Our aim
Use stable electric heat above the bowl. A hookah lounge keeps its current equipment and the way it prepares shisha. The service is cleaner, and the heat is easier to control. That is the aim.
The heater does not use charcoal. There is no charcoal fire and no charcoal ash.
The first design was direct:
Put an electric heater above the ceramic bowl.
From an engineering point of view, this was attractive:
- Fast to prototype: fewer mechanical parts than a fully integrated body.
- Easy to understand: the heat sits above the bowl, and the staff can see that at once.
- Fits the current habit: staff still work around the bowl they already know.
- Easy to explain to distributors: a hardware change, not a new way of serving.
At that stage we expected top-down heating to heat evenly, reach the preheat time, and move toward production without making the first generation too complicated.
What we set out to test
Before calling it a product, we set these requirements:
- Even heat: the shisha surface should heat evenly, not burnt at the edge and cold in the middle.
- Ordinary bowls: it should fit common standard ceramic bowls, not only a bowl made for this heater.
- Usable on the floor: staff should set it on and lift it off without handling a lab instrument.
- Consistent units: each unit should behave closely enough for wholesale supply.
- A cost that can last: materials, assembly, and durability have to support a long distributor relationship.
We built an early prototype and put it on the test bench. On paper the logic held. In testing it showed problems that small adjustments could not fix.
Why record this
Many heaters launch with polished pictures and flashy videos. We have seen too many so-called new hookah devices whose use does not match the presentation.
So we are writing down the path:
First concept → early prototype → the problems → a redesign → testing → production
As the people who designed it, we need to review what happened. We also want later customers to see that the reasoning and the real unit can stand up to use.
Next
In part 2 we will look at where a heater placed on top got stuck: how the heat drifted, what felt awkward for staff, and why simply raising the power did not fix it.