How Long Do E-Cigarette Cartridges Last?

When you buy your first e-cigarette from a company like VSAVI and need to stock up on refill cartridges, it’s wise to have an idea of how many cartridges you need. Buying e-cigarette cartridges in bulk isn’t just a matter of minimizing your shipping expenses; buying wisely also helps to ensure that you won’t unexpectedly find yourself out of cartridges and weighing the pros and cons of buying a pack of cigarettes while you wait for your next shipment of refills to arrive.

So, how long do e-cigarette cartridges last? There are actually two ways of thinking about that question. On one hand, there’s the expected number of puffs that you’ll get out of a cartridge before it’s time to discard it and begin using a new one.

On the other hand, it’s also important to have an idea of how long e-cigarette cartridges last in storage if you’re going to buy them in bulk. You wouldn’t want to store your cartridges for so long that their flavor quality ends up degrading.

If you have a cartridge-based e-cigarette and want to become an expert on e-cigarette cartridges, read on because this article is going to explain it all.

How Many Puffs Should You Get Out of an E-Cigarette Cartridge?

The expected number of puffs that you’ll get out of an e-cigarette cartridge varies between brands and e-cigarette styles, but the typical expectation is that a single e-cigarette cartridge should give you around the same number of puffs – and around the same amount of nicotine – that you’d get from a pack of cigarettes. In other words, you should expect to get up to about 200 puffs out of a new e-cigarette cartridge.

What Should You Do if An E-Cigarette Cartridge Doesn’t Last as Long as Expected?

There’s a good reason why e-cigarette brands use the phrase “up to” when describing how long their cartridges last. It’s because there are several variables that can affect how many puffs you get from a cartridge. Those variables include:

• How long your puffs are. To get 200 puffs out of an e-cigarette cartridge, each puff will have to be quite short – about 1-2 seconds. If you prefer longer, deeper puffs, you’re not going to get as much life as advertised out of your e-cigarette cartridges.
• How many times you use your e-cigarette during a typical vaping session. If you don’t wait very long between puffs, the atomizer coil in your cartridge will stay very warm. You’ll get bigger vapor clouds that way, but when you get bigger clouds out of your e-cigarette, it means that you’re using more e-liquid.
• Whether you keep your battery’s charge level topped up throughout the day. A standard e-cigarette battery operates at 4.2 volts when it’s fully charged. As you use it, the voltage drops and the vapor production drops as well. You’ll get bigger clouds if you keep your battery topped up, but your cartridges won’t last as long.
• How soon you replace your e-cigarette cartridges when their flavor begins to fade. When e-cigarette companies calculate how many puffs their cartridges deliver on average, they use puff machines that continue puffing on the cartridges until they stop producing vapor. In practice, though, you’ll find that a cartridge will continue generating vapor even as the flavor begins to fade. If you want to use an e-cigarette cartridge only as long as the flavor is at its peak, you won’t get 200 puffs out of your cartridges.

The final factor that determines how long your e-cigarette cartridges will last is the nicotine strength that you use. If the nicotine strength that you’re using is appropriate for your needs, then you should find that each e-cigarette cartridge lasts about as long as a pack of cigarettes would last. In other words, you should find that you need to change cartridges about once per day.

If you find yourself switching e-cigarette cartridges constantly – and you don’t think that the factors listed above apply to you – then it’s likely that the nicotine strength you’re using is too low for your needs. Do you find it difficult to get a really satisfying puff out of your e-cigarette? Do you find yourself puffing on your e-cigarette constantly and replacing your cartridge several times a day? If both of those statements apply to you, it’s very likely that you need to switch to a higher nicotine strength. You’ll only get a day of use out of each e-cigarette cartridge if you use your e-cigarette about as often as you would smoke.

How Long Do E-Cigarette Cartridges Last in Storage?

Companies like VSAVI – mentioned at the top of this article – will often give you very attractive pricing if you buy in bulk. Bulk purchases reduce an e-cigarette brand’s expenses for order fulfillment because they reduce the amount of money that the brand spends on things like staff costs, packaging materials and postage. Therefore, the vendor can give you a better price. VSAVI, for example, has special price structures for purchases of 20, 40, 80 and 100 cartridges.

Buying e-cigarette cartridges in bulk is a great way to save money. If you’re going to buy a supply of cartridges for the next several months, though, you want to know that the last cartridge is going to be as fresh as the first one was. The good news is that the liquid in an e-cigarette cartridge generally lasts about a year before the flavor quality begins to decline and the nicotine content starts to degrade.

A higher-quality e-cigarette brand like VSAVI will also pack its e-cigarette cartridges in foil to prevent the cartridges from drying out in storage. An e-cigarette cartridge isn’t a sealed environment because it has airflow holes at the bottom and top.

Without the airflow holes, you wouldn’t be able to vape. The holes, however, can also mean that e-cigarette cartridges will tend to dry out if they’re left out in the open for too long. Packing e-cigarette cartridges in foil bubbles keeps the e-liquid where it’s supposed to be and ensures that your cartridges will taste like new even if they’ve been in storage for a while.