Having a Hookah on board is incredibly handy; being able to tow it anywhere is even handier.
My floating Hookah consists of a rubbish bin kept afloat by an old ski tube.

Full write up and more photos at blog.arribasail.com/2014/10/tech-hookah-surface-supplied-air-diving.html

I have a similar setup I use on my cat tender. I use it with the tender parked alongside the yacht and in a tidal estuary system have to work in about a 30 minute window. I have thought about using it drifting the tender along with the tide. Brilliant bit of kit that I wish I had when I was younger!

What's the series number of your Thomas pump Ramona?

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nswsailor said..
What's the series number of your Thomas pump Ramona?

907CDC18

www.gardnerdenver.com/en-au/thomas

Thanks Ramona,

The slightly better ones are the 910 series but they have been produced for the companies making hookahs
and they want 1K plus for them. Bit of a joke really. 907 can be picked up from overseas for about $200 posted, look on ebay.

How deep have you been on that pump and how much hose are you using?

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nswsailor said..
Thanks Ramona,

The slightly better ones are the 910 series but they have been produced for the companies making hookahs
and they want 1K plus for them. Bit of a joke really. 907 can be picked up from overseas for about $200 posted, look on ebay.

How deep have you been on that pump and how much hose are you using?

For ~US$1,000 you can get complete Hookah system (compressor + 20m hose + regulator) in the US, rated for 15m depth. Mine is basically a Thomas TA-4101DC which produces 6.9 Bar (100PSI), and I've had no problems going down 10m depth.

I very much doubt with a Thomas 907 you could go very deep since it only produces 2.1 Bar (30 PSI) of pressure. The 910 at 3.8 Bar (40 PSI) is not much better. Of course they're both fine for shallow work, such as hull scrubbing.

I'm using 20metres of hose. This is pretty much the recommended minimum length and gives a fair bit of reserve capacity as well as cooling the air before you breath it. All the hose should be in the water. In scruzin's picture above you can see that Thomas pump which has a higher pressure has a black section of heat hose to handle the hot air from the compressor. Not needed on the 907. I bought mine off USA eBay for about $120. Mate here bought the same for about the same money.

The same pump is used by a local company selling an "Australian made" set up for $1500 that gives the dive depth of 22 feet. Everything except possibly the hose is imported! It's only 10 to 12 feet of water under my boat and that is as deep as I go. I notice in cold water I can breath down the supply but its all about breathing normally. The tricky part when assembling your own hookah is getting the correct regulator to match your compressor.

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Ramona said..
The tricky part when assembling your own hookah is getting the correct regulator to match your compressor.

Totally agree. The regulator is a critical part of the system. Note that normal scuba regulators have 2 stages. The first stage is what reduces the pressure down from something like ~ 3000 PSI to a modest ~150 PSI. Obviously you don't need that with a Hookah system, but I'd still recommend going with an adjustable scuba regulator, which let's you tune the flow for ease of inhalation.

No No No,

The most important, and only thing, about the 2nd stage regulator is that it must be a.......

DOWNSTREAM REGULATOR.

If it's not this type you are in danger of literally having your LUNGS sucked out if a hose is disconnected at the surface.

In that picture above of my unit, between the extra flexible black hose and the yellow hookah hose is a non return valve.

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LooseChange said..
Here is a link to an upstream Hookah regulator....
http://airdive.com.au/products/upstream-demand-valve

Yes, my Airline regulator is an upstream too. I think you'll find that most of the Hookah-specific regulators are upstream.

In a regulator with an upstream demand value, the valve opens against the pressure, i.e., in the opposite direction as the flow of gas, hence "upstream." Such a valve only closes fully when the system is over pressurized, in which case any excess pressure first fills the hose and then gets vented by the overpressure valve on the compressor, i.e., before it ruptures the hose. Conversely, sudden loss of pressure results in the value opening fully. The latter is not dangerous if you ascend to surface while exhaling (standard scuba technique).

I seem to remember that I have now forgotten more than I remember of what the Navy taught me about diving. What you are describing scruzin is a free ascent and I usually did one every time I went diving regardless of depth, just remember to come up at the same rate as the medium sized bubbles and whistle to prevent lungs rupturing.

I recall sitting on the bottom of Sydney Harbour at night with a demand valve stripped to its component pieces and having to reassemble it and then swapping it with the one you were currently using to "prove" your assembly methods.

Well all I can say to you gentlemen is good luck with your upstream regulators.

My experience in making hookahs and diving in general goes back a fair way.
Back in the 60's it was a well known fact that the cheap hookah regulators were not safe and we didn't use them.
I for one will be using a downstream valve as I have seen hoses burst before!

Good luck.

I took the easy way out and just bought the same regulator as supplied by one of the makers or assemblers of hookah units, in this case Powerdive. I copied the part number of a mates bought unit for the compressor so I have basically the same matched unit with better quality hose and saved $1000.

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Ramona said..
I took the easy way out and just bought the same regulator as supplied by one of the makers or assemblers of hookah units, in this case Powerdive. I copied the part number of a mates bought unit for the compressor so I have basically the same matched unit with better quality hose and saved $1000.

Hey Ramona, do you happen to know what time of demand value, upstream or downstream, your Powerdive regulator has?

Nswsailor has made me curious...

25psi

www.powerdive.com/product/25-psi-regulator-harness-assembly

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nswsailor said..
Well all I can say to you gentlemen is good luck with your upstream regulators.

My experience in making hookahs and diving in general goes back a fair way.
Back in the 60's it was a well known fact that the cheap hookah regulators were not safe and we didn't use them.
I for one will be using a downstream valve as I have seen hoses burst before!

Good luck.

BTW, I took another look at the spec for my Hookah-specific regulator from www.airlinebyjsink.com, and it turns out that it is a downstream valve.

Dive instructors used to teach the difference in the 60s & 70s, seems that has gone with the fast teaching.