Price vs. Quality: How Much Should You Spend on Vape Gear?

How much money do you spend on vape gear? When you switch from smoking to vaping, there is no question that you will save a bundle of money. As with all other types of consumer products, though, it’s important to consider the price/value equation when buying vape gear. Some vaping products are true bargains, and they deliver plenty of value for the money. Other products, though, have lower up-front prices but may cause you to pay more over the long run. If you want to get the most for your money when buying vape gear, then, it’s important to consider the quality and long-term value of a product as they relate to the product’s price.

A particular piece of vape gear or bottle of e-liquid might be cheaper than the rest, but does that mean you’re actually getting a good price? These are the things that you should always consider before clicking the “Buy Now” button.

Price vs. Quality in Vaping Devices

A vaping device is essentially a form of consumer gadget, and as with most gadgets, you can generally assume that a more expensive device will have more advanced features. You can also usually assume that, whenever a manufacturer of vaping products develops an exciting new feature, you’ll see that feature in the more expensive vaping devices before it makes its way to the budget segment of the market.

As great as it may be to have a vaping device with features like temperature limiting and custom wattage curves, though, the fact is that most people who use vape mods care about only two things. They care about whether the mod can operate at their desired wattage, and they care about whether the mod has an extensive array of safety features. Even a budget mod can do those two things, so if those are your only priorities, you can definitely get by with a lower-priced mod.

Before you pull the trigger on that shiny new vape mod, though, it’s worthwhile to spend some time researching the mod’s build quality because longevity can be a serious issue with devices in the budget segment of the market. Here are a few of the problems that are known to plague lower-priced devices.

• Magnets may fall out, causing magnetic battery covers not to stay closed.
• Plastic tabs may break, causing spring-loaded battery doors not to stay closed.
• USB ports may break, making it impossible to charge devices with built-in batteries.
• Displays may stop working, making it impossible to see or change your settings.

Price vs. Quality in Vape Tanks and Coils

Build quality can be a major concern with vape tanks, but we would argue that it is even more important to look at the price and quality of a tank’s coils before buying that tank. You’ll find some cases in which a tank has a low price, but the coils are quite expensive and/or have poor longevity. You’ll only buy a tank once; you might buy hundreds of coils.

Pay attention to these quality aspects before pulling the trigger on a new vape tank.

• During the time in which you use a vape tank, you’re going to be screwing and unscrewing the threads many times. It’s important that the threads are machined well and turn smoothly. The tank needs to hold together solidly when you want it to, and it needs to come apart easily when it’s time to disassemble it.
• Top filling is all the rage in today’s vape tanks, which means that your next tank will most likely either have a sliding lid or a spring-loaded lid. You want a lid that’s easy to open, but the lid shouldn’t be so loose that the tank randomly opens and dumps its contents out.
• Vape coils are more complex and more expensive than ever, and a cheap vape tank can become very expensive if you need to replace your coil constantly because of inefficient wicking action or poor heat resistance. It’s very worthwhile to look for real-world reports from owners of a particular tank before you buy that tank. Are people getting decent longevity out of their coils?

Price vs. Quality in E-Liquid

In the world of e-liquid, there can be enormous price differences between the budget brands and the brands that position themselves as premium products. The fact that one vape juice brand costs more than another, however, doesn’t make the more expensive brand a premium product on its own. Some of what constitutes a “premium” brand is just a matter of marketing, packaging and brand positioning.

Some premium e-liquid brands, on the other hand, got to where they are today because their products really are better than the rest. A true premium e-liquid brand puts extra time and money into sourcing top-quality flavours and developing incredible flavour profiles. When you use a true premium e-liquid, you’ll be completely blown away by the creativity and attention to detail. You’ll taste subtle nuances that strike the palate differently depending on the equipment you’re using, when you vape and even the beverage that you enjoy while vaping.

On the other side of the coin, budget e-liquid brands are generally more likely to use lower-quality flavours and to blend those flavours in simpler and less interesting ways. Since the creator of a budget e-liquid knows that the flavours of its products aren’t particularly special, budget e-liquids will often contain very heavy doses of sucralose. Sweeteners can go a long way toward making uninteresting flavours seem a lot more exciting.

Deciding between a premium e-liquid brand and a budget brand, though, isn’t just a matter of the type of vaping experience that you’ll enjoy for the money. When you’re in the mood for an e-liquid that’s really sweet, a bottle of vape juice that’s big, colourful and cheap may be exactly what you want.

When considering the price differences between budget e-liquids and premium e-liquids, though, it’s important to think about the effect that sucralose will have on your coils. Cheap e-liquids may cost less up front, but sucralose will leave a dark, sticky residue on a coil that shortens the coil’s life. If you use sweetened e-liquids, you’ll find that you need to replace your coils often, thus negating the money that you saved by buying cheaper vape juice.