this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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[–] ExLisper@linux.community 111 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (11 children)

This shit really grinds my gears. There's absolutely no need for this product. Normal vape is like $20, you're not saving on anything. In EU the manufacturers are obligated to recover used units (they have to setup boxes where you can drop them and handle recycling) but obviously you see them on the ground all the time. This should be banned with the speed of light but EC thinks the current regulations are enough. Fucking infuriating.

[–] themurphy@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I was in Italy recently, and I could ONLY buy single use. I fucking hated it as it died in two days making me throw out an otherwise fine device - just because there's no charging port.

Now I have one lasting for almost half a year, and that's only the taste that dissappears - not the battery becoming bad.

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I believe the regulations about replaceable batteries will apply here but they are only coming to life in 2025 or even later.

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[–] Virulent@reddthat.com 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Where I live, only single use vapes are legal.

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[–] sleepy555@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Disposable e-cigarettes were a direct and immediate response to pod based vapes getting banned. Use to be, you would buy a device and just buy juice pods that were disposable. It still wasn't great for waste, but that policy was a clear step in the wrong direction.

They saved children from using Juuls, just to fill the landfills with lithium batteries.

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[–] Nima@lemmy.world 90 points 9 months ago (1 children)

of course they are. it's why I always encourage people not to buy them. they're awful for the environment, they're wasteful and they are lower quality than you'd get with most standard rechargeable e-cigarette kits.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 41 points 9 months ago (31 children)

I don't vape, but I can't imagine they're cheaper than re-usable vaping devices in the long run either.

[–] Nima@lemmy.world 43 points 9 months ago

oh my goodness yes. I couldn't imagine buying a disposable every time I ran out.

that would possibly be just as expensive as smoking regular cigarettes.

I just use a little pod system that has replaceable coil heads. it was maybe 60 total because I bought two batteries. but I've not needed a replacement battery for my personal vape yet. Just have been replacing (or reusing) my coil heads.

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[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 59 points 9 months ago (4 children)

A few of us electronics hobbyists have been collecting them (when found discarded on the street) to harvest the battery for re-use in other projects.

.

Yes they're nasty, but I pick them up with a dog poo bag and clean them before cracking them open to get the battery.

[–] daed@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I was just thinking about this the other day. Any ideas for projects to use them with?

[–] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Turn them into a power bank, among other things.

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[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago

I guess that's the silver lining, free batteries for anyone willing to deal with a dirty object.

They're also a prime starting supply for lithium battery recycling plants so they can get things figured out before they have to deal with car packs at volume.

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[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 42 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Oh wow it's as of e-cigs is just like cigarettes, but besides cancer and toxic chemicals, they also found a way to add more waste.

[–] Neil@lemmy.ml 18 points 9 months ago

I gave up arguing with people like you a long time ago, but I still want you to know actively telling people they're just as bad as cigarettes will keep people on cigarettes, which are 4000x worse than vaping. Your misguided views are extremely harmful.

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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 35 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I used to have roommates who vaped from that exact type of single-use device shown in the thumbnail diagram. They asked me to re-charge it, which I did, disassemble it, connect it to my Li-ion charger and it worked again. Apparently it didn't taste good because it was nearly out of juice, but that was when I found out these were perfectly reusable 3.7V batteries in a disposable product.

[–] blocker1980@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Isn't there a difference between rechargable and single-use-batteries? I was always under the Impression you should under no circumstances try to recharge single use batteries or they would explode?

[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago (2 children)

These are rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The same standard 18650 that has powered laptops, EVs, and power banks.

They're packaged inside a single use product, but the battery is rechargeable.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Many products actually have charging ports now. All they need to do is allow users to change out the flavor wick and we will come full circle.

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[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 17 points 9 months ago

You'd need quite a number of alkaline batteries to get the necessary watts to drive a vape. Lithium cells aren't just rechargable they are also good at releasing lots of energy in a short amount of time.

[–] Tibert@jlai.lu 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There is a difference. Not sure how they ar made, but the chemical composition and possibly the design is different.

Trying to recharge a non rechargeable battery can risky and there is the possibility of leaking or explosion.

[–] CalicoJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 months ago

In general yes, but that doesn't apply here. Vapes all use rechargeable lithium batteries, even the disposables without a charging port. Other battery chemistries at that size don't put out enough power.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 29 points 9 months ago (5 children)

That reminds me of this monstrosity https://www.walmart.com/ip/Neutrogena-Light-Therapy-Acne-Treatment-Face-Mask-1-ct/168984043

You have to buy new "activators" every 30 uses as a way of increasing profits... You know rather than just letting users replace the batteries.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 months ago (6 children)

This seems easy to hack. Just dig into it and hook it up to a wall wort with the applicable resistor, then sell the monstrosity on eBay for 2x the cost.

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[–] therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I keep telling you all smokers are jokers

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[–] sndrtj@feddit.nl 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Popularity among 18 year olds of > 50%. Christ. A significant chunk of those will become long term users.

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[–] the_q@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Every aspect of vaping is wasteful and stupid.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)

There are plenty of people out there using equipment with replaceable and rechargable batteries and owned tanks that they refill with their own liquid

Pretty much the least wasteful version of smoking as far as I can tell

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[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is this what post-scarcity is going to be like?

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

When we get desperate enough for scarce resources we’ll start digging in our trash heaps. I’m surprised we haven’t started yet.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Google “landfill mining”. It’s being researched. So far the economics of what could be recovered don’t outweigh the costs, but they might eventually. Current mining mostly concentrates on remediating older unlined fills and moving the waste to a lined fill.

https://gizmodo.com/landfill-mining-metal-recovery-trash-recycling-ewaste-1850151569

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Well yeah. As far as I know, there's no such thing as a single-cycle battery for a low-power application.

[–] qupada@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago

They're not really particularly low power.

Quick search suggests around 8W power consumption with a 2 ohm heater, which at the approximately 4V of a charged Lithium-Ion battery (V=IR, P=VI) checks out to around a 2A draw.

Similar results suggest the batteries inside are in the neighbourhood of 0.75Ah (3.7V nominal) = 2.8Wh. I don't know how much of that capacity actually gets used during the "lifespan" of the vape, but I'd guess half would be a good estimate. In any case, probably safe to assume you need to pack around 2Wh in at minimum.

A Lithium AA battery (Li-FeS2 chemistry) gives you 3.4Ah @ 1.5V = 5.1Wh, but has a maximum discharge current of 2.5A (only 3.8W). The AAA is only 1.2Ah with 1.5A discharge, but two of them would give you 3.6Wh and 4.5W, closer to the target but still under.

You could probably arrange this in some sort of configuration whereby the batteries charge a capacitor and that runs the heater, at those kind of numbers it'd need to be at most a 2 seconds off for 1 second on deal, but that honestly seems like it should be fine for, y'know, vaping. Might just need to have an on/off switch to avoid draining the batteries when you're not using it.

But I guess we're at the point where manufacturing Li-Po cells happens in such vast quantities that the extra electronics to charge a capacitor from a 1.5V battery probably cost more.

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