Disposable vapes are indefensible. Many, or maybe most, of them contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but manufacturers prefer to sell new ones.
To make a point about how wasteful this practice is—and to also make a pretty rad project and video—Chris Doel took 130 disposable vape batteries (the bigger “3,500 puff” types with model 20400 cells) found littered at a music festival and converted them into a 48-volt, 1,500-watt e-bike battery, one that powered an e-bike with almost no pedaling more than 20 miles. You can see the whole build and watch Doel zoom along trails on his YouTube video.
I’m not a vape user, but the model is the kind of thing that just makes me so angry.
In a world that makes sense:
- small, mostly metal vape chassis
- rechargeable, replaceable battery
- built-in glass reservoir with charging valve
- vape juice sold in medium to large recyclable cans with standard interface to the charging valve
In a world where Profit is God (the real world):
- disposable chassis
- disposable battery
- if it’s refillable at all, it’s via non-recyclable, mixed material, mostly plastic, proprietary cartridges and you can save 5% if you subscribe online for refills, 10% if you pay yearly, $5 credit if you refer a friend on social media using hashtag #smoovape
- probably gives you turbo cancer because the juice is made in a repurposed Freon plant that was inadequately converted and they just don’t answer the phone when the FDA or EPA call
We used to have a great vape market for those types of vapes. Since 2020 state and fed government has rinsed the market “for the kids” and basically created what we see now, a market of 98% disposable sold by overseas companies. Before that there were countless brands making batteries, tanks, etc. now a lot of smoke shops don’t even sell refillable vapes or liquid.
Yeah it’s a shame. I’ve been vaping for 14 Yeats now and seen the whole story unfold. It really sucks.
… What? I used to smoke a pack a day, now I just vape. I’ve never seen a smoke shop that doesn’t sell juice
I think part of it is something else - ease of use and ease of access.
The “world that makes sense” product exists already:
https://www.elementvape.com/box-mod-kits
While I was vaping I mixed my own liquids though, as the cost savings was immense and I could easily lower the nicotine mg/ml on my own until I quit it altogether.
Can’t buy nicotine from the wholesalers anymore to do that in the US. Feds made it illegal.
Yeah, they had started limiting what you could buy in Sweden as well. My last time mixing I bought a silly amount of 18mg/ml 10ml strong menthol bottles and large 70/30 PG/VG bottles and ended up with my own 3mg/ml mixture that still tasted menthol, although not as overwhelmingly so.
You totally can. I don’t know exactly what the laws are because it’s intentionally not clear but it’s the same process as before, order from a diy website, it comes in the mail, make your stuff at home. I think the difference is that it’s harder for websites to get the license to sell it but there are still some sites out there.
