My recent teardown of a rechargeable vape device was…wow…popular. I suspected upfront that it might cultivate a modicum of incremental traffic from the vape-using (and vape-curious) general public, but…wow. This long-planned follow-up focuses on non-rechargeable (i.e., disposable) vape counterparts, in part fueled by my own curiosity as to their contents but more generally and predominantly driven by my long-standing bleeds-green environmental outrage.
Here’s an example of what I mean, showcased in a recent Slashdot post that highlighted a writeup in The Guardian:
Thirteen vapes are thrown away every second in the UK — more than a million a day — leading to an “environmental nightmare,” according to research.
There has also been a rise in “big puff” vapes which are bigger and can hold up to 6,000 puffs per vape, with single use vapes averaging 600. Three million of these larger vapes are being bought every week according to the research, commissioned by Material Focus, and conducted by Opinium. 8.2 million vapes are now thrown away or recycled incorrectly every week.
From June 2025 it will be illegal to sell single-use vapes, a move designed to combat environmental damage and their widespread use by children. Vapes will only be allowed to be sold if they are rechargeable or contain a refillable cartridge.
But all types of vape contain lithium-ion batteries which are dangerous if crushed or damaged because they can cause fires in bin lorries or waste and recycling centres. These fires are on the rise across the UK, with an increase last year of 71% compared with 2022.
I have (at least) two questions:
- If there are a million toxic chemical- and metal-leaching vapes headed to landfills (if we’re lucky; many, more likely, are sent directly into the water table via casual, irresponsible discard wherever it’s convenient for the owner to toss ‘em) in the UK alone, what’s that number look like when extrapolated to a worldwide count? Truthfully, from a blood pressure standpoint, I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that one.
- And why are vapes that are “rechargeable or contain a refillable cartridge” (bolded emphasis mine) excluded from the upcoming UK ban? Why can’t (and shouldn’t) it instead be only those that are “rechargeable and contain a refillable cartridge”?
Rant off. One of the comments I posted as follow-up to last November’s initial entry in this vape-teardown series pointed readers to near-coincident published related coverage in Ars Technica:
Disposable vapes are indefensible. Many, or maybe most, of them contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but manufacturers prefer to sell new ones. More than 260 million vape batteries are estimated to enter the trash stream every year in the UK alone. Vapers and vape makers are simply leaving an e-waste epidemic to the planet’s future residents to sort out.
To make a point about how wasteful this practice is—and to also make a pretty rad project and video—Chris Doel took 130 disposable vape batteries (the bigger “3,500 puff” types with model 20400 cells) found littered at a music festival and converted them into a 48-volt, 1,500-watt e-bike battery, one that powered an e-bike with almost no pedaling more than 20 miles.
The accompanying video is well worth your viewing time, IMHO.
and gave me the confidence to attempt my own teardown of conceptually similar vape devices, since Doel had confidently just ripped off the tip and back ends to get to their insides. Here’s the implement of destruction that I personally used:
And here are today’s victims, extracted from the trash as was the case with their rechargeable predecessor, and as usual accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes (not to mention roll-away prevention purposes):
The upper one is actually (supposedly, although there are still loopholes, apparently) no longer available in the US. It’s the “4000 puff” Noms X product variant (and Mojito Mint flavor) of the Esco Bars brand, manufactured by the Chinese company Shenzhen Innokin Technology. And no, I have no idea what “Pastel Cartel” means. The lower vape is Mr Fog ‘s “2000 puffs” Max pro model (and Raspberry Grape Black Currant flavor).
Here are their respective tips:
And their bottoms:
The black-color bottom end of the Esco Bars vape is fixed in position; note the two holes for incoming-airflow purposes. You’ll shortly see what secondary function the one in the middle also serves; that said, I’m not sure of the purpose of the incremental smaller second offset one. The white-color end of the Mr Fog vape, conversely, can be rotated to user-adjust the airflow. The two vents are on the sides of the end piece; here’s how airflow adjustment operates:
and briefly jumping ahead in time mid-teardown, here’s how it’s implemented:
Let’s start the disassembly process with the Esco Bars device, as previously mentioned by wrenching the bottom piece off with my pliers (see what I did there?).
That black rectangular spongy piece went flying when I pulled the bottom piece off, but I’m guessing from the lingering indentations that it normally sits in-between that thing that looks like a microphone (and fits inside the circular middle portion of the bottom piece) and the battery. And about that “thing that looks like a microphone”…I was initially a bit flummoxed when I saw it (no, I never thought it was actually a microphone, although other folks were amusingly-to-me apparently convinced otherwise), until I realized that neither vape has an on-off switch. Instead, what you do to “turn them on” (i.e., power up the heating coil) is to suck on the tip, which vapers refer to as a “draw”.
This “thing that looks like a microphone”, apparently, is a “draw sensor”; it detects the resultant user-generated airflow that’s initiated from the bottom and (as is already obvious even with the battery still in place) passes from there through the gap between the battery and vape body. This Quora thread has all the details, including pictures of a sensor that looks just like the one in the Esco Bars vape (and the Mr Fog one, for that matter, prematurely ruining the surprise…sorry). I’m guessing that the red and black wires route to the sensor from the battery, and the blue one carries a signal sent by the sensor to the heating coil when airflow is detected.
By repeatedly shaking the vape device (with a foam cushion underneath, in case the contents went flying) I got the battery out of the case far enough:
that I was then able to get a grip on it with my fingers and pull it the rest of the way out:
The remainder of the internals remained stubbornly stuck at the rear end of the tube until I started twisting on the tip with the wrench:
At which point the translucent tube fell out the bottom, too. Disgusting (and oily, too), huh?
From my research (I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to about vapes the past 24 hours or so), inside the plastic tube are apparently nicotine salts, soaked in the flavored vape juice. Here’s the entirety of the insides, stretched out:
And here’s what you’ve all been waiting for, the battery specs, 3.7V and 5.55 Wh:
Now for the Mr Fog vape. Again, I started with the white bottom piece, which initially didn’t get me very far (although look; another “microphone”):
So, I switched to the tip, which didn’t get me much further along…and yuck, again:
Back to the bottom for more twisting, this time of the clear plastic piece that as I showed you earlier, the white bottom piece fits around. That’s better:
Once again, a combination of shaking and two-finger pinching-and-pulling got the battery out:
But this time I had to then push from the top to get the rest out:
Greasy, smelly mission completed:
And the battery specs: once again 3.7V, but this time only 4.07 wH/1100 mAh, reflective of the Mr Fog vape’s comparative “half the puffs” estimate versus the Esco Bars alternative.
In closing, what most surprised me, I guess, is that neither of these vapes use standard 18650 cells found in a diversity of other devices (although from some of my research, their limited spec’d peak output current capabilities might be a coil-heating hinderance or, worse, a thermal safety complication in this particular application), or even the less common 20400 ones showcased in the video at the beginning of this writeup. With that, I’ll wrap up, take a deep draw (of nicotine-free air, mind you) and await your thoughts in the comments!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.
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