E-Cigarettes Don’t Look Anything Like You Think They Do
By now you’re probably seeing e-cigs for sale in convenience stores, kiosks, and wherever else a plexiglass display case might sit well next to a cash register. (Vapor Awareness recommends to never purchase E-Cigarettes or E-Liquid from these places.) The “cigalikes” penetrating the mainstream market are meant to look similiar to traditional tobacco cigarettes, presumably to ease the digital switch over. Normally they are disposable (you can’t refill the liquid inside) and come in just one or two flavors, a vaguely tobaccoish taste. More often than not, they’re products of big tobacco companies.
That’s not an e-cigarette. Well it is, but it’s a pretty lame one, relative to the zealous vapor community and its multi billion dollar industry selling customizable mods and flavored liquids. These second and third generation vapes are refillable – so you can load it up with any flavor E-Liquid you want, or even mix your own recipe – and customizable down to the home brewed coil. Hence, it’s called a mod.
DIY is at the core of vape culture (one of the reasons the proposed FDA regulations threaten to quash e-cig startups). Most of the E-Cig components can be bought or homemade separately, so vapers can tweak a product and assemble a personalized mod. Devices run from high-end designs running you hundreds of dollars to a hacked-together Nintendo controller. They look and often taste nothing like analog smokes, and that’s the point.
While cigalikes proliferate in the consumer market, the vape community lives online. Reddit has a daily thread on vape pics where people show off their beloved mods; Instagram is commonly used for shopping around different designs and vendors when you’re in the market for a piece.
[You probably already know the information below, but we feel it’s important to include for the unfamiliar vapers.]
Here are the basic different components that make up an Electronic Cigarette:
Battery: rechargeable, voltage and wattage are adjustable
Microprocesser/sensor: controls the LED indicator light; sensor tells the processor when user takes a drag to switch on the heating unit
Cartridge or Tank: holds the E-Liquid and is refillable
Atomizer: heats up the E-Liquid and vaporizers it, customizable coils can be built
Drip Tip: the mouth piece, drip tips come in glass, metal, various materials and shapes. (Like the one below)
With all of that in mind, here’s a sampling of sweet mods we found on the internet. A lot of these are DIY modified E-Cigarettes; some are original designs from vendors.
