What Is A Heat Management Device or HMD?
Heat Management Devices (or HMD's) have been on the hookah scene since roughly 2013 and have quickly become some of the most in demand accessories on the market.
Over the last few years these devices have expanded and evolved resulting in several unique designs that may appeal to different types of smokers. Today we're going to cover what an HMD is, highlight some of the most popular HMD's on the market, and hopefully help you to decide which one fits your smoking style the best.
HMD's are very useful accessories that will either completely replace the foil on top of your bowl or, in some cases, may work in conjunction with your foil to help manage the amount of heat being transferred from your charcoal to your shisha tobacco. This allows you to have more control on how your hookah smokes and also makes it much easier to keep your charcoal and ash contained during the smoking session.
Let's take a look at some of the most popular HMD's on the market:
Hookah Flavor Saver
The Hookah Flavor Saver is a great starting point for those looking to try out heat management devices. The Flavor Saver is designed to sit on top of your normal foil set up and provides an added layer of space between your charcoals and the foil. This helps to keep the charcoal from making direct contact with the foil allowing for a little bit of extra "breathing room" for the shisha allowing for a great smoke with less harshness. This is particularly useful for shishas that require low levels of heat.
Kaloud Lotus Plus Heat Management System
The Kaloud Lotus Plus was made by the Kaloud Company to work best with their Samsaris Vitria II Bowls, but this HMD will also work extremely well with any "lipped" bowls that allow the Lotus to sit down in to place on the lip, and also works great on most bowls that have a 3 inch diameter.
Ventilated lid for air flow control? Check. Raised ridges in the dish to prevent charcoal black out? Check. Allows for cubed, flat, quarter or half circle cut charcoals? Check. This is easily the most popular HMD available and has become the gold standard for heat management devices with very good reason.
Kaloud Lotus 2 Heat Management System
The Kaloud Lotus 2.0 is the latest version of the Lotus HMD and pairs up perfectly with the newly redesigned Samsaris Vitria For Lotus 2. The updated design allows for air to pass more easily throughout the Lotus ensuring that your charcoals stay stoked throughout the session, has a detachable "key" handle for the lid, and the heat transfer through the Lotus 2.0 is some of the best that we have seen from any HMD meaning that it is able to get your bowl up and smoking extremely quickly.
There are a lot of really cool new features with the Lotus 2.0, so for an in depth look at this bad boy please check out our Introducing The Kaloud Lotus 2 blog.
Starbuzz Nar Head Heat Manager
The Starbuzz Nar Head is one of the newest HMD's on the market and has several unique features. This heavy duty HMD was designed to be able to be pre-heated on your charcoal heater before adding your lit charcoals to the interior, has a detachable carrying handle for both the base and the lid, raised ridges on the bottom of the dish and a ventilated lid to prevent charcoal black out, and has a thermometer on the top of the lid to allow you to keep an eye on how hot the device is. In our testing the Nar Head had the best results when being used in conjunction with either the Starbuzz Silicone Paradigm or Starbuzz Silicone Phunnel bowls.
The Phoenix Heat Management Device
The Phoenix HMD sets itself apart from other HMD's both in appearance and functionality. This super cool heat manager offers a completely flat and smooth underside to the dish, raised ridges inside of the Phoenix to prevent charcoal black out, and a ventilated lid to allow for air flow. In addition, this is the only HMD on the market that has a raised "phunnel" spire air intake making it particularly well suited to smoking with phunnel style bowls.
Apple On Top Provost Heat Management System
The Apple On Top Provost is one of the most popular HMD's available and is very versatile in how it can be used. Designed by the same company that makes the Apple On Top Bowls to work perfectly with those bowls, the Provost can also be used on top of a normal foil set up on just about any other type of bowl as well. This allows for the coals to sit a little bit further away from the shisha to prevent the tobacco from burning too quickly while still providing plenty of heat for a fantastic smoke session and the ventilated lid allows you to control how much heat is being trapped at any time.
Hopefully we've covered all of the main points for each of these HMD's here, but if we've left anything out or if you have any questions drop us a comment below or contact our Customer Service Team who would be more than happy to help.
Happy smoking!