What Are the Differences Between an E-Cigarette and a Vape Kit?

If you’ve decided to switch from smoking to vaping, you’ve made an incredibly important choice. Years from now, you’re going to look back on that event as a moment that significantly changed the rest of your life. In order for vaping to have that kind of life-changing impact, though, you need to actually complete the switch – you need to convert fully to vaping and stop smoking. To ensure that you’ll be able to switch from smoking to vaping successfully, you need to choose the right vaping device for your needs.

Many people buy their first vaping devices from traditional tobacco retailers like supermarkets, convenience stores, and gas stations. They do that because they see the e-cigarette product displays when they go to those stores to buy cigarettes. However, maybe you haven’t chosen your first vaping device yet. Perhaps you’ve spent a bit of time doing some research first, and you’ve discovered that the e-cigarettes at your favorite convenience store look extremely different from the vape kits available at a site like Innokin.com.

What are the differences between e-cigarettes and vape kits, and why is it that vape shops never seem to sell the same types of e-cigs that you see at traditional tobacco retailers? Those are the questions that we’re going to explore in this comparison of e-cigarettes vs. vape kits. Let’s help you buy the perfect vaping device for your needs.

What Is an E-Cigarette?

An e-cigarette is a vaping device that’s pre-filled with e-liquid. There are two common types of e-cigs that you’ll find at traditional tobacco retailers: disposable vapes and pre-filled pod systems. A disposable vape has its entire e-liquid supply in a single self-contained package. You’ll use the device until it runs out of vape juice, and then you’ll dispose of it.

With a pre-filled pod-based e-cigarette, on the other hand, the e-liquid comes in removable pods. When a pod is empty, you’ll discard it and replace it with a new pod. The device itself is rechargeable.

Traditional e-cigarettes have two main characteristics that make them attractive to first-time vapers. The first characteristic is that they’re available at traditional tobacco retailers, and you’re already shopping at those stores if you’re a smoker. The second characteristic is that they’re convenient. A disposable e-cig is ready to use out of the package, and pre-filled pod systems are similarly easy to use.

The convenience of traditional e-cigarettes, however, comes at a cost.

The High Cost of Convenient E-Cigarettes

If traditional e-cigarettes are the easiest vaping devices to use – and they’re available in the same stores where you’d ordinarily buy tobacco products – why don’t all vapers use those devices? As it turns out, traditional e-cigarettes have two very large drawbacks that can significantly affect the quality of your vaping experience. Those drawbacks are large enough that they can potentially reduce your chance to switch from smoking to vaping successfully.

Traditional E-Cigarettes Cost More Than Vape Kits

The first and biggest drawback of traditional e-cigarettes is that they’re the most expensive vaping devices to use. In some cases, using a pre-filled e-cig may actually cost nearly as much as smoking. That’s completely unnecessary. Among the many other benefits, switching from smoking to vaping is supposed to help you save money.

• Every time you buy a disposable e-cigarette, you’re buying a battery, a circuit board and an integrated circuit. The costs of those components add up quickly.
• E-cigarettes with pre-filled pods or cartridges are proprietary devices that work only with the pods or cartridges designed for them. The makers of proprietary e-cigarettes typically charge high prices for refill pods because you can’t buy the pods from third-party manufacturers.

Traditional E-Cigarettes Offer Fewer Flavors Than Vape Kits

When you use a traditional e-cig, you’re not just paying more for vaping than you need to – you’re also paying an inflated cost for a lower-quality experience. That’s because pre-filled vaping devices never offer the same level of flavor variety that you can get with a refillable vape kit. No pre-filled vaping device has more than just a small handful of different e-liquid flavors available. In some nations and localities, vaping regulations only allow manufacturers to offer pre-filled vaping devices in tobacco and menthol flavors. In most cases, however, those flavor restrictions do not apply to the bottled e-liquid that you’d use with a refillable vape kit.

As it turns out, the “best e-cig” isn’t actually an e-cigarette at all.

What Is a Vape Kit?

Now that we’ve explained what an e-cigarette is, what is a vape kit? As you might have surmised from reading the rest of this article, the main difference between e-cigarettes vs. vape kits is that vape kits are designed to be both rechargeable and refillable. That one difference will have a profound effect on your vaping experience.

The other difference between e-cigarettes and vape kits is that you may not be able to find vape kits at most traditional tobacco retailers. That’s because retailers like supermarkets, gas stations, and convenience stores have existing relationships with the makers of tobacco products. Therefore, they generally carry the vaping devices made by those companies rather than offering the types of vape kits that enthusiasts usually prefer. To buy a full-fledged vape kit, you’ll have the best shopping experience if you buy from an online vape store or visit a vape shop near you.

It might require a little more effort to buy a full-fledged vape kit since refillable vaping devices and bottled e-liquids usually aren’t available at the places where you’d ordinarily buy tobacco cigarettes. As you’re about to learn, though, using a true vape kit can bring great rewards.

Vape Kits Are the Best Vaping Devices for Beginners

As you’ve already surmised from reading this article, we believe that you will almost always have a better experience as a beginning vaper if you use a full-fledged vape kit rather than a traditional e-cigarette. Next, we’ll discuss the reasons for that.

Using a Vape Kit Gives You a Bigger Flavor Selection

We’ve already discussed e-cigarettes vs. vape kits from a flavor standpoint at length in this article, but we’d like to approach this topic one more time by giving you some hard numbers. With any type of pre-filled vaping device – whether it’s a disposable e-cigarette or a device with pre-filled pods or cartridges – you can expect to have a selection of no more than about 8-12 flavors at the absolute most. If you don’t like one of those flavors, you’re out of luck and will need to buy a different e-cigarette.

When you visit a vape shop, on the other hand, you’ll see that there are hundreds of different bottled e-liquid flavors on the shelves. If you have a refillable vape kit, you can use any of those flavors with your device. Would you rather have a selection of a dozen flavors or hundreds of flavors? Flavor variety is what makes vaping fun, so there really is no contest here.

Vape Kits Tend to Have Higher-Quality Components

The other major benefit of using a full-fledged vape kit is that refillable vaping devices tend to have higher-quality components that last longer. Traditional e-cigarettes are cheap commodities that exist primarily to sell refill pods – which often cost more than the devices themselves. A true vape kit, on the other hand, is designed to last through many months or years of constant use.

Having higher-quality components doesn’t just mean that a vape kit will typically last longer than a mass-market e-cigarette; it also means that a full-fledged vape kit can provide a better experience in every respect. Here at Innokin, for instance, we outfit our pod systems with the same quality atomizer coil that you’d find in an enthusiast-level vape tank. That means you’ll enjoy a purer flavor and much larger vapor clouds. Those qualities are important for anyone who vapes, but they’re particularly important if you have higher nicotine requirements than the average smoker.

Vape Kits Require a Little Maintenance for the Best Possible Experience

Although vape kits are objectively better than e-cigarettes in every measurable way, it is important to note that a vape kit does require a certain amount of maintenance that isn’t necessary with a traditional e-cigarette.

Let’s suppose, for instance, that you own a pre-filled pod-based e-cigarette. In that case, the only thing that you need to do to maintain the device recharges the battery periodically. The rest of the work is done for you. When a pod runs out of e-liquid, you discard the pod and drop in a new one. Although traditional e-cigarettes have plenty of shortcomings, simplicity is a benefit that many users do enjoy.

When you use a vape kit, on the other hand, you don’t just need to charge the device. You also need to keep the tank or pod full – and when the device’s flavor quality begins to decrease, you’ll need to replace the pod or atomizer coil. Although all of these tasks are simple on their own, they do mean that owning a vape kit requires a little more effort than owning an e-cigarette. We believe, however, that the effort is very worthwhile.