You’ve heard of vape pens, vape mods, vape tubes….but vape pods? It sounds more like the vehicle of an extraterrestrial than an electronic cigarette. What are these pods, and what purpose do they serve?
Below we’ll discuss what vape pod devices are, how to find the best vape pods, which vape pod flavors we love, and where you can find vape pods for sale.
What Is the Vape Pod System?
It seems like the past five years, vaping companies have found ways to give us more power, more vapor, and more battery life. We told them we wanted to blow bigger and better clouds, and they delivered; however, they were neglecting a crucial corner of the market.
The vape pod system was designed for smokers on the hunt for sleeker alternatives to the box mod. There are thousands of people who are desperate to finally abandon their cigarettes but simply don’t want to draw attention to themselves. Nicotine gum and nicotine patches are advantageous insofar as they are discreet. Box mods, on the other hand, are usually large, bulky, and even ostentatious. Smokers who felt that e-cigarettes were too weak and vape mods too obnoxious had no viable alternative.
Today that’s not the case.
Vape pods are little vaporizers that pack a more powerful throat hit than the standard cig-a-like but can easily disappear inside your pocket. Though they can take on a variety of forms, they traditionally come in the shape of a USB memory stick or an actual round pods. The vape pod system primarily runs on cartridges and makes use of the latest vaping technology.
What Is the Difference between a Vape Pen and a Vape Pod?
Vape pods are designed to be as simple as possible. The best pod mods are ones that you can whip out and vape right away. No e-liquid, no spills, no wattage control, no removable batteries–no mess, essentially.
By contrast, a vape pen is intended for the intermediate vaper who wants a step up from e-cigs but isn’t quite ready for a proper mod yet. Vape pens offer significantly more battery life than e-cigarettes so you can vape through the afternoon without having to recharge or tote along extra batteries.
They also come with refillable cartomizers which allow users to purchase whatever e-liquid they please. In this sense, not only are vape pens more convenient, but they tend to be cost effective as well. Some even have limited wattage-voltage control.
The best refillable pod vapes are designed to be as user-friendly as possible. Vaping experts designed these vaporizers for the busy mom, the young professional, the working student, and anyone who simply doesn’t care to learn about vaping or how it works. They just want something to satisfy their cravings, and they want it to work well. They’ll pay the extra cost for the convenience.
Though the specially-designed cartridges tend to be a bit pricey, all you have to do is pop them in and puff away. Then when the battery is dead, you simply plug the USB cord into the device itself.
How Do You Find the Best Vape Pod?
Vape Pod Mod Battery Life
Vape pod battery life varies greatly and generally depends on the device’s size. A USB-sized stick will hold between 250-350mAh–the same battery capacity as a large electronic cigarette.
On the other hand, there are several vape pods that are about the size of a walky talky (if anyone still remembers those from back when cell phones were too bulky and unreliable to lug around). These will hold anywhere from 350-600mAh, which is roughly equivalent to most vape pens.
Since few vape pods are sub-ohm devices, they don’t suck battery power nearly as quickly. They’re not meant to put out large amounts of vapor, and so you can generally go further on a single charge than you might be able to with other mods.
Vape Pod Flavors
Vape pod flavors are somewhat limited simply because the vape pod system makes use of cartridges, or pods rather, and these pods are not interchangeable. That means that blu pods cannot be used in the Suorin Drop and vice versa.
That being said, because vape pod devices have become incredibly popular in the past several months, there are far more e-juice flavors available than you might have otherwise expected. For instance, South Beach Smoke offers blu pods in 11 different delicious flavors. In fact, the Trap Pod from Mig Vapor and the SMOK Rolo Badge even come with a refillable pod so you can use whatever flavor you like.
Nicotine salts are also becoming increasingly popular especially for vape pods. Spearheaded by JUUL, nicotine salts are designed to mimic the smoking experience far more precisely. Standard vape juice utilizes an extracted form of nicotine, which absorbs more readily but is harsh on the throat.
Nicotine salts aren’t nearly as aggressive, and so you can pack a far higher concentration of nicotine into your juice than you would have otherwise. The SMOK Fit Kit from Volcano E-Cigs is optimized for nicotine salts as is the Trap Mod from Mig Vapor and the Suorin Air Vape Pod Kit sold by Volcano.
Vape Pod Price
Vape pods themselves are extremely affordable. You’ll find most of them, American made or not, for between $20 and $40. Even very fancy kits like the JUUL vape pod are relatively inexpensive. That being said, you will pay heavily for the pre-filled cartridges.
Cartridges can sell for up to $4-$5 a pop even though they only contain 1.5-2.5ml, which won’t provide you much more than a day or so of vaping. It’s still a bargain compared to smoking cigarettes. If you’re a chain vaper though, your best bet is to go with a refillable vape pod simply because it will cut your costs in half.
Where Can I Find Vape Pods for Sale?
The best pod mods of 2020 and the best refillable pod vapes of 2020are sold by Volcano. However, you can find blu pods at South Beach Smoke and a number of devices on VaporFi as well. You’ll also find a selection of 3-in-1 vape pods sold from V2. These vape pods allow you to vape E-liquid, dry herbs, and oil all in one device using different cartridges. Because there’s such a high demand for vape pods though, you’ll probably start to see them everywhere pretty soon.