There are three generations of vapes, starting with the ecig, a small cigarette styled vape that traditionally come with replaceable cartridges but now can also come with refillable atomisers.
The second generation of vapes are the more pen styled vapes, which provide a larger capacity battery and connect with the old school ego threads. The third generation gets a bit more complicated, the key element is a mod. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes, which makes it difficult to specify which exactly is a third generation vape. They break down to two sub-categories, the mechanical mod (Also referred to as a “mech mod”. A mechanical mod has no inbuilt circuitry, but rather a direct circuit to the Atomiser. These are not recommended for beginner vapers, see our mechanical mod guide for more information.) and regulated mods (A regulated mod has inbuilt circuitry for battery protection and generally allows for adjustment of voltage/wattage. It may feature a screen to display information. It may also feature different “modes”, e.g. temperature control mode or power mode.)
When you're buying your first vape, a lot of people are looking for something that resembles a cigarette with mouth to lung capabilities (when you take the vapour into your mouth before inhaling to your lungs, closely resembling a cigarette). All first and second generation vaporisers are primarily used like this, although almost any device below 30 watts has the mouth to lung capability, whether they have specially designed drip tips like the eGo AIO or eGo AIO Box Mod, or variable wattage like the 20watt iStick(featured in our Easy Vape Starter Kit). In store I would normally get you to try and range of starter kits, feel how they are in your hand, how comfortable it is to push the button and how you feel about the resistance of the draw. Online, unfortunately, that isn't an option. It will always be a luck of the draw type scenario when you're buying something online, but the more information you have, the easier it gets.
But this is when it gets a little trickier, with vape tech moving so quickly, we're getting smaller, cheaper more powerful units every month! Where a standard starter kit used to be a pen style vape, like the Beginner Starter Kit, we now have a huge range of starter kits that run sub ohm coils (the resistance of the coil is below one ohm, meaning it heats up faster and naturally produces more vapor) such as the iStick Basic by eLeaf that we featured in our last newsletter, which although only runs up to 25 watts hits like a small car.
Until next time!