How Long Does a Vape Last?

Without a doubt, one of the biggest benefits of vaping vs. smoking is the fact that making the switch can help you save an enormous amount of money. Before you begin, though, it’s helpful to have an understanding of how much you’ll need to budget in order to ensure that you’ll always have plenty of supplies available when you need them. To do that, you’ll need to know how long you can expect your equipment to last.

The question of how long a vape lasts actually has multiple answers because there isn’t just one type of vape on the market. In fact, the three main types of vapes – disposable vapes, pre-filled pod systems and refillable vapes – all have different life expectancies. In this article, we’re going to discuss them all individually.

So, how long does a vape last? We’ll break it down for you.

How Long Does a Disposable Vape Last?

If you want to know how long a disposable vape lasts, the most important thing to look at is the puff count on the package. The Innokin Innobar F3, for example, contains 2 ml of e-liquid and lasts up to 600 puffs. The Innokin Innobar V3, on the other hand, contains 15 ml of vape juice and lasts up to 6,000 puffs. When one device can last up to 10 times as long as another, it’s difficult to use a single number to generalize about how long a disposable vape lasts – but you can typically expect a device to last at least a few days.

When you compare disposable vapes and look at the puff counts on the packages, it’s important to remember that a device’s advertised puff count is meant to be treated only as an approximation. A disposable vape that’s advertised to deliver up to 6,000 puffs will definitely last significantly longer than a device advertised to deliver 600 puffs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get exactly 6,000 puffs out of it.

The reason why a disposable vape may not deliver as many puffs as what’s stated on the package is largely because a device’s advertised puff count is based on an average puff length of about one second. For some people, though, a one-second puff actually feels pretty short. Let’s suppose, for instance, that you puff on a disposable vape an average of three seconds at a time. In that case, you can expect the device to deliver about a third of the number of puffs stated on the package.

A smoker typically puffs on a tobacco cigarette about 10 times before putting it out. In that sense, you’ll get a day of use for every 200 puffs that a disposable vape delivers if you’re a pack-a-day smoker.

Learn more about how to make a disposable vape last longer.

How Long Does a Pre-Filled Pod Vape Last?

A pre-filled pod system like the Innokin Innobar C1 differs from a disposable vape in that only the pod – which contains the device’s e-liquid – is disposable. The device itself is rechargeable and reusable. A pre-filled vape pod typically contains about 2 ml of e-liquid. You can expect a pod to last one or two days if you’ve switched to vaping on a full-time basis after being a pack-a-day smoker. You should keep that in mind if you’re buying a pre-filled pod system for the first time – it’s a good idea to buy a few packs of refill pods to ensure that you won’t run out for a while.

As for how long the device itself lasts, that’s primarily determined by how long the battery continues to hold a charge. On average, a lithium-ion battery lasts through several hundred charge-discharge cycles before it becomes effectively useless due to diminished capacity. In the case of a lower-capacity battery like what you might find in a small and pocketable pod system, you might need to recharge your device two or more times per day if you’re a fairly heavy vaper. If you recharge a pod system twice a day, you can expect it to last anywhere from several months to about a year before the battery loses most of its capacity.

If you want a rechargeable vape like a pod system to last as long as it can, you need to treat it well and keep it away from moisture and extreme heat. Follow these three tips to ensure that the battery will be the only limiting factor in how long a pod vaping system lasts.

• Charge the device only by connecting it to your computer’s USB port. Charging a vaping device through a wall adapter for a mobile device such as a smartphone can elevate the battery’s temperature, shortening its life.
• Keep the device away from high-temperature environments. Don’t vape in direct sunlight and don’t leave the device inside your car.
• Keep the device away from moisture. Don’t vape outdoors when it’s raining, and don’t vape in situations where dropping the device in water might be a possibility. If water penetrates through to the interior of the device, it could cause a short circuit and kill the device permanently.

How Long Does a Refillable Vape Last?

If a refillable vape kit has a built-in battery, you can expect its lifespan to be similar to that of a pod system as described above – up to about one year – because the battery’s ability to hold a charge is the primary factor determining the device’s longevity. There is one important difference, though, which tends to result in larger rechargeable vaping devices lasting longer than smaller ones: the longevity of a lithium-ion battery tends to depend mostly on the number of times it’s charged and discharged. A battery with a higher capacity lasts longer before you need to recharge it, and refillable vaping devices tend to have larger batteries than pre-filled pod systems. Since you probably won’t need to recharge a refillable device as often as you would a pre-filed pod system, it’ll probably last longer. Some of the best vapes on the market are refillable devices.

It's also important to note that not all refillable vaping devices have built-in batteries. The Innokin Kroma 217, for example, uses a removable battery. That feature can greatly extend a device’s life because when a battery’s capacity is so diminished that the device becomes unusable, you can simply recycle the battery and replace it with a new one. That’s not possible with vaping devices that have built-in batteries. If the battery is a permanent part of the device, you have to replace the entire device when the battery reaches the end of its life. A vaping device with a removable battery, on the other hand, can potentially last for several years if you take care of it.

Based on the previous paragraph, it should be clear to you that the best way to make a vaping device last as long as it possibly can is by buying one with a removable battery since the battery is always the primary limiting factor that determines how long a vape lasts. In addition, you should also remain mindful of the tips that we mentioned in the previous section of this article – no matter what type of vaping device you use, you should always exercise special care to minimize its exposure to heat and water.

Did you know that some refillable vaping devices have special features that enhance their durability and can allow them to last even longer? For example, the Innokin Adept vape mod is certified for ingress protection, meeting the IP67 standard. The device can withstand submersion in up to a meter of water for at least 30 minutes, and dust can’t permeate the device at all. We also added extra features to the Innokin Adept to enhance its shock resistance, so it can withstand light bumps and scrapes without encountering an issue.

How to Make Your Vapes Last Longer

We’ll conclude this guide with a list of best practices that you can use to make any type of vaping device last longer. There’s always a small chance that a vaping device will fail early, and that’s why we offer a generous 90-day warranty on all Innokin devices. You can even extend the warranty by an additional 90 days simply by registering your product.

If you want to make your vapes last as long as they can, though, you also need to do your part. No matter what type of vaping device you own, following these best practices will help them last longer.

• Avoid charging a vaping device in a way that could cause the battery to produce excess heat. Wall chargers for smartphones and computers, for instance, are designed for fast charging and require a battery that can handle a high-amperage current. Most vaping devices aren’t designed for high-amperage currents and can potentially overheat when connected to these types of chargers. Charge a vaping device with a low-amperage wall charger or with your computer.
• Keep your vaping device away from extreme temperatures. Extreme cold can rapidly drain the charge in a lithium-ion battery, and that will ultimately shorten the life of a device with a built-in battery because a battery’s life largely depends on how many times it is charged and discharged. If it’s snowing outside, that’s not an ideal environment for a vaping device. Likewise, you should also keep your device away from extremely hot environments – such as the inside of a car on a hot, sunny day – because the excess heat can cause chemical instability in the battery.
• Store your device in a safe place when you aren’t using it. Keeping your vape in a closed cabinet limits light exposure and can help to prevent any e-liquid in the tank or pod from oxidizing. It’s also important to ensure that your device won’t be bumped or dropped accidentally. No matter how durable a vaping device may be, an impact on a hard floor may damage it.
• Keep your vaping device clean. If e-liquid leaks from your tank or pod, it could contaminate the device’s internal electronics and cause unpredictable behavior or a damaging short circuit. If you see excess moisture or condensation on your device, remove it promptly before it can cause permanent damage.
• Be careful when connecting and removing tanks and charging cables. Many vaping devices have been ruined because their owners handled them a bit too roughly. Yanking a cable out of a vape mod’s charging port, for instance, could potentially break the delicate solder points holding the charging port to the device’s logic board. Likewise, harsh handling of a vape tank can break the solder points under the mod’s 510 threading. The threading and charging port are both single points of failure that, if damaged, would render your entire device unusable.