Bad Draw

[spanishkarl]

I was very excited to receive my new Savinelli Fuoco 111KS last week, but trying to smoke it over Easter I was left disappointed. I have a small collection of Savinelli 111s and in my (somewhat limited) experience they all smoke great. However this new one seems to have a very bad draw. It opens up sometimes but then clogs up again, and even when it is 'good' it performs a lot worse than my other ones. The end result is that I need to puff very hard to keep it lit and end up burning my mouth a bit.
When I draw on the pipe when empty it still feels feels clogged, but when I take it apart and try the draw on each part individually it feels pretty ok. Also peering into it I don't really see anything suspicious which would obstruct the draw (like lint etc.).
Is it just simply a matter of breaking it in, although I can't remember my other new pipes ever being this bad in the past? Or perhaps I could try a hot water wash with a bristle cleaner? I don't really want to (or really have the technical experience to) start drilling

 

[workman]

I have had that same thing going on with one of my pipes. In my case it turned out to be cotton from pipecleaners that clogged it up. It must be something like that, as it sometimes opens up.

 

[derekflint]

I had a similar thing happen to me. Turned out to be a bit of a cube cut got stuck in the stem. Pipe cleaners went rite by it...but paper clip and hot water flush dislodged it........

 

[Civil War]

I have a meer with a bad draw, and I know I am going to have to open the hole in the stem.

 

[spanishkarl]

I've been trying with several normal pipe cleaners, and nothing. But after using a bristle one, a lot of fluff came out after blowing, so I hope that's it!

 

[pianopuffer]

I have a Savinelli poker that was similar. I opened the draft hole to 5/32 and now it draws much more freely.

Good luck.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Hopefully that fixed it.

 

[sasquatch]

"When I draw on the pipe when empty it still feels feels clogged, but when I take it apart and try the draw on each part individually it feels pretty ok"
So you've already assessed it correctly. When you put the pipe together the draw is restricted - so maybe the filter is pushing up against the airway to the bowl when you assemble the pipe. Try cutting the filter in half or push it a bit deeper into the stem? It has to be something like this, something is blocking the airflow when you put the pipe together, now just sort out what it is. Look inside the pipe.

 

[spanishkarl]

It works fine now, it seems it was just some extra stubborn pipe cleaner lint

 

[dottiewarden]

Filters are meant to be tossed.

 

[spanishkarl]

@Dot I always toss the filters
Now, it seems the pipe is smokeable but still the draw is a lot tighter than on my 4 other pipes of the same model. When drawing on just the stem when it is disassembled, it 'whistles' quite quickly compared to the other ones. Is there anything I can do? My senior pipe reamer for example has a drill thing on in, perhaps that can be used to open it up a bit more? Or is it just a bad one?

 

[mikefu]

There could be a barb of acrylic from drilling in the stem. I have a Butz-Choquin panel that had a poor draw, and I was able to get a cleaner through the stem ok, but it felt like there was something in there. I was finally able to get it out by using a piece of metal rod that was just slightly smaller than the bore of the stem, and pushed it out of the air hole. Now it draws and smokes great. It probably wouldn’t have been possible had it not been straight through. Anyway, hope it gets figured out and you end up with another great smoker!

 

[spanishkarl]

I am pleased to say that after breaking in it smokes fine. It went through a phase of things getting stuck a few times per smoke, but it seems that the tar (or whatever) residue has 'lubricated' it so that this no longer happens

 

[mso489]

I had a French pipe that I bought for its lithe flowing design, a Dublin, that caught pipe cleaner fluff. I worked with it over time. When it was clear, it was a fine smoke, light weight but with plenty of bowl. But after months of it jamming frequently, and with so little material in the shank and stem to work with, I finally traded it off. It was a beauty, but something about the airway was designed to capture pipe cleaner fluff, and breaking in the pipe didn't seem to help. Some ingenious soul might have made it behave, but that wasn't me. I have other slender and/or small pipes that do fine.