Welcome to our Vape Buyers Guide or maybe it’s just a useful Ecig refresher if you need some advice. Either way, this is what we have for you here – what vape to buy. Our Electronic Cigarette Buyers Guide is for when you need help picking anything from a starter kit to something a little more advanced. We have put together a range of key articles that can help you in your quest for tracking down the information you need.
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Electronic Cigarette Buyers Guide
In our buyers guide we talk about a range of key matters you need to consider when buying your first vaping device, or maybe why a vaporiser can be prone to leaking. So let’s start with the very beginning and start with what type of vape kits are out there that you may have come across or seen. Here’s our lowdown on what vape to buy.
What types of vape kits are there?
In a nutshell, there are two types of vape kits. MTL and DTL.
MTL means Mouth to Lung
DTL means Direct to Lung
MTL devices are those that more closely replicate a cigarette. They tend to work at lower power and have a tighter inhale. While most allow you to tweak the inhale ease, with an adjustable airflow system, not all have this. These types of devices are great for starting out, or for those who want a higher nicotine juice.
With an MTL product, our vape buyers guide recommendation is you look for E-liquid that contains higher levels of PG. PG is also known as Propylene Glycol. It’s what nicotine and flavours are generally produced in and those products that have 50% or more PG, are known for being MTL friendly. Mouth to lung vape liquid is a major part of the vaping world and some of the best vape brands for these juices are Vampire Vapes, Jack the Dripper, Doozy Salts.
DTL, however, is what is known as a Cloud vape kit, or the type of product this vape buyers guide would call a sub-ohm kit.
The sub-ohm part of the market works with higher power batteries and is capable of producing thick clouds where it works best with low PG juices. The larger part, in this case, is VG which helps make cloud kits work. VG stands for vegetable glycerin and is thicker, less runny and requires a bit more ‘OOMPH’ to vape it up
How can you spot the difference when buying these? Look out for the MTL or DTL labels on the products in our kits section.
How Do I Know What Vape To Buy?
The type of vape kit you buy for the first time will really come down to what you want out of it. If you are looking to quit a 20 a day smoking habit, you may want something a little different than if you just want to make massive clouds. But more than this, you also want to consider your daily habits. Are you away from a power point for long periods? Maybe a long lasting battery life vape would be your thing.
Here are a few areas to consider when working out what vape kit to buy:
- Battery Life Needs | Look for longer life battery e-cigs if you work long days
- Nicotine Needs | If you have a higher current smoking habit you may want a vape kit that allows you to use higher nicotine strength. This means a lower power kit, to avoid your head exploding
- Need Discretion? | Maybe you want a smaller vape device – we stock pocket sized kits too
- Want Clouds? | If it is clouds you are after and not the nicotine, you will want a Sub-Ohm style kit
- Durable Gadget Needed? | If you work in a physical environment, or are on the move a lot, breakages are probably best avoided. Some brands such as Geekvape are super durable.
What Vape Kit Should I Get?
Once you have worked out what type of vape kit is perfect for your needs, then you may want to find out what is the right e-liquid for you and for that vape kit. If you are going for clouds, then the kit you will be after will need higher VG liquids, likewise, something that offers usability with high nicotine strength is going to be best with MTL vape kits.
Household vape kit brands you will want to look at are Smok UK, Innokin Kits, Aspire Ecigs, Vaporesso, Uwell Vape and Voopoo. We stock all these vape kit brands online at Vaperun, but they are amongst the most commonly found vape kits in the hands of electronic cigarette users in the UK.
How Much Are Vape Kits?
How much are vape kits is a loose question as it depends what kind of electronic cigarette you are talking about. If you mean, what is the cheapest price to enter into the vaping world, then you can pick up a vape kit for £10, even less. Invariably though these are the type that will enter the bin pretty quickly and will see you out spending more to improve on it.
That said, buying a cheap vape pen is not a bad idea first time out, particularly if you are just starting out and want to see if it’s for you.
Perhaps better to spend a little and not lose a lot. That said, there is an old phrase:
“Those that pay, pay attention”
This means that if you invest, you’re probably a bit more invested to quit. And let’s be fair, the reason you’re here reading this vape buying guide is you probably want to make electronic cigarettes work for you. Our advice is to get the best results is picking up an e-cig that ticks all the boxes you need and bear in mind – if you smoke 20 a day, you are currently spending £50-70 a week.
That means…. drum roll on the savings calculator
A lot of money every year. So if you spent one week’s worth of cigarette money on a vape kit, you are putting yourself in a decent position to quit. On the upside, you shouldn’t need to buy a new vape kit every week either.
Yes you will need fresh liquids, but they will never cost the same as your smoking habit if you vape sensibly.
Therefore this vape buying guide’s view is you should look around the £25 to £50 mark to get something that will do an adequate job and get you well into the first stage of quitting smoking.
What’s our background in knowing all of this? 7 years of running brick and mortar stores.
What is a Vape Starter Kit?
A vape starter kit is another name really for a mouth to lung vape device. Ultimately it’s just where you start vaping. For you it may be your first vape pen that pumps out a cloud, to me it was the classic CE4 ego starter kit. A relic of the petrol station forecourt and only works for the runniest most basic eliquids. But hey, it was my starter kit.
The best options are simple to use, low in functionality to avoid user confusion and work with the most cost effective PG based liquids.
What comes with a Beginner Vape Starter Kit?
With a starter vape pen or mod, you will find that generally they come with a tank, a battery unit, some coils (at least 1) and a charger.
Most – well nearly all, are charged using micro USB ports and you’ll find your laptop can do the trick too. Some vape kits use external removable batteries while others have built in ones. The removable aspect is great for life of the vape mod – you can replace the power cell when it begins to lose recharge ability, but does mean an extra part to get sometimes.
Our top tip for this vape buying guide is start off with a built in battery vape. It will also mean it has more rigorous safety features fitted too.
How Long Does a Vape Last
Your average vape kit will last you well, and even in the year bracket plus if treated right. It’s like any piece of electronic gadgetry really. If you throw it around, drop it, are rough with how you fit the charger end in, it’s not going to last very long.
They are not always the most robust products, but 90% of the time, they aren’t absolute pushovers. They, like your mobile phone don’t like being dropped, left in the sun or getting wet.
If longer life battery and durability is important, this is where an 18650 vape mod comes into it’s own. The removable 18650 vape batteries can be replaced when their recharge starts to decline. These types of vape mods are more commonly associated with the box mod style vaporisers and that bulkiness is because inside them is two large batteries. They are a set size and it’s hard to make the case around them smaller.
If you want a big battery life e cig, expect a bigger vape kit.
Best Vape Buying Guide Summary
Thanks for sticking with us during this vape buying guide. We are going to leave here with some commona new vaper issues that may help solve a problem or two. If you are looking for links to our vaporiser collections, we have thrown you a couple more places to go next below.
If you are looking for the best vape starter kit UK approved, then check out our take on the best options for getting you off the cigarettes. There are so many options to choose from, so knowing what’s important and what isn’t is critical. So often, we meet vapers who are using the wrong settings or liquid for their device, and it comes down to not being helped in the first place.
We constantly update this post to ensure it features the right information for the time.
Meanwhile, click in to see what are some of the best variable wattage vape mods in 2023 are.
Common New Vaper Kit Problems
For many new vapers, there are a string of little issues and gripes that partly come from the vape kit, but also from just a little learning needed. To make your life easier, here are some of the most common new user problems.
Many of these are easily fixed, we see them daily and can help you better understand what you need to do to make sure it stops.
Vape leaks can come down to a couple of reasons. Sometimes it can be as simple as a duff coil, BUT mostly it’s because you have the wrong liquid in your tank or you’ve lost an o-ring. Too runny a liquid and it will flood the coil, coming out the airhole. Meanwhile, if you lose the rubber tight seal o-ring, liquid will find it’s way out of the tank too. Read our full guide on:
The spit, pop and crackling noise is completely safe and is the sound of the e-liquid being heated up by the coils in the tank. Sometimes the sound can be more pronounced with sweeter liquids due to the sugar content, but it will also sound more prominent with a fresh coil, battery charge and low levels of liquid.
Don’t worry, your vape kit is not about to melt in your hand.
If you’re asking ‘Why does my vape taste burnt?’ – welcome to the land of 2 destinies.
- You have just experienced a dry hit – the act of vaporising cotton and not liquid. Fill the tank up when it gets that low next time. It’s also common to get a dry-hit when you vape quickly between puffs and don’t let the liquid get a chance to be reabsorbed by the cotton.
- Your coil has had it – The burnt taste can be from a coil being at the end of it’s life, and now your re-vaporising gunky old liquid in the coil’s cotton.
Either scenario happening can mean it’s time for a new coil. By vaping too much without breaks between puffs, a perfectly good coil can be burnt in a way that it is unpleasant to use anymore. The advice is simple, take it easy. Don’t hold the power down for a decade before you inhale either. Hit the power button when it’s at your lips, inhale for a second or two – CHILL
This generally means, you either have it on battery safe mode and it’s tell you to turn the battery button lock off – or your battery is flat.
Re-charge it and see in half an hour if it’s stopped.
If it has stopped, it means the battery was flat. Leave it to recharge properly and then crack on with the vaping.
Here’s some winning advice you can take to the bank. How high your power is set to, and how long ‘ohm’ the resistance is, will determine how much battery life gets drained. That means, if you use a vape kit with a 0.6 ohm coil, it is going to use up twice as much battery power as a 1.2 ohm coil.
Makes sense right. It pull twice the power. 0.6 goes into 1.2 – 2 times.
Now, if you then push the wattage up higher still, you will be rinsing through the battery life. Guess what – it works the same on your juices too. Twice the power, twice the speed of liquid consumption. Save battery life, save liquid, vape lower power.
Or not 
The most common reason for why your vape may be burning your tongue, is actually due to eliquid excess coming up the mouth piece. This is a by product of vaporising with a flooded coil. When we say a ‘flooded coil’ we mean there is more liquid saturating the coil’s cotton than it can vape off with each hit. This means it’s sending up more than just vapour clouds. As the process is one of heating, it makes sense that the liquid that lands on your tongue will be hot.
How do you stop your vape from burning your tongue?
Two methods for this.
1. Stop licking a warm vape kit
2. Take a look at the liquid you are using and the power settings. If your vape pen is using a coil with a resistance level below 1.0 try to make sure your liquid is not more than 30-40% PG. That means, as the ohm number goes lower than 1, you want to ensure you have thicker more high VG fluid. As you come down to 0.5 ohms and below, you really want to only be vaping on a juice that is 60-70% VG and onwards.
These two methods should help avoid your vape burning your tongue.
Your vape will get hot from regular use. After all it is a battery with a mouthpiece on top. To ensure it stays a little cooler, try to take vape breaks, minimise vaping while plugged into a charger, where the battery will naturally be warmer and open up the air holes on the tank.
By having open air vents, or not covering any holes in the kit that let you see in, you are allowing warm air to escape. When a battery is being recharged, essentially lots of little ions are vibrating around. This creates the effect of charging and if you have ever rubbed a balloon against your clothes, you will notice that friction becomes warm. Electrics are really little different.
They get warm – help them out a bit.
Just the same as why some wonder why their vape makes their tongue get burned sometimes, vape kits can spit, if liquid gets into the mouth piece. This can come from a flooded coil, or from a lost rubber o-ring, leading to eliquid slipping past the seals and into the mouth piece stem. That means when vapour is pulled up from the tank, warm juice can come with it.
A good housekeeping check is to clean your tank every couple of days and make sure that the coil is seated correctly, and the rubber o-rings are still in place. If the coil is not seated correctly, perhaps it is off to the side a touch, then you will notice that liquid can get into places it shouldn’t also.
Atomiser is another word for coil. So if your electronic cigarette is saying check atomiser, it’s telling you there is an issue with your coil, or it’s connection with it. This means the tank may not be seated on the vape pen properly, stopping the battery from touching the bottom of the tank pin and therefore not forming a circuit with the coil.
It can also mean your coil is done for and needs a freshen up. AKA change the coil for a new one. Long term use can lead to the fine metal coil inside the atomiser snapping and just as an old lightbulb’s filament breaks eventually, so do coils. The other simple issue may be that the coil is crossthreaded and not in snug into the tank. CAUTION: Don’t overtighten it – hand tight is sufficient.
There you go, a ton of common vape buying guide questions answered. If we have helped you in some small way it will be worth the fact this writer’s fingers have merged into the keyboard.
Carry On Learning?
If you want to continue reading up a bit more on buying a vaporiser for the first time, then our selected guides below should point you in the right direction. From knowing what juice to pick, working out nicotine strengths, and seeing our updated vape reviews – our team stay on top of the information you are likely to need.
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