To properly conduct and enhance the smoking experience that any hookah can provide its owner, it is strongly recommended that a charcoal screen is used so that the heat will be directed and controlled against the hookah tobacco or molasses. These screens are often made of aluminium foil and can be made out of the kitchen foil that almost everyone has in their kitchens.

In other cases, the aluminium foil that will be used as a charcoal screen will come pre-set for the use of the hookah, with rounded edges and manufactured holes. The holes in the aluminium foil will guarantee that the heat from the charcoal reaches the hookah tobacco or molasses, but at the same time will prevent this heat from burning the hookah tobacco or molasses.

Hookah connoisseurs do not recommend the use of the pre-set hookah charcoal screens that have manufactured holes in them, since most of these products have holes that are too big and will cause the opposite effect to which they are intended. In any case, they strongly recommend that the holes in the charcoal screen are made by hand with a tooth pick, while others do recommend the pre-set ones with the holes already made.

In the end the type of holes, size and disposition is a matter of preference and the best way to sort this out is by experimentation.