taste, and the tobacco scorches in one spot while staying cold in another. For classic smoking, use only charcoal that is intended for it.

Can you smoke a hookah with tealights?

That does not work either. A candle flame gives off too little heat and spreads it too unevenly to warm the tobacco through a full session. Wax and wick are not meant for this purpose anyway.

Experimenting with tealights under or on the bowl does not get you to your session, only to scorched tobacco and a fire risk you do not need.

Is quick-light charcoal a substitute for natural charcoal?

You can use quick-light charcoal instead of natural charcoal. That still does not make it a real substitute for hookah charcoal, because quick-lights are made of compressed carbon that has been treated with chemicals.

The biggest difference is in the lighting.

• Natural charcoal needs an electric or gas-powered charcoal burner.
• Quick-light charcoal catches fire with an ordinary lighter within seconds.

Chemical additives are responsible for that, and they cost you flavour. Quite a few people describe that taste as intrusive, if not outright disgusting. Lighting them produces an unpleasant smell and an aftertaste, and quick-lights usually produce more ash. The burn time differs clearly as well. Quick-lights last around 30 to 40 minutes, natural charcoal delivers heat for roughly 75 to 90 minutes. For longer sessions with undistorted flavour, high-quality natural charcoal is the best choice.

Carbon monoxide, why improvising gets dangerous

Any charcoal produces ash and carbon monoxide, or CO for short, while it glows. The gas is invisible and has no smell, which is exactly what makes it treacherous. With proper hookah charcoal you at least know the amount, the burn time and the behaviour. With fuels that are not meant for a hookah you can judge none of that, and in a closed room it quickly turns into a real risk.

What to do in an emergency

When you are truly out, pick up the phone and ask around before you start improvising. Just ask your hookah friends. You would probably help out a friend in need too, right? Almost every hookah smoker can spare a bit of charcoal without running dry themselves, and people in the scene help each other out.

If it is not too late in the day and not a Sunday or public holiday, you can also drop by a shop nearby and grab a small pack. That gives you a good chance of saving the session.

But the best move is not ending up in that situation at all. If you smoke regularly, be far-sighted enough to keep a small stock at home. One kilogram of natural charcoal holds around 64 cubes in 26 mm depending on the brand. With a daily session using three cubes, that lasts about three weeks. A 20 kg pack costs clearly less per kilogram and you reorder far less often. Then just keep an eye on your stock and you will never run out of fuel again.

Cocobration Shisha Charcoal 26er 1kg View Product

One Nation Shisha Kohle 1kg 27mm View Product

When the burner is missing or breaks down

You wanted to enjoy your hookah at a friend's place and notice while setting up that your charcoal burner is at home. Or you want to light the charcoal and the burner dies halfway through. That is a different emergency from an empty pack of charcoal. All you are missing is the heat source to get your charcoal glowing.

And for that there really are alternatives.

Lighting charcoal without a burner

• On an old iron stove plate, natural charcoal needs about ten minutes. Turn it after roughly five minutes, then keep heating it from the other side. Induction hobs and delicate ceramic hobs are not suitable for this.
• On the go, a gas torch or a camping stove works. Here too, turn the charcoal after a few minutes so it glows through from all sides.
• A Bunsen burner does the same job if one is within reach.
• Existing grill embers are the easiest option when you are grilling anyway.

Has your burner given up on you? We have plenty of affordable replacements in our shop.

AO Blazer X Charcoal Lighter 1500W View Product

AO Blazer T Charcoal Burner 500W View Product

When is the hookah charcoal ready to use?

Natural charcoal is done once it is covered all around by a light layer of ash and no black spots are left. Only then does it go on the bowl or into your heat management device, which in a classic setup means perforated aluminium foil or the HMD.

Fully glowing coconut charcoal reaches 650 to 750 °C depending on air supply and burn time. So move it only with tongs and keep it on a fireproof surface.

E-HMD, e-bowls and electronic hookahs

There is one route where the question of a charcoal substitute stops coming up at all. Electric hookah bowls are on the rise in Germany right now, and for understandable reasons. No supply problem, no glowing cubes to burn yourself on or to leave holes in your carpet, and no burner that quits on you of all people.

Smoking hookah without charcoal, the advantages of an e-bowl

In a classic setup the glowing charcoal sits on perforated foil or in the heat management device above the tobacco. You have to let it glow through completely first and then check, turn or move it regularly during the session. An e-bowl takes that effort off your hands and lets you set the temperature precisely instead.

• no hookah charcoal needed
• no charcoal burner required
• temperature precisely adjustable
• no ash on the bowl or charcoal tray
• no turning or moving glowing charcoal
• no hot charcoal remains to dispose of
• even heat across the whole session
• mains or battery operation depending on the model

Because charcoal, burner and HMD are no longer needed, an e-bowl pays off financially over time. And without charcoal combustion at the bowl, one of the pollutant sources of classic smoking drops away.

How an e-bowl heats your hookah tobacco

With the XKAH Pro and the XKAH Lite we carry two electric alternatives to the classic setup. The XKAH Pro was first presented at the 2025 hookah trade fair in Frankfurt.

The e-bowl does not only replace the charcoal, it also takes over the jobs of the bowl and the heat management. You fill your hookah tobacco into the pod, put the system on your hookah and set the temperature. The pod takes roughly 10 to 12 grams of tobacco, first about 5 grams spread loosely in the lower area, then the rest loosely on top without pressing it down.

Thanks to the even temperature control, dense smoke and a constant flavour across 90 minutes and more are possible. Since no charcoal taste is added, the flavour of the tobacco stays more in the foreground.

The XKAH Pro runs on a battery, which makes it flexible to use. The XKAH Lite is powered by a mains cable and fits a fixed setup at home particularly well.

XKAH Pro Graphit Hookah Smokebox View Product

XKAH Lite Black View Product

Does electric hookah smoking produce carbon monoxide?

With an e-bowl there is no charcoal combustion at the hookah bowl, and therefore none of the CO that comes with it. That does not make smoking harmless, because heating hookah tobacco can also produce harmful substances. The load from the charcoal drops away, the tobacco question remains.

Author

Nils Große

Nils has been part of the team since 2022 and, as a copywriter and designer, turns hookah knowledge from the community and the team into text that is clear, understandable and pleasant to read.

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