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Disposable vapes are the most popular vaping devices in the world today, and there are plenty of good reasons for that. Mostly, people love disposable vapes because they’re so much more convenient than other types of vapes. With a disposable vape, you don’t have to configure anything – and don’t have to know anything about vaping at all – in order to have a good experience.
In fact, you might even wish that you could use your favorite disposable vape over and over – but unfortunately, you can’t. After all, the word “disposable” is right there in the device’s name.
What if that weren’t true, though? Can you replace the battery in a disposable vape when it dies and continue using the same device indefinitely?
The answer to this question is “yes,” and it’s also “no.” It is technically possible to replace the battery in a disposable vape. Maybe you’re curious about this, for instance, if you’ve had the misfortune of buying a device that doesn’t work. Some disposable vapes are filled with extracts that are quite expensive, and you certainly don’t want to waste it.
As you’re about to learn, though, you’re probably better off returning a non-functional disposable vape to the retailer instead of replacing the battery – and if you can’t return the device, you need to find a better vape shop.
Here are the reasons why attempting to replace the battery in a disposable vape is a bad idea.
You’d Need to Open the Device
Before you could even begin to replace the battery in a disposable vape, you’d need to open the device. In some cases, that’s not difficult – you simply need to pop the mouthpiece or bottom cap off of the device and slide the internal components out. Newer types of disposable vapes, however, aren’t so easy to open. It’s actually possible in some cases to damage a disposable vape permanently if you try to open it.
You’d Need to Be Handy with a Soldering Iron
Once you’ve opened your disposable vape, you’ll need to remove the original battery. This isn’t easy, though, because disposable vapes don’t use socketed batteries that you can simply pull out. Instead, they generally use pouch-style batteries with soldered connections. Before you can remove the original battery from the device, you’ll need to cut the wire or break the solder points connecting the battery to the circuit board. The battery also may be secured in place with glue or a strip of tape. Once you’ve done all of that, you’ll need to solder the new battery to the circuit board.
If you make a mistake at any stage of this process, you could ruin the device permanently. Needless to say, soldering a lithium-ion battery to a circuit board is also potentially dangerous.
You’d Need to Replace the Battery with an Exact Match
Speaking of things that are potentially dangerous, you can’t just replace the battery in a disposable vape with any lithium-ion battery pack because the device’s charging circuitry is designed to work with a battery that has specific parameters and capabilities. If you don’t use an identical replacement, the process could fail catastrophically because the charging circuitry may not know how to handle the new battery.
Unless you’re a serious electronics hobbyist, it’ll be difficult for you to confirm that the replacement battery will be compatible with your device. If you’re using a disposable vape with a proprietary battery, it’s even possible that you won’t be able to find an identical replacement.
You Can’t Refill a Disposable Vape Without Sacrificing Flavor Quality
Let’s suppose that, despite the warnings in this article, you decided to replace the battery in your disposable vape anyway. Even if you’re successful, it’s important for you to understand that you’re not going to have the experience you want from a flavor standpoint.
Every vaping device has an atomizer coil that’s used as a heating element to vaporize the e-liquid or oil. The coil is never intended to be a permanent component because a layer of residue builds up on it as you use your device. The residue reduces the coil’s performance, and it also creates a burnt flavor that gets worse as you continue using the coil.
When you use a standard refillable vaping device, you replace the coil periodically to keep the device’s flavor quality and performance as high as they can be. In a disposable vape, though, replacing the coil is usually impossible. Even if you’re able to replace the battery and refill the device, you won’t be happy with the flavor quality.
If You Want a Reusable Vape, Buy One Designed for the Job
In this article, we hope we’ve impressed upon you that trying to replace the battery in a disposable vape simply isn’t worth the trouble. Unless you’re extremely handy with electronics, the replacement isn’t likely to be successful and could potentially even be dangerous. Even if you do replace the battery successfully, you’ll still only have half of a vaping device because there’s no way to replace the coil and prevent the flavor quality from declining. Putting a new battery in a disposable vape is an enormous amount of trouble for little return.
If you want a vaping device that you can use over and over, you need to step up to a rechargeable vape battery like one of these. A rechargeable battery typically holds a good charge through hundreds of charge-discharge cycles, which means that you can conceivably use the same battery for many months or even as long as a year. In the meantime, you’ll always enjoy top-quality flavor and performance since you can replace the cartridge whenever you like.
If you’re going to use disposable vapes, you should do so in a way that plays to the strengths of that type of device. A disposable vape is meant to provide satisfaction and pleasure on demand, without the inconvenience of maintaining the hardware. If you’re interested in replacing the battery in a disposable vape, maintaining a vaping device probably isn’t a problem for you. In that case, you’ll be much happier with a device that’s refillable and rechargeable.