EZ-Vape® Vape 101 Guide

From Top To Bottom.

Mouthpiece

Firstly, the mouthpiece connects to the end of your e-cigarette vaporizer’s cartomizer. The mouthpiece is included to allow for a comfortable draw that is easy to use.  While most e-cigarette mouthpieces are detachable from a cartomizer, some are built in as one with the cartomizer and cannot be replaced.

Mouthpieces come in a huge variety of different materials, lengths and sizes, however most mouthpieces outside large RDA chuff mouthpieces are made to fit the standard 510 size.

Mouthpieces are all about aesthetics, preference and some special mouthpieces have special features such as adjustable airflow and or spit / splash guards.

Cartomizer (Tank)

The cartomizer or “Tank” connects to the opposite end of the atomizer. Cartomizers can be both opaque and transparent. This allows you to see the liquid levels within, it may also be referred to as a ‘clearomizer’ but the function is the same.

It’s the vessel that holds your e-juice, and you simply refill it when it gets low. Some cartomizers have detachable mouthpieces, some do not.

Atomizer (Coil)

The atomizer starts at the female connector of the battery pack in your e-cigarette vaporizer and is usually referred to as a “Coil” (although this is but one component of the atomizer.) but sometimes people use the word atomizer to define the tank (cartomizer) section as well.

The atomizer actually produces the vapour of your e-cigarette and contains wire (usually kanthal.) that is “Coiled” around or within a wick (usually organic cotton) that saturates itself with the e-juice from your cartomizer. The atomizer is heated when the e-cigarettes button is pressed and once the atomizer is hot enough to vaporize e-juices, it begins converting the wicked e-juice from liquid to vapour form.

You will need to change your atomizer overtime, based on many different factors such as the level of power you use to vape, the particular juice you are vaping and the quality and construction of the atomizer itself. Always ensure that your atomizer’s wick is at all times saturated and to keep your cartomizer filled at all times to prevent dry hits and to prolong your atomizer life.

You will know when it’s time to change your atomizer as it gets more and more abused overtime, giving you less flavour and draw.

And eventually a bad cardboard or burnt popcorn like taste as the wick gets old. Usually one needs to replace atomizers every two to four weeks in regards to how and how often you use it.

Devices

All e-cigarette vaporizers require a battery pack that come in the form of a device that has an internal, unremovable, rechargeable battery.

Or a box (referred to as a “Mod”) that contains exchangeable, rechargeable batteries.

The modern interchangeable battery e-cigarette uses lithium-ion batteries, these power sources are more eco-friendly than alkaline batteries and they carry longer, larger charges and require less time to charge completely.

And are much safer and better for the environment than conventional AA,AAA batteries because they are re-usable, last much longer and have a much lower chance of leaking their chemicals.

Regulated Devices

Devices come in two forms regardless of if they have removable batteries or a in-removable internal battery: Regulated and Unregulated (although there are some hybrids on the market as well.)

In simple terms, a regulated device uses a digital chip with many safety measures and allows one to set the voltage and watts at any given time being driven to the atomizer and will ONLY drive that setting of power, either having enough charge to provide that setting of power or entirely refusing to fire, giving you a low battery indicator. The vapour experience is NOT based on battery life with a regulated device, although as a battery becomes especially low it may “Hit” a little bit soft (but some regulated devices have a semi-unregulated mode such as bypass, essentially circumventing this.)

Most modern devices are regulated and are much safer and more convenient in general, but you must ensure the proper settings for the atomizer you are using or you may damage your atomizer by using too much power or the device if you attempt to fire a atomizer outside the resistance range of your device (generally not an issue if you are using pre-made atomizers and not mish-mashing brands of atomizers and devices.)

Unregulated Devices

An unregulated device (One without a regulator chip.) however usually doesn’t or has only limited forms of power settings. These are usually older devices or utilitarian in design; specially tailored towards advanced users. They provide a direct feed of power — how much power? It’s based on your batteries voltage, most 18650 batteries at full charge are 4.2 volts with a nominal of 3.7 volts.

A properly charged battery allows the system to work as desired, while if a battery’s charge is too low the system may become under-powered in the case of an unregulated device, or a device in “Bypass” mode, effecting the draw offered by the vaporizer based on battery life.

Some unregulated devices have basic security features similar to regulated devices, but MOST devices that are truly unregulated with absolutely no digital capabilities that have fully analog circuits are called “Mechanical Boxes” or “Mechanical Mods” and essentially are for the truly advanced users only as they do not have any safety features.

And this concludes the basics of what an e-cigarette is as well as the components that comprise them and some of the terms related.

Even if your device has an internal battery, the next section is the most important, as a basic understanding of the lithium-ion batteries that are used with e-cigarettes and the precautions you should be taking is in all of our best interests.

Batteries

Especially with interchangeable battery devices, your choice of battery is an important factor into the way you vape, different batteries drain at different rates and hold different amounts of current. We highly suggest checking out the Battery Safety 101 Page for a simpler guide to what you should and shouldn’t be doing with your batteries.

The truth is that the battery cells used with e-cigarettes are very, very similar and in many cases the exact same as you will find in cell phones, tablets and electronics across the world. Most laptop battery packs even use 18650 style batteries in their internals to provide power to your laptop, as do most things that use battery packs such as construction tools.

The most commonly used batteries in vaping for GOOD REASON (Due to “Amperage Rating” which we’ll cover in a second.) by far are the 18650 and 26650 batteries. What is the difference? Simply: it’s the size of the battery itself, much like an AAA or AA battery for example, the 26650 is bigger than the 18650.

Other than that however, two different models of a battery can be different in regards to capacity and Amperage Rating, which is how much “load” or “strain” the battery has been rated to endure safely and they can also differ in voltage and chemical makeup which is important. (This applies to all forms of internal batteries as well.)

So, what are the characteristics of different batteries? Well it comes down to a few factors we will go over here lightly.

What are the Characteristics of Batteries?

mAh, or “Milliampere Hours” in simple terms is the capacity of the battery, the higher the mAh of a battery the more energy it contains at a full charge.

Amperage Rating or “Amps” is simply how much “load” or “strain” the battery has been rated to handle and relates to OHMS LAW. To figure out how much you are straining your batteries, input your atomizers resistance and your devices set wattage/voltage into an OHMS LAW CALCULATOR.

Generally, the higher the mAh of a battery the lower the Amperage Rating, meaning the battery can take less electrical abuse BUT you need to charge or swap batteries less often. Or in reverse, the battery can handle more electrical abuse safely but you will be charging or swapping batteries more often.

There are two Amperage Ratings, one is the “Constant” Amperage Rating which is how many Amps a battery can handle CONSTANTLY (Firing constantly aka holding the fire button. This is what is displayed commonly.)

In Mechs, it becomes important; the second Amperage Rating is “Pulse” Amperage Rating which is how many Amps a battery can handle in PULSES! (In other words, Quick Pules / Non-Continuous Firing.)

Voltage in relation to batteries is simply what the Maximum or sometimes the “Optimal” Voltage at full charge is for a given battery. This only matters if you are using an unregulated device. Most 18650’s are 4.2 volts at Maximum charge and have an “Optimal / Nominal” Voltage Rating of 3.6 – 3.8 Volts which is the “Halfway Charged” point.

This doesn’t entirely cover all the technicalities of batteries but should provide you with enough of a starting point that if you buy authentic batteries from authentic distributors such as Sony, Efest & Samsung from authentic businesses (such as us!) and you have checked what your Amperage and mAh needs are and so long as a battery is rated 20A (Continuous / Constant) and above, choosing a battery for yourself shouldn’t be too hard.

Are Batteries and Vaporizers Dangerous?

Battery technology has moved forward and many safety measures have been implemented and the culture of vaping has set standards and only recommends specialized, high drain batteries that have been standard now for quite a few years and AUTHENTIC, HIGH QUALITY batteries 99% of the time don’t just randomly compress their contained energy and explode anymore. And in the rare cases they do, human error is to blame.

Common sense is your best ally when it comes to electronics of any kind, don’t place your batteries next to a sink, don’t place them on a steel or metal table or surface, keep them dry and away from metal objects. Don’t remove any of the plastic wrapping from your battery, if you see any exposed metal or cuts in the wrapping of your battery, be cautious and get a new battery or re-wrap it.

We cannot stress enough that one uses common sense when it comes to vaporizers.

The truth is that the battery cells used with e-cigarettes are very, very similar and in many cases the exact same as you will find in cell phones, tablets and electronics across the world. Most laptop battery packs even use multiple 18650 style batteries in their internals to provide power to your laptop, as do most things that use battery packs such as construction tools.

The most commonly used batteries in vaping for GOOD REASON (Due to their High Drain Rate due to their chemical makeup and better “Amperage Rating” which we’ll cover below.) by far are the 18650 and 26650 batteries. What is the difference? Simply: it’s the size of the battery itself, much like an AAA or AA battery for example, the 26650 is bigger than the 18650.

Other than that however, two different models of a battery can be different in regards to capacity and Amperage Rating, which is how much “load” or “strain” the battery has been rated to endure safely and they can also differ in voltage and chemical makeup which is important. (This applies to all forms of internal batteries as well.)

Although nowadays, all of these details aren’t as pressing as they used to be as battery technology has moved forward and many safety measures have become standard.

Venting

You may have noticed most devices have holes or air vents that go to the battery compartment of the device, this is for a safety measure called “Venting”. Batteries are made with a chip protection system where if there is any intense temperatures, shorts or problems, the battery will “Vent” it’s chemicals and start smoking to release the pressure within the battery instead of potentially building pressure, that might make the battery explode.

Most electronics that we mentioned before such as construction tools, phones and tablets with their batteries, sometime lack this protection. And in conclusion, there is nothing magical or unknown, or otherworldly that makes the proper specialized batteries, used properly by the user in a personal vaporizer that makes a vaporizer anymore dangerous than ANY OTHER battery powered device you use in your day to day life.

The warnings provided on this page are for your safety and we just want to reassure you that batteries are not inherently dangerous if handled PROPERLY with a mind to COMMON SENSE. Would you take the battery out of your phone and put it in your pocket full of change or toss them into a pool of water? This is a danger even with more common batteries such as AAA, AA, C batteries. If you do this, it’s not the battery that is flawed.

So if you happen to make a battery Vent and you start seeing smoke, this is what you should attempt to do.

ISOLATE IT FROM OTHERS, FIND THE NEAREST EXIT AND LEAVE THE BATTERIES/DEVICE OUTSIDE (NOT IN RAIN OR WATER!) AND GIVE IT AN HOUR EVEN AFTER IT STOPS SMOKING!
If there are FLAMES, DO NOT PANIC and CONTINUE TO ISOLATE IT, DO NOT TRY TO SUFFOCATE OR DOUSE THE FLAMES AND TAKE EXTRA PRECAUTION!

AVOID TOSSING OR THROWING THE DEVICE AROUND OTHERS, DO NOT PANIC! Batteries are INTENDED TO DO THIS! TOSS OR THROW ONLY IF IT IS SAFE TO DO SO AND NEVER THROW AT GREAT HEIGHT!

Make sure before attempting to investigate what went wrong that you have given it ample time for the batteries to Vent, the device and batteries to cool down after venting and patiently waiting long after such. When you go to remove the now likely destroyed batteries, take a safety precaution and ground yourself by touching a large piece of metal before attempting to remove them.

If you have any problems or are skittish to do this, or simply cannot, get an experienced person to do so and get an experienced eye on what happened to realize what went wrong.

Remember, a Venting vaporizer battery is an intended safety precaution that is being done to AVOID an explosion, which is not a luxury you have with other electronics. People make mistakes with technology and this is to be expected, but we would take a Venting battery over a lethal battery such as the one in your phone that might explode before it even smokes, every day of the week.

If you are just starting out with a kit; don’t worry too much about this and get an experienced opinion from our staff, we only deal in authentic, high quality specialized batteries. You’re in good hands!

Advanced Atomizers (RBA, RDA, RTA, RDTA.)

With the importance of battery safety in mind, below we will go over some more advanced aspects of vaporizers and explain the “Next Level,”as many refer to it.

Vaporizers can be more than just a harm reduction method and can be quite a fun hobby for somebody interested in electronics, or maybe you are just looking for a bigger cloud or a more flavourful experience than the standard cartomizers and their pre-built coils provide. This is where Rebuildable Atomizers come in!

RBA (Rebuildable Atomizer)

RBA or Rebuildable Atomizer is a general term for any atomizer that can be Rebuilt. So what is rebuilding?

A Rebuildable Atomizer unlike a standard atomizer takes a bit of time and patience to “Build” which consists of making your own coils, or buying pre-wound coils. Installation of them and the wicking of cotton (or other wick material) is done by yourself. Essentially it lets the user decide the size, ohm, coil material and wicking material, there is no true “Best Way” as it’s a personal opinion and lets one decide exactly how they wish to vape from multi-coil setups for clouds to single coil setups for the best flavour or to accent certain flavours in an e-juice using your own preferred materials.

Many “Tanks” offer an RBA/RTA option as a separate accessory that you can purchase and are quite an affordable way of getting into building without having to buy a new device or tank.

An RBA is cheaper than standard un-rebuildable Atomizers to replace in the long run as you can reuse your coils multiple times over by only replacing the cotton (or other wick material) and burning off or “Resetting” your coils, (And then brushing them off) essentially making them as good as new. Unlike with a prebuilt cartomizer coil that you would normally discard entirely for a new one. However there are some things you will need to actually start building.

You are going to need a coil winder that lets you actually wrap your coil. You are going to need an Ohm Reader that shows you the resistance of what you build, a spool of wire (we highly suggest starting with Kanthal 24 or 22 AWG) and a wicking material (we suggest ORGANIC no-boil cotton to start out with.) We won’t be going over HOW to build here as there is already a plethora of information on the internet, we highly suggest looking at some tutorials and to learn from watching others in our stores before you ever attempt to build for yourself and for you to use an OHMS LAW CALCULATOR to make sure that you are VAPING SAFELY!

An Ohm Reader is a REQUIREMENT FOR BUILDING, and you should always test a build before firing it and to double check with the device & batteries you are using to fire it with can handle the AMPERAGE (you can figure out amperage load via an OHMS LAW CALCULATOR.) put on the batteries of your device and that it can handle the RESISTANCE of your builds. Again, please do some research and look at tutorials before attempting any of this and don’t trust your device, always use a dedicated Ohm Reader.

Don’t ever while firing a coil touch the coil to metal or the RBA Housing itself other than in the positive and negative posts as this can cause a coil to short to ground, to manipulate a coil, we highly suggest Ceramic Tweezers. A good way of getting everything you will need to build is to purchase a Build Kit, which includes all of the above and more in a compact case.

You can find all of the mentioned tools and build kits in Mod Accessories.

If you use an interchangeable battery device, PLEASE DO NOT keep spare batteries loosely on your person.

Buy a Battery Case!

RDA (Rebuildable Deck Atomizer)

An RDA or “Rebuildable Deck Atomizer” often called a “Dripper” is essentially the exact same thing as an RBA however it is a standalone unit that doesn’t have a “Tank,” it is literally a Deck with much more room for coils and wick than a standard cartomizer, to allow for much larger coil build setups and much, much more airflow than a conventional tank.

You need to “Drip” your juice on the coils and ensure they are saturated yourself manually, however as an RDA doesn’t have a conventional “Tank,” usually an RDA has something called a “Juice Well” which is just a hollow section that allows a couple puffs worth of juice to sit below the coils and be sucked up by the wick material, but past that you must manually “Drip” your juice on your coils in-between puffs.

If you are really into building or you want to try multi-coil setups an RDA is what you want! They provide the biggest clouds and the most pronounced flavor due to their simple design and no-frills nature, although they are a commitment.

RTA (Rebuildable Tank Atomizer), RDTA (Rebuildable Dripping Tank Atomizer)

An RTA simply refers to any Tank that is Rebuildable (Such as those with an installed RBA Option) RDTA or Rebuildable Dripping Tank Atomizers however are a hybrid combination of an RTA and an RDA.

They are the size of an RDA with a Deck inside that is surrounded by a tank, essentially taking the fuss out of dripping your liquid manually like you would with a standard RDA. These RDTA devices however are more tailored towards the advanced and offer a huge amount of flexibility and options that may be a bit overwhelming for someone new to building and wicking.

You may wish to start with just an RTA/RBA setup or a dedicated RDA before trying an RDTA, but starting with one is not impossible nor much harder (Just a bit different of a process.) than an RDA. Again, do some research and look at reviews and tutorials for a given atomizer and decide for yourself what is manageable and practical for you. And PLEASE! VAPE SAFELY!

Hybrid Mechanical Mods

Hybrid Mechanical Mods, sometimes called Hybrid Mechs or Hybrid Mods take the Unregulated Devices we’ve already displayed, but they usually have a threaded pin hole instead of a 510 connector with a separate pin like 99% of all the other Devices do.

To fire the Hybrid you are putting the Atomizer Pin in DIRECT contact with the Battery! This makes Hybrids even more bare-bones than most Mechanical Mods, you need to be VERY careful and precise and know what you are doing, matching Batteries to individual mods and matching different RDA, RDTA, Tanks to individual Hybrids that THEY FIT PROPERLY ON.

The most important thing with Hybrid Safety is having ADJUSTABLE 510 PINS on your Atomizer of choice, these usually have a screw on the contact of the pin you can turn to lengthen or shorten the pin to ensure PROPER, SECURE BATTERY CONTACT WHEN YOU PUSH THE FIRE BUTTON.

These are not to be messed with By Beginners as there’s nothing in between that protects the circuitry and in THEORY they offer the quickest “Ramp” up of any device, given that the Atomizer Pin is clean of juice and corrosion and the Battery Contact is also clean.

They in THEORY “Ramp” up quicker because there’s nothing potentially dampening the current on the flip side of their utterly simple design.

Hybrid Mods at one time were the only reliable vaporizers available years and years ago, but nowadays are impractical and unsafe for a lot of people other than the experienced and Regulated Devices have become much better, becoming more reliable, safe and convenient than the Hybrids of old!

This concludes our expansive guide to Vaporizers and hopefully it has cleared certain topics for you, we always stock the newest Vaporizing Vapour Products at all of our EZ-Vape® Locations in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. We are always happy to help at any of our 20 Locations!