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It’s a nearly universal fact that people who try small vaping devices and like them ultimately decide to upgrade to larger devices. For the first several years in which vaping existed, most people followed a fairly similar pattern. They started out with small cigarette-shaped “cigalikes” before upgrading to larger vape pens and, eventually, full-sized mods. 

These days, though, things are a bit different because so many of the people getting started with vaping today aren’t buying cigalikes; they’re buying vaping devices with removable pods. All vaping devices work in much the same way: They use heat to vaporize a nicotine-infused e-liquid for inhaling. The experience of using a pod system, however, is quite different from the experience of using a cigalike or vape pen. The end result is that, when pod system owners decide to upgrade their devices, they don’t want mods – they want better pod systems. 

The vaping industry’s many manufacturers are only too happy to deliver, and they’ve crafted an enormous variety of more powerful and flexible – but still pod-based – vaping devices to tempt the legions of upgraders. Today’s pod systems are so good, in fact, that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to identify the differences between today’s high-end pod systems and full-fledged vape mods. 

What’s it like to buy a new pod system these days? These are just a few of the features that you can expect to find when you shop for an upgraded pod system at a vape shop like V2 Cigs UK.

Support for Any Vaping Style

When pod systems first appeared on the market, their primary draw was that they were the perfect devices to use with high-strength nicotine salt e-liquids. When you use an extremely high-strength e-liquid, you need to pair that e-liquid with a device that has the same tight airflow characteristics as a cigarette – something designed for mouth-to-lung inhaling. That’s great when you’re first switching from smoking to vaping – but almost every new vaper eventually becomes an intermediate vaper who wants to enjoy bigger clouds.

Today’s high-end pod systems typically offer adjustable airflow characteristics to give upgrading vapers the ability to enjoy bigger clouds while dropping the nicotine strength of their e-liquids. Whether you prefer mouth-to-lung inhaling, direct-to-lung inhaling or something in between, you’ll have no trouble finding a pod system that conforms to your requirements.

Replaceable Atomizer Coils

Creating a vaping device that produces bigger clouds and provides a great experience with lower-nicotine e-liquids isn’t just a matter of opening up the airflow. The device also needs to have an efficient atomizer coil that’s capable of vaporizing a large amount of e-liquid – and vaporizing it quickly – without drying out in the middle of a puff and giving the user a burning or charring sensation. That’s quite different from the type of atomizer coil that works best for higher-strength e-liquids. Many of today’s high-end pod systems are designed to support multiple vaping styles, and the only way to do that with a single device is by offering different atomizer coils.

Until recently, the defining characteristic of pod vaping systems was the fact that the atomizer coil was a permanent part of the pod. If you wanted a new atomizer coil, you replaced the entire pod. With many of the pod systems now being produced, though, you can remove the atomizer coil from the pod and replace it without discarding the pod.

Having a pod system with a replaceable atomizer coil is great for two reasons. The first is that a pod system with many different types of coils available makes it possible to have many different vaping experiences with the same device. Some recent pod systems work with as many as a dozen different coils. The second reason why having a replaceable coil is such a good thing is because vaping is much less expensive if you can replace your atomizer coil without buying an entirely new pod.

Adjustable Power

Adjustable power is one of the most important features of today’s pod systems, and you’ll find it in virtually every pod system that’s positioned as a premium device. It’s practically a requirement, in fact, for a device that aims to work well for both mouth-to-lung and direct-to-lung inhaling. Between the two categories of atomizer coils, there’s often a difference in power requirements of 50 watts or more. 

With a pod system, utilizing the variable-wattage functionality isn’t terribly different from the way in which that function works with a mod. You press a button on the front of the device, and the wattage displayed on the screen changes.

There is one important difference, though, between pod systems and mods in how their variable-wattage functionality works. When you use a mod, you’re using a device that conforms to an industry standard and can accept whatever tank or atomizer you’d like to use with it. A mod, therefore, has no idea what type of tank is connected to it.

Pod systems, on the other hand, are proprietary vaping platforms that work only with specific atomizer coils. The manufacturer of a pod system knows exactly what atomizer coils are going to be available for that device and what the recommended wattage ranges are for those coils. It is therefore possible for a pod system to automatically recognize the inserted atomizer coil and suggest an appropriate wattage. It’s just one more example of how pod-based vaping devices are becoming more capable without sacrificing the user friendliness that made them popular in the first place.

Tank-Like Pods

One of the most interesting ways in which today’s vaping devices are blurring the lines between pod systems and mods is the fact that many of the pod systems now being released have pods that are almost indistinguishable from full-sized vape tanks. They’re bigger than ever, and they have enormous air vents that facilitate the production of huge clouds. The only real difference is that, no matter how much the pod in a current pod system may resemble a full-sized vape tank, the device is still a proprietary system that will only work with that pod.