For as long as vaping has existed, one of its biggest selling points has been that it costs substantially less than smoking. On average, smoking costs close to $2,000 per year in the United States. You can easily cut your spending on nicotine in half by switching to vaping – but in practice, not everyone actually sees those savings. If you’re one of those people for whom vaping has become a real hobby and passion, it’s even possible that you could end up spending more on vaping than you would have spent on cigarettes.
Of course, switching to vaping also means that you’ll feel better, smell better and have whiter teeth – and those things have value that isn’t easily measured in dollars. It’s possible, though, to have those things and still save money compared to smoking. So, are you spending more than necessary on vaping? These are three of the classic signs.
You’re Buying Your Vape Juice in a Brick-and-Mortar Vape Shop
If you’re not buying your vape juice online, you’re spending too much for e-liquid. There’s simply no question about it because brick-and-mortar vape shops charge substantially more than online vape shops almost 100 percent of the time.
Why are brick-and-mortar vape shops so expensive? One of the reasons is because local business owners know that you’ll spend a little more on a product if you need it right away and aren’t willing to wait for shipping. When you buy vape juice locally, you’re paying a little more for instant gratification. You’re also subsidizing the higher costs that come with owning a brick-and-mortar business. Running a physical storefront means that you’ll pay a higher monthly rent than you would for a simple warehouse, and it also means that you’ll need to hire employees unless you plan to run the store yourself.
Online vape shops, on the other hand, can operate out of relatively inexpensive warehouses. They typically have lower insurance and utility costs, and they can usually get by with fewer employees. You’ll enjoy lower retail prices because of those savings, and intense competition between online vape shops further serves to keep prices as low as they can be.
You Buy Every New Vaping Device That Comes Out
Are you the type of person who always checks YouTube and the popular vaping blogs to see reviews of the latest devices? If you enjoy using your vaping device as a fashion statement, there’s no denying the fact that today’s vape mods and pod systems look infinitely sleeker and more luxurious than the devices of the past. If you always have to buy the latest new vaping device and show it off to your friends, then vaping is a true hobby for you – and having a hobby always means that you’re spending discretionary income on something you don’t actually need to buy.
If you’re concerned that you’re spending too much on vaping, though, you should definitely consider evaluating your purchases of vaping devices more carefully. Now that the vaping industry has settled into a few basic paradigms for hardware – vape mods, vape pens and pod systems – the technology has really reached a point at which it the hardware longer advances as rapidly from year to year as it once did.
If you compare a vaping device from this year with a device from last year on an objective basis, you’ll find that they really don’t differ very much from a technical standpoint. You’ll could easily skip a hardware generation without missing out on anything. If you’re looking for a major change in the flavor quality or vapor production of your vaping hardware, you might be better off buying a new vape tank instead of a new device.
You Replace Your Coils Constantly Because You’re Using Sweetened E-Liquid
Do you love really sweet e-liquid flavors? Is your favorite vape juice flavor so sweet that it seems to leave a coating of sugar on the inside of your mouth when you vape? If you answered “yes” to those questions, it’s highly likely that your vape juice includes sucralose as an added sweetener. Sucralose is one of the world’s most popular sugar-free sweeteners, and you’ll find it in a wide variety of low-calorie candies and sodas because it tastes remarkably similar to real sugar.
If you replace the coil in your vape tank every day, though, you’ve discovered that sucralose – while very tasty – also comes with a severe downside in that it creates a dark caramelized residue that ruins vape coils very quickly.
The problem is that sucralose doesn’t turn to vapor and travel through the air when it’s heated like the other ingredients in e-liquid do. If you were to put sucralose and water into a pan and heat the mixture, the water would boil away. The sucralose would remain in the pan, though, slowly cooking and turning dark.
Sucralose has the same effect when it’s used in e-liquid. Some of the sucralose will travel with the vapor; you’ll taste the sweetness when you vape. However, a significant portion of the sucralose will stick to the atomizer coil in your tank. As the residue layer begins to form, you’ll taste an exaggerated sweetness when vaping. Within a few hours, though, you’ll start to detect a “burnt sugar” taste signifying the death of your coil. You’ll also see the residue when you remove the coil from your tank; you’ll see that the coil’s heating surface looks dark and dirty. That’s all sucralose.
If you’re new to vaping, it’s entirely possible that you’ve never experienced what it’s like to use an e-liquid without sucralose because use of the sweetener has become so prevalent in the vape juice industry. It’s worth the effort, though, to find some unsweetened e-liquids you enjoy because you’ll experience significantly longer coil life as a result. With sweetened e-liquid, it’s unusual for a vape coil to last more than a day or two without a severe degradation in flavor quality. With unsweetened e-liquid, though, it’s possible to use the same coil for weeks. Over the course of a year, that’ll translate to a savings of hundreds of dollars.
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