Since the disposable vape ban took effect in the UK, a new type of vape has taken hold: the big puff vape. Big puff vapes combine the physical form factor of disposable vapes with the convenience of pod vapes, and they’re still legal in the UK following the ban.
More importantly, big puff vapes also have an important feature that you can’t get with either disposable vapes or pod vapes: They hold up to 12 ml of e-liquid and can potentially last thousands of puffs before running out.
If you haven’t seen a collection of big puff vapes at your favourite vape shop yet, you can rest assured that you will very soon because it won’t be long at all before big puff vapes are the most popular vapes in the UK by a wide margin.
As popular as big puff vapes are becoming, though, they aren’t necessarily ideal for everyone. Depending on your use case, you might decide that a pod system is the better choice for you. In this guide, we’re going to help you figure it out.
How do pod systems vs. big puff vapes compare? Let’s dig in.
Big Puff Vapes
A big puff vape is a type of pre-filled pod vape that stores significantly more e-liquid than a traditional pod vape and has the potential to last up to thousands of puffs before running out of vape juice. Big puff vapes come in two types. They are:
- 4-in-1 Vapes: This type of vape holds four pre-filled pods simultaneously for a total of 8 ml of e-liquid. The fun aspect of a 4-in-1 vape is that the pods can have four different flavours. You can usually change flavours by twisting the mouthpiece or the body of the device.
- 2+10 Vapes: This type of vape uses a single 2 ml pod along with a 10 ml e-liquid bottle. You put the two components together before installing them in the device, and the bottle automatically keeps the pod refilled as you vape. A 2+10 vape stores 12 ml of e-liquid in all and lasts up to 6,000 puffs. In addition, 2+10 vapes are usually much smaller than 4-in-1 vapes. The only downside is that a 2+10 vape can only hold one e-liquid flavour at a time.
If you’ve been missing disposable vapes since the ban, you’re going to love big puff vapes because they’re significantly more affordable. With a disposable vape, you have to replace the entire device when it runs out of e-liquid. That’s not necessary with big puff vapes because they’re completely reusable – you just need to replace the pods.
If big puff vapes have any drawback compared to pod systems, it’s the fact that they tend to be larger due to the amount of e-liquid they hold. If you’re looking for something a bit more pocketable, a pod system might be better for your needs.
Pod Systems
A pod system stores its e-liquid in a plastic pod. Pod systems are available in both pre-filled and refillable varieties, but we’ll discuss refillable pod systems on their own in this section in order to avoid confusion.
When you use a refillable pod vape, you fill the pod yourself with bottled e-liquid. Depending on the device’s design, you can open the pod either by lifting off the mouthpiece or by removing the silicone stopper that seals the filling port.
One great thing about using a refillable pod vape is that you can refill the same pod as many times as you like until you’re no longer happy with the flavour. The fact that you can reuse the same pod tends to make pod systems more affordable than pre-filled vapes in the long run, since you can’t refill a pre-filled vape pod once it’s empty.
That’s not the only thing that makes refillable pod systems so affordable. A bottle of e-liquid contains 10 ml of vape juice, which means that you’ll get more e-liquid for the money compared to using a big puff vape or other pre-filled device.
The best thing about using a refillable vape is that you can enjoy e-liquids with a much wider variety of flavours and nicotine strengths. Although some big puff vapes are available in dozens of different flavours, that’s nothing compared to the hundreds of different flavours you can experience when you buy bottled e-liquid. Also, only a refillable pod system gives you the ability to choose your own nicotine strength. At the time of writing, big puff vapes are only available in a nicotine strength of 20 mg/ml. With a pod system, you can reduce your nicotine strength at your own pace without buying a new device.
What About Pre-Filled Pod Vapes?
A big puff vape isn’t the only type of vape that stores its e-liquid in pre-filled pods. You can also buy a traditional pre-filled pod vape, which holds one pod at a time instead of holding up to four pods.
Until disposable vapes became popular, pre-filled pod vapes were some of the most common vapes in the UK because it’s hard to beat the convenience of being able to refill your device just by dropping in a pod. Disposables ultimately took over, though, because they were even more convenient than pod vapes.
Now that disposable vapes are banned in the UK, you might think that pre-filled pod vapes are likely to make a comeback. The fact is, though, that big puff vapes will probably render traditional pre-filled pod vapes irrelevant for the most part. Why use a vape that holds only one pod when you could use a vape with four pods instead?
If you’re trying to choose between a big puff vape and a pre-filled pod vape, you’re almost certainly going to be happier with a big puff vape because you’ll love having the ability to use your devices for potentially thousands of puffs before they’re empty. It’s worthwhile to note that pre-filled pod vapes are often significantly smaller than big puff vapes, though, and that feature might be important if you want to use a vape that’s both convenient and very pocketable.
