The Pro’s And Con’s Of Disposable Vapes

Disposable Vapes. The two most spoken words when it comes to the topic of Vaping over the last 18 months. Vaping goes through fads and phases and this appears to be the latest and arguably the biggest craze that Vaping has ever seen.

They’re everywhere you go it seems. People in the streets using them in abundance, nearly every shop selling them with a vast array of colours, flavours and brands available to buy but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows unfortunately. The media is consistently filled with negative stories about them, as well as the streets being littered with them as well as the packaging they come in.

In this blog, I’m going to take a look at both sides of the argument looking at the Pro’s of using a Disposable Vape as well as the Con’s of using them also, and see if we can come to a conclusion on whether these are a benefit to the industry or a menace to not only the industry, but to society as well.

What Is A Disposable Vape?

If you didn’t already know the in’s and out’s of a Disposable Vape, I’ll explain the basics surrounding what exactly a Disposable Vape is for your benefit.

Disposable Vapes are exactly what they say on the packaging, a vaping device that is disposable once finished with. They come in various different colours, shapes and sizes but effectively all do the same thing. The most popular brands of Disposable Vapes are Elf Bar, Lost Mary, Elux and Geek Bar to name a few.

They’re all made from a plastic outer casing, and housed inside of every device is a small coil made from wire that’s been wrapped a specific amount of times to give a relatively low ohm reading (normally 1.2ohm) a cotton wick and roughly around 2ml of vape juice. Some devices have less in, but not more as this would go against the regulations set out by TPD back in 2016. And this is all powered by a small lithium-ion battery!

The devices will work until the battery runs flat, or the vape juice runs out whichever comes first basically. They’re non rechargeable and non refillable, and effectively a single use device so that when they’re finished with, they’re simply disposed of. No mess, no fuss! But it’s the disposing that’s causing a problem, which I’ll cover within the Con’s part of this blog.

The Pro’s Of Using A Disposable Vape

Right, let’s get into the debate. I’ll start with the Pro’s of using them, as there actually is some pro’s believe it or not! Not many…but there’s some!

Convenience

There’s absolutely no denying the fact that Disposable Vapes have a massive convenience factor due to the fact they are ready to go straight out of the packaging.

You don’t have to faff around with changing coils, or filling it up with vape juice like you would if you had a regular vape device like a vape pen or pod system. This also means that you won’t have to wait around for you coil to soak in the juice like you normally have to!

You can simply grab one of these from a shop, take it out of the packaging and you’ll be vaping within seconds. Very convenient if you’re on the go or needing an instant nicotine fix!

Nicotine Salt Vape Juice

Speaking of quick nicotine fix, another pro is that all Disposables use Nicotine Salt E-Liquid. This is a big pro for people looking to get a quick, instant and satisfying hit of Nicotine, as Nicotine Salt works much quicker for absorption than what standard Freebase nicotine does.

It also helps bring out the flavours of the concentrates used to make the flavours of the vape juice, which explains why the flavours are so moreish of Disposable Vapes and why people enjoy them so much!

Discreet

People are keen for discretion in their lives, especially when it comes to Vaping. They may not want to be spotted using a vape, or not want to be using something that’s going to kick out loads of clouds, and want something more discreet.

This is the advantage of using Disposables, as because they’re so small, you can literally hide it in your hand and due to the lack of battery power, you’ll be able to have a sneaky puff and it won’t emit plumes of vapour, and nobody will even notice!

Good If You Want To Try Vaping

Vaping is relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things, and much more cheaper than what the cost of smoking is. The biggest cost when it comes to vaping is the initial outlay of getting yourself set up with a starter kit, so device, coils/pods and vape juice but this still likely won’t go over the £30 mark if you’re savvy.

But the big thing with Vaping is that it isn’t for everyone, and not everyone can get on with it. It can be quite a big ask for someone who’s been a long term smoker to make the change to something different, and using an E-Cigarette compared to smoking an actual cigarette is very different and it can be one of many factors of why people don’t get on with it.

The average price of a Disposable is around £6, so this offers a relatively cost affordable as well as hassle free option for people to try out the experience of Vaping to see if they can get on with it. They don’t have to worry about coil changing, topping up vape juice etc, it’s all done for them and good to go! But this does also have a con element to it, which I’ll explain shortly..

So that summarises the Pro’s of Disposable Vapes pretty well I think. And now we move on to the Con’s of using them…

The Con’s Of Disposable Vapes

Whilst you may be thinking that using Disposables is good and has a lot of upsides, unfortunately, they’re really not great and do have a considerable amount of downsides to them as well. Let’s take a look at them now shall we?

Not A Cost Effective Way To Vape

Whilst Disposables have a relatively competitive price point, of around £6 per device, this still can work out really expensive for you if you used them consistently rather than an actual device you refill with vape juice.

Due to the fact they only contain around 2ml of vape juice and also the battery is relatively small (which is obvious because the devices are so small) chances are if you consistently puff away on a Disposable, you’re gonna be getting through one of these devices pretty much every day.

So to put it into context, you’re spending £6 every day on a Disposable…that’s £42 a week! For that amount, you can get FOURTEEN bottles of 2X Vape Juice which will last you up to 2-3 days depending how much you vape. It’s a no brainer really!

Vape Juice That’s Made In China

I mentioned about one of the Pro’s of Disposables is that they feature the use of Nicotine Salt vape juice which people can benefit from using, however the con comes in with the fact that pretty much all Disposables are made in China, and that includes the vape juice inside of them.

China do not have regulations like what we do here when it comes to ingredients that can and can’t be used in vape juice, so it remains a little unknown what you’re actually vaping due to this fact. Chances are ingredients used will be cheap quality, and the consistency will not be the same throughout every one, so do consider this!

At 2X Vape, we pride ourselves on the fact that safety and compliance are our top priority when it comes to making our range of Nic Salt vape juices. Every single ingredient we use in our vape juices is tested prior to use, and the final product itself is also put under rigorous testing to ensure compliance and regulatory specifications are met.

The Environmental Impact

You’ve established by now that Disposables are made out of plastic, and this classes them as “single use plastic” therefore they must be able to be recycled, right? WRONG! Due to the fact that they contain a lithium ion battery, this makes them “hazardous waste” and they cannot be recycled for this reason, despite them being made from plastic.

Therefore, they have to be disposed of in the general waste, and it’s estimated that over 1.5 million units are now being dumped into our landfill every single week here in the UK which is mind blowing. Plastic takes up to 200 years to decompose, so just think of the amount of these that are building up and filling our landfills, scary stuff.

They’re also littering the streets and causing harm to the surface environment as well as people are not discarding of them in waste bins, it’s just not a good look for Vaping!

20mg Nicotine Strength Isn’t For Everyone!

As I mentioned, Nic Salts are used in Disposable Vapes and the commonly used strength in all of them is 20mg, which is the highest nicotine strength that vape juice sold in the UK can be according to TPD.

This might be suitable for some, but it could be relatively unsuitable for most, especially those who may have a lower intolerance/sensitivity to nicotine. Vaping Nicotine Salts really is a completely different experience compared to Freebase or smoking cigarettes, and using a high strength like 20mg could be too much for some.

Most Disposable Vape brands only offer that one strength, and not anything lower apart from 0mg. I’m not saying all as there are some brands out there that offer 10mg for example, but it’s predominantly the 20mg strength that’s sold in shops where people may be tempted to buy one on impulse and using a high strength like this may put you off Vaping completely.

2X Vape Juice is available in both 10mg or 20mg Nicotine Strengths!

Conclusion

We reach the end of this debate looking at the Pro’s and Con’s of Disposable Vapes, and you can probably guess where I sit when it comes to the idea of Disposable Vapes. I think they’re causing a huge hinderance to the Vaping industry currently, with all of the negative media being published about them and also they’re hugely appealing to younger audiences who are not legal age to be vaping or smoking, and this is tarnishing the reputation of the Vaping Industry heavily.

Opting to use a proper vaping device that you can refill is so much more effective, and it’s not that hard to upkeep and maintain, changing to coil every week and making sure you keep topped up on vape juice, it’s really simple! And the money you’ll save compared to constantly using Disposables makes it a pretty easy choice for me personally.