At its root, vaping is a tool that allows people to reduce the harm of smoking by substituting one form of nicotine use for another. For some people, vaping blossoms into a hobby and an obsession. Those people are always looking for ways to upgrade their vaping hardware and get more out of the hardware they have.
For others, though, vaping never evolves past what it was initially – a way to get off of tobacco. Those people aren’t interested in vaping as a hobby. They simply want to vape in the easiest way possible and replace their nicotine consumption with a less harmful alternative without worrying about whether they’re doing things right or thinking about whether there’s something they should be doing to make the experience better.
Do you consider yourself a member of the second group? If you do, this article is for you. These are the four simplest types of vaping devices on the market. Pick one of these to make your vaping experience as smooth and user friendly as it can possibly be.
Cigalikes
The cigalike is the tried-and-true granddaddy of the e-cigarette world. It looks like a cigarette, and you can hold it between two fingers like a cigarette. It’s also the most reliable type of vaping device that you can buy. The manufacturers of cigalikes have been refining the technology for more than 10 years, and you can expect today’s cigalikes to deliver nonstop trouble-free performance.
In the United States, pod systems like JUUL tend to get all of the attention. Outside the U.S., though, JUUL hasn’t caught on the way it has here. Among those who are new to vaping, the cigalike still reigns supreme, and brands like V2 E-Cigarettes UK manufacture cigalikes that beginners love.
The big difference between cigalikes and pre-filled pod systems like JUUL is that cigalikes have gone through a great deal more refinement over the years. JUUL was released right before the FDA froze the vaping market in the United States in 2016. It’s still essentially the same device as it was when it first came out five years ago.
Cigalikes have remained essentially unchanged since that time as well, but they’ve been around since the beginning of the vaping industry and had already gone through several revisions when the FDA froze the market. Cigalikes don’t tend to suffer from problems like leaking and weak hits as pod systems often can.
Disposable E-Cigarettes
A disposable e-cigarette is a single-use vaping device that’s typically very small and delivers around the same number of puffs that you would get from a pack of cigarettes. Early disposable e-cigarettes mimicked the appearance of tobacco cigarettes, and more recent disposable vapes piggyback on JUUL’s success by copying the style of that device. In either case, though, the mode of operation is the same. The device comes out of the package fully charged and ready to use, and you use it simply by puffing on it. When it stops producing vapor, it’s time to throw it away.
In the United States, one of the major draws of disposable e-cigarettes is that they’re available in many different flavors. The U.S. government has banned replaceable pods and cartridges for e-cigarettes in flavors other than tobacco and menthol, so those who want to enjoy those flavors will generally need to buy vaping devices designed for use with bottled e-liquids. The only exception to that rule – until and unless the U.S. changes the law – is disposable e-cigarettes. So, for that reason, disposable vapes can be quite nice to use. They don’t require charging or refilling, and they’re ready to use right out of the package.
Disposable vapes do have a major drawback, though, in that they’re incredibly expensive compared to other vaping devices. If you need to buy a disposable e-cigarette every day, you’ll pay more to vape than you would pay for cigarettes.
Pod Vaping Systems
As mentioned above, pod systems are the e-cigarettes that have largely replaced cigalikes in the United States. Pod systems are slightly larger than cigalikes, so they offer slightly better battery life and tend to store a bit more e-liquid. While cigalikes have twist-on refill cartridges, pod systems have push-in pods. Otherwise, they’re much the same; if you have a pod system that uses pre-filled pods, you’ll use it by simply pushing in a pod and puffing on the device as you would a cigarette.
In addition to the increased battery life and e-liquid storage, pod systems feature an additional enhancement – nicotine salt e-liquid – that cigalikes lack. Nicotine salt e-liquid comes in much higher strengths than the e-liquids that cigalikes use, and the higher strength means that a pod system can deliver a very strong nicotine kick. Nicotine salt e-liquid can be a major benefit for smokers who have high nicotine needs and might find it difficult to switch to vaping. The drawback of pod systems, though, is that some of them suffer from reliability issues such as leaking and misfiring. As we mentioned above, reliability issues like those are extremely rare with cigalikes because those devices have undergone significant refinement over the years.
Vape Pens
A vape pen is the most complicated type of vaping device that can still be thought of as an e-cigarette for beginners. While vape pens are significantly larger than tobacco cigarettes, their sleek pen shape means that they’re still light and pocketable. Owing to their larger size, vape pens offer significantly more e-liquid capacity and battery life than cigalikes and pod systems. Vape pens also tend to offer much greater vapor production. Their vapor production is so much greater, in fact, that switching from a smaller device like a cigalike to a vape pen generally means that you’ll also need to lower the nicotine strength of your e-liquid.
While a vape pen can deliver amazing performance compared to other small vaping devices, it’s also the most difficult type of vaping device on this list to use. Using a vape pen means that you’ll need to keep your tank full and replace your device’s atomizer coil periodically. However, it also means that you can use your vaping device with any of the hundreds of different e-liquids in the world instead of the few flavors available from just one manufacturer.