Carburetor Pipes?

[frozenchurchwarden]

Why? Falcons have some of the best functional engineering out there. They smoke exceedingly cool just the way they are.

No doubt the Falcon is a great system, probably the best thing going that isn't a full on Reverse Calabash, but that doesn't help a slow burning flake stay lit.
Allowing constant airflow through the bowl could make an effective substitute for a lot of puffing.

I'd prefer just to have an effective re-light system but smoking outside in the winter it's almost impossible to make a lighter work, at all, Butane won't vaporize below freezing and it's still practically useless at anything much lower than room temperature.

 

[condorlover1]

Very strange pipes!

 

[TimeKiller]

This one of my Kaywoodie Carburetor pipes (that I smoke, the rest are in restoration backlog). It's a good smoker but no matter how much I fiddle with plugging or not plugging the hole in the bowl I don't really notice much of a difference with the carburetor feature.
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Nice, this is the exact model I've been chasing around. Keep getting sniped, need to up my ebay game I guess. I'm fully aware and ready to accept that it could be just a gimmick, but I'm the kind who likes to burn my hands to see if the fire really is hot like they say.

 

[saltedplug]

Extra air to manage.
A gimmick to sell pipes.
In the end the smoker manages the draw; what is
the point of complicating the draw with a
nonstandard introduction of air?
How is that better?

A gimmick to sell pipes.

 

[jpmcwjr]

<< Snipped bits out >>

I'd prefer just to have an effective re-light system but smoking outside in the winter it's almost impossible to make a lighter work, at all, Butane won't vaporize below freezing and it's still practically useless at anything much lower than room temperature.

Where are you?

I seldom see temps below 30º F, and that just overnight. My butanes seem to work fine over 40º. When outside I usually keep it in a pocket to keep the temp up.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Where are you?

I seldom see temps below 30º F, and that just overnight. My butanes seem to work fine over 40º. When outside I usually keep it in a pocket to keep the temp up.

On the Prairies, it's -40 tonight.
Daily High for rest of the week is still around -20C.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Grew up in Illinois, don't remember -40, but -20 with a big wind chill.

You can put your location in your Profile—(please!—because people will forget!) That will save questions in the future as to where you live when you later mention local stores, weather, tobacco prices, availability, regulations, location of photos, wildfires, air quality, etc., etc..
Under your avatar, (top right, left most of three symbols) you choose "Account Details", which brings up "My Account". "My Location" is halfway down. Whatever you're comfortable with- town, city, county, state. Just country if you must.

 

[edger]

Extra air to manage.
A gimmick to sell pipes.
In the end the smoker manages the draw; what is
the point of complicating the draw with a
nonstandard introduction of air?
How is that better?

A gimmick to sell pipes.

Your theory vs my experience pretty much sums it up. Not a gimmick.

 

[mau1]

Here's my 1911 GBD Speciale with a carburetor.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Doesn't that hole leak tobacco douche out on your hand?

 

[anotherbob]

Doesn't that hole leak tobacco douche out on your hand?

only if you smoke hot and I don't mean puffing too fast if you catch my meaning

 

[TimeKiller]

Over last 6 weeks or so, I have acquired and tried smoking many times out of a Kaywoodie Carburetor, A Duke "Air Conditioned", and a Medico Guardsman.

In short, without trying to make a scientific, peer reviewed study on the subject, just from my own experiences, I would say the concept does kind of work, but perhaps is a solution to a problem that probably doesn't exist for most people.

I generally did find the smoke to be cooler and the bowl to burn more completely without much fussing but the downside is that the smoke is very dilute and the taste is significantly weaker. Perhaps more obvious in retrospect. This seemed to be especially problematic for already lighter or subtle blends.

Next thing is that the carb makes them many times more difficult and time consuming to clean. I doubt much more commentary or imagination is needed on that point.

Finally, a small little irksome thing that is maybe bit unfair to even mention among the other more important items like taste and temperature, but a thing that bothered the living hell out of me: they tend to have a little whistle sound while drawing.

In conclusion, I'm glad to have obtained them, and found it interesting to try them out, but they will never be what I reach for when I'm looking for a good smoke. They will probably spend most of their lives in a box somewhere, but I'm interested in giving the Guardsman more of a fair go due to it's built in screen, assuming I don't get too annoyed at the elaborate cleaning ritual required (spoiler: I definitely will).