We’ve all been in this situation: you’re home after a long day at work, ready to head off to bed after a quick hit of your vape. Your reach for your trusty pen, pull, and nothing happens. You try again, but still nothing. It’s dead.
In situations like these, you may wonder if you can do the impossible — recharge a disposable vape pen. We’ve all heard rumors of the guy who can get his disposables through several charges before tossing them, but is it just an urban legend?
Here is a deeper dive into this question, so you can know once and for all if you can truly recharge a disposable vape pen.
How Does a Disposable Vape Work?
A disposable vape works the same way that most vapes work. They are composed of a few crucial pieces:
- A battery
- A heating element/vaporizer
- A vape cartridge
- A mouthpiece
The pieces work together very simply to give you inhalable vapor from your vape pen. The battery provides power to the heating element, which heats your vape juice to a temperature at which it vaporizes, passing the vapor to your mouth through the mouthpiece. The battery is the major difference between a disposable vape pen and a rechargeable vape pen.
The battery of a rechargeable vape is designed for charging. It is easily accessible, whereas disposable vapes are not, and the battery is deep inside the vape pen not easily accessible.
Is It Possible To Recharge a Disposable Vape Pen?
The short answer to this question is: yes — in theory, it is possible to recharge a disposable vape pen. However, the reality is that it is not an easy task, and it is usually in your best interest to buy a new vape pen instead. Since it is technically possible, we feel it is our responsibility to teach you how to do it.
How To Recharge a Disposable Vape Pen: A Step-By-Step Guide
If you want to learn how to recharge a disposable vape pen in an emergency, or you just find taking things apart and putting them back together again cool, you’ll find this guide helpful. But before we can get started, you need to assemble the essential gear. To charge your pen, you’ll need:
- A flathead screwdriver or pliers
- Tweezers
- An old phone charger
- Scissors
- An outlet or portable battery pack
Make sure that you have everything you need on hand. There’s nothing crazy on the list that you shouldn’t already have in your home but get it together before you start.
Also, be sure you are using a phone charger you are willing to destroy — you will not be able to use it for charging your phone again. Once you have everything ready in a well-lit area, you can begin.
Step One: Cut Your Charger
First, you will cut off the very tip of your phone charger cable, where the charger connects to your phone. You only need to cut off from the area where the cable turns into the connector.
Be careful and only do this while the charger is not connected to a power source. Otherwise, you risk electrocution.
Step Two: Prepare the Wires
Once you have cut your charger, you should see two black and red wires. There may be additional wires, but if there are, ignore them.
Once you have identified the black and red wire, you need to carefully remove about one inch of the insulation from both wires, careful not to cut the copper wire inside or electrocute yourself.
Step Three: Open the Vape
Unlike a rechargeable vape pen, the battery will be inaccessible without opening up the casing and removing the battery. To do this, you must be very careful.
Using the point of a flathead screwdriver or a pair of pliers, carefully remove the vape pen's bottom cap. This should allow you to gently slide out just enough of the interior working parts to see the battery with wires attached to it.
Step Four: Prepare the Vape Battery
Now comes the tricky part. These interior bits are not meant to be opened, taken apart, and put back together. Remember how much money you spent on your disposable vape — these are not iPhones.
Be incredibly careful and gentle; the more careful you are, the more likely you will succeed at recharging your vape. You will notice there should be two wires attached to the battery and perhaps taped down with a piece of electrical tape.
Carefully peel back or remove the tape and gently disconnect these wires. Identify the positive and negative terminal of the battery based on the colors or markings — red means positive, black means negative.
Step Five: Connect Your Battery to Power
Now, you should plug your charger into an outlet or a portable battery pack and then carefully attach the positive (red) wire of your charger to the positive (red) end of the battery, and connect the negative (black) wire to the negative (black) end of the battery. Hold them in place with electrical tape or by holding them together with your pliers or tweezers.
Be careful not to damage the wires or batteries of your vape pen, and also, be sure you are not electrocuting yourself. You should keep them connected for a few minutes, about five minutes.
If you try after five minutes and there is limited, thin vapor, you can try reconnecting the wires for up to an additional five minutes (in two different rounds of five minutes).
Step Six: Reassemble Your Vape Pen
If you are still lucky enough to have not destroyed your vape pen or electrocuted yourself by this point, safely put it back together again by reattaching the wires with electrical tape. Then you can gently slide the assembly back into the vape pen and close the cap up again.
If you have succeeded in recharging your vape pen, congratulations, you’re one of the lucky ones. Remember, disposable vape pens are not meant to be recharged, which can be dangerous and void any manufacturer's responsibility.
You should be careful should you attempt it and do everything you can to be safe and responsible.
How Long Can a Recharged Disposable Vape Last?
The answer depends on how much vape juice is left in your disposable. While you may be able to swap out and refill cartridges in rechargeable vapes, you can’t refill or replace them on disposables without breaking the device.
You can only get as much out of your recharged vape as juice is left in your disposable cartridge. This will depend on the size of the battery, the cartridge size, and other factors like average battery consumption.
On average, you should expect to get no more than 100-300 more puffs from your recharged disposable. It won’t last forever, but it can surely get you through a pinch.
Disposable Recharging: Is It Worth It?
After all of that, you’re probably wondering, is it worth it? The answer is it depends.
It might be a fun project if you need something to get you through an emergency and are handy with tools and electronics. On the other hand, if you aren’t mechanically inclined and aren’t too pressed, it can be more time and stress than it’s worth.
Additionally, there are many affordable and effective rechargeable vape pens that you can get from us right here at California Honey Vapes that are compatible with almost all 510-size cartridges.
You can recharge your vape and refill your cartridges with nicotine and nicotine-free pods. You can also find CBD and THC vape pods.
Our rechargeable battery pens are affordable for anybody on any budget, so it almost always makes sense to invest in a rechargeable pen. The choice is yours, but we’ll always take purchasing a new disposable pen or investing in a rechargeable pen over recharging a disposable one.
Doing the Impossible: Takeaways
So yes, while it may be perfectly possible to do the seemingly impossible and charge your disposable vape pen, it may not be worth the trouble. You may only succeed a handful of times due to the fragile nature of disposables. In the long run, it may not be worth the trouble of learning how to do it in the first place.
Instead, getting one of our California Honey Vapes rechargeable vape pens would be simpler, which comes with a USB charger, so you can always get more when you’re ready. Or you can just get a new disposable vape; you’re going to need one anyway.
Check out our various vapes and rechargeable batteries to find what you need.
Studies:
What you need to know about CBD | Kaiser Permanente
