What is going on with my filter?

[OverMountain]

Normally I switch charcoal filters every smoke. After 3 or 4 bowls, this filter has been colored in perfect stripes on opposite sides.

The fit in the Vauen pipe is tight and seemingly perfect. Any ideas?

 

[didimauw]

The only filters I use are balsa. And they just get black and gross on the shank end. Hardly all the way through at all.

 

[woodsroad]

They aren't really filters, they are absorbents.

 

[bullet08]

That looks like cig butt after dipping it into some drink and smoking.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Normally I switch charcoal filters every smoke. After 3 or 4 bowls, this filter has been colored in perfect stripes on opposite sides.

The fit in the Vauen pipe is tight and seemingly perfect. Any ideas?

Given the tight fit, those might be contact points where the cardboard of the filter are more compressed and the juices are soaking from layer to layer, or tar loaded smoke is condensing on the outside of the filter against the interior of the filter chamber and pooling/soaking in from the outside. Just a guess.

 

[OverMountain]

That looks like cig butt after dipping it into some drink and smoking.

That was 4 bowls of SPC Deception Pass. Definitely smoking the “dirty bird”.

 

[Searock Fan]

Change to balsa. There is even some posts about how you can do it on the cheap.