How Does a Hookah Work?

Last updated on 29/04/2025 | Reading time approx. 02:53 min

How a Hookah Works

If you've always wondered how a hookah works – how it's possible to smoke shisha tobacco through a water-filled glass base – you're in the right place. In this article, we’ll walk you through the individual components of a hookah and provide all the essential information you need to understand the basic principle that applies to pretty much every hookah. To do that, it's important to know the individual parts of a hookah:

1. Charcoal / 2. HMD / Foil / 3. Tobacco / 4. Bowl / 5. Bowl adapter / 6. Charcoal tray / 7. Smoke column / 8. Base / 9. Hose connector / 10. Downstem / 11. Diffuser (optional) / 12. Glass base / 13. Water / 14. Hose / 15. Mouthpiece

This is How a Hookah Works

Let’s assume your hookah is already set up and ready for a session. There’s water in the glass base, your bowl is filled with your favorite tobacco, and the charcoal has been lit and placed in the HMD, so you're good to go.

You grab the mouthpiece, place it to your lips, and take a deep pull. As you inhale, air is drawn through the hookah hose out of the glass base. This creates a vacuum inside the base.

If your hookah were made of very thin material, it would collapse at this point. But since that's not the case, the vacuum is equalized by drawing in air from the next weakest point – which in this case is the air inside the downstem submerged in water. As this isn't enough to compensate for the vacuum and the missing air in the downstem also needs to be replaced, fresh air is drawn in from outside the hookah.

This fresh air now flows past the charcoal, heating it up even more. The charcoal then heats the tobacco, causing part of the molasses and the flavors in the tobacco to evaporate. This produces smoke and even more heat.

The hot smoke then travels down the smoke column and into the water of the glass base. There, it is cooled and creates the iconic bubbling sound of a hookah as it rises through the water.

Next, the smoke flows through the base, along the hose, and ends up exactly where the vacuum was created – in your lungs. That’s basically it. Almost every hookah on the market operates on this same principle. Blow-off systems, however, work a little differently.

So How Does the Blow-Off Work?

Unlike regular smoking, blow-off systems function a bit differently. With a blow-off, the smoke no longer needs to be cooled, meaning it doesn’t have to be pushed back through the water.

Instead, you exhale the drawn-in smoke directly through dedicated outlets in the base.

These outlets usually contain small balls. When you inhale, these balls are sucked into place to block fresh air from entering through the exhaust ports. During the blow-off, however, the pressure in the glass base increases, pushing the balls up and allowing the smoke to escape through the designated blow-off outlets – depending on the design of the hookah.

The difference between smoking and blow-off

Some hookahs even feature a variable blow-off system, which can be adjusted between sessions – or even during the session – with just a few simple steps.

We hope we’ve answered all your questions! We’re always happy to receive your feedback. And of course, you’ll find a wide selection of hookahs in our shop.

FAQ: Wie funktioniert eine Shisha?