The Hoob Molasses Catcher (Mol Catcher for short) is an accessory that keeps glycerin from going through your bowl and into your base. The mol catcher is an accessory that I’ve only seen pop up in the last year or so. The product was was popularized in Europe and Russia and in the past few months has been making its way to the states. This is the first mol catcher I’ve owned and I got it because I frequently find glycerin going into my base. I’ve used this for around 50 sessions now. Let’s find out how it works and determine if it’s worth your money.It comes in a small cardboard box.Hoob’s Mol Catcher has a stainless steel construction. I really like the look of it versus some other mol catchers I’ve seen on the market. It’s much more clean and sleek. The Hoob Mol Catcher measures 2.5 inches (6.35 cm) which seems to be about standard compared to other mol catchers. It weighs 5.78 ounces (164 g). This heftiness helps it stay balanced and secured onto the bowl port.The tank holds 5 ml of liquid. I’ve used it for several bowls in a row when repeating flavors and never had it fill up to the top. The cap on the inside serves as a defense to pieces of tobacco that fall through the bowl while the glycerin falls into the lower chamber. The threadings on both the top cap and the cap inside the Hoob Mol Catcher are thick and sturdy and I don’t expect to see cross threading in the future.The eight holes on this mol catcher are large enough to only very slightly restrict the airflow of the pipe. In some cases I could hardly notice the difference, most of the time I didn’t notice it at all. From what I’ve been told by others this is a trade off you’ll be making with the current lineup of mol catchers on the market. If you pair the product with a modern pipe that has a wide open draw, you will be hard pressed to see a significant change.Hoob claims that their Mol Catcher fits on all standard bowl ports and I found that to be the case. It fits on all ten of the pipes I own. Some a little better than others but I’m confident that it won’t fall off when transporting my pipe with the bowl and mol catcher on from my kitchen to wherever I choose to smoke. When I tried this product with my bowl collection, I found that there are a few bowls that it doesn’t support comfortably with my selection of grommets. Mostly the ones with very large bottom openings. The vast majority of bowls will fit but some I’m just not comfortable enough to use with this mol catcher. Out of my many hours of testing there was only one time where I found a single leaf of tobacco in my base but the water in my base never became discolored. Honestly I’m a big fan of the concept of this product and what it aims to accomplish. Thanks to the durable construction of the device and how well it functions for what it’s supposed to do, I feel that I got my money’s worth. At 50 USD, it’s a steep price but one I’m willing to pay for quality. If you’re interested in this Hoob Mol Catcher, currently 5starhookah is the only site I found that sells it in the US. Other options are available at various prices but I can’t vouch for them as this is the only one I’ve tried. Will it become a common accessory in the hookah market? That seems to be the case. Is it a necessary accessory? Definitely not but I like it for the purpose it serves–keeping my stem and base nice and clean. I see myself using (and enjoying) this for a long time to come.
