Not All Vaping Chargers Are Created Equally

One of the most oft-overlooked parts of a vape is the charger. While all of your vaping friends worry about the sub-ohm capabilities of new MODs or the brand new crazy e-juice flavor from The Vape Mall that just came out, the poor chargers sit forgotten until someone needs a new one. But little did you know that vaping chargers are definitely not all the same.

If you know enough people in the vaping industry, chances are you have heard a horror story about chargers. But if you haven’t, we can clue you in on some of the major themes of these stories. For example, a man has forgotten his vape’s charger back home but is in the airport for a long business trip. He goes to the nearest vendor and purchases the cheapest charger he can find. Once he gets to his hotel for the night, he plugs his vape in and goes to take a shower. He comes back, and suddenly the battery has exploded all over the room and there are the beginnings of a chemical fire. Believe it or not, stories like this are fairly common. So what happened, and why?

To understand this, we need to look at the mAh of a battery. You may see this word all the time, but what does it really mean? The mAh capacity of a battery refers to how much storage of charge there is capacity for inside the physical space of the battery. For example, a battery with a rating of 2500 mAh theoretically can deliver a 2500 mA current for one hour (hence the name: milli-Ampere hours). Chargers for everything from laptops to vapes deliver current to a battery at a certain rate. If that rate is too high or the capacity is overloaded inside the battery with no safety checks, fires or melted wiring can occur and the battery can be rendered useless.

Certain chargers have safety checks built in, as do certain batteries. However, the vast majority of chargers and charger-makers assume that you, the vaper, will know to check that the charger is compatible with the vape. To make matters even more complicated, knock-off or off brands that are made with cheaper materials can be unsafe and charge irregularly.

In general, charging with well-known and established charger brands will never be unsafe. However, if you do choose to buy an off-brand charger make sure that you know how much current is passing through it. Double check that it is compatible with your vape, and don’t leave it unattended the first time you charge it. Vape safely and your vaping sessions will never go wrong.