I can't stand that these are disposable. Absolutely heartbreaking.

As a vape shop employee, I buy these back from customers for pennies on the dollar for their batteries and a few other components inside. Tons of projects to be had with these things!

As a volunteer litter picker in our local town , the discarded wrappers are a bane of my life. BUT I collect and retrieve the batteries , wire them in parallel and use one of the USB charge sockets off one of the more sophisticated vape sticks to charge the packs ive made for use in my RC gliders and Drone

Absolutely outrageous that these are allowed to be sold as disposable items.

Considering the lithium shortage we have, it's downright stupid that companies are making this disposable E-Waste with it. There should be a hard limit to how many components and what materials a disposable object should have.

It's so insane that to think that polymer-lithium batteries are now throw away items, ephemera like RFID components. Those things were space-age items back 30 years ago. And now they are single use throw-away items.

The reason disposables are smoother while being high nic is they use salt based nicotine rather than freebased nicotine. Salt nic is easier on the throat, but dehydrates you a little more, so you need to drink more water if you use it. Source: I am the nicotine handler at a vape juice manufacturing lab, literally posting from my lab. Hope this helps!

These disposable things have got to be horrendous for the environement... it's hard to believe they are not banned.

The instant in the video you connected the negative lead to the battery charger, my air compressor in the garage kicked on! lol Startled me!!

“It smells like a fruit factory exploded.” Big Clive; expert on things that go “bzzt,” not so much on the origin of fruits. 😆

I learned so much in this video: - Disposable vapes exist - Dosposable vapes contain very not disposable lithium ion batteries! - Some of these batteries are actually quite big and useful - You can refill disposable vapes, with some effort - You can just buy glycerol in a pharmacy?? (why?) - Glycerol makes the vape clouds - Vapers are even weirder than I thought...

Been a long time vape user, disposables are a travesty. It's really disheartening seeing these show up everywhere, and you make a good point: dogs and other animals can get hurt

Absolutely disgusting that these disposable units exist and are so carelessly thrown out along with their packaging. Grateful for Clive and others demonstrating how easily the batteries in them can be reclaimed, and the rest (hopefully) responsibly recycled.

I've started collecting them off my daughter for the cells but as far a the metal tubes are concerned I'm managing to remove the markings without damaging the coloured coating too much and I'm going to see if I can make a nice annoying wind chime to present back to her. 😁

Nicotine vaping products are supposed to be illegal here in Australia, but for a few years they were in a grey area type of situation. They couldn't be sold domestically, but could be ordered from overseas. This is how a lot of people were vaping here initially. By buying no-nic vape products from stores and importing nicotine solution from NZ to mix into the no-nic juice. Last year this import loophole was finally closed, and shipments of nicotine from overseas began being seized. Almost simultaneously, these things started popping up, heaps of my mates were getting on them, I see teenagers and uniformed school kids puffing on them in the streets quite commonly too. They aren't meant to be sold here legally, but virtually all the smoke shops and little gift shops and servos and things have them under the counter out of the way and will sell them to those who know what to ask for. Seems everyone knows what to ask for too. Apparently some people are basically "vape dealers" and they are selling them like other controlled substances. People will have a contact, ask this contact to drop off so many vapes in whatever flavour for however much money, and the dealer will meet them and give them their products in exchange for money. Seems like quite a lucrative black market has come of this ban. In this country where a packet of cigarettes costs 40 bucks, an illegal black market single use vape for 15 bucks is a very attractive option for smokers. The cigarette tax argument over here is another issue entirely, whether it does more harm or more good is an ongoing debate. Personally I think we should have just come up with a way to regulate nicotine vaping so that adults could purchase it in stores, similarly to cigarettes. These disposable vapes are not just harmful to health, are produced to questionable safety standards, immune to regulation (as they're not even meant to be here in the first place), and appear to be more accessible for people who shouldn't be able to get them (kids) due to their under the counter nature, but I just cannot bear to think about the tech waste impact these things must have. Every time I see someone puffing on one, my mind sees an image of some hellish tech waste dump in central Africa with mountains of these things being dumped, all colourful, full of wasted materials and chemicals ready to leak into the Earth. As the video points out too, there is no reason they couldn't be rechargeable and reusable. I just hate the fact they exist at all. I playfully shame my friends for using them when I see them puffing on them and ask "Ah the ol non-rechargeable rechargeable battery vape. How many car batteries are we chuckin in the ocean this week?" lol.

In the U.S., these come installed with mini usb2 charge ports in case the battery runs out before the fluid does. We should set up a return system like we have with glass bottles and aluminum cans. It will effectively place a cash bounty on these things in the wild.

I'm not the only loon! My wife always gives me odd looks for carrying around a roll of doggy poop bags, specifically to gather these up and harvest the cells. Mildly validating now.

Shoocking that people just drop their crap in the streets. I was brought up to leave where I had been as it was when I arrived or better. But this is far worce if kids get hold of them and decide to crack one open. Great video 2x👍

I'm glad I tripped over this. Whilst I do Vape, I wouldn't claim one off the street to reuse! But those cells, are incredibly handy for various hobbies and projects, those will be perfect for model railway projects! Will keep my eye out, Plus, by picking them up, we are saving waste!

Another note: The lack of capacity restrictions in the US also leads to larger batteries to match. I'm pulling 1650+mAh cells out of these things.

i am a gardener and find these things discarded everywhere. just last week i found 5 under someones front hedge. disposable e-products should be banned

A/V is all good Clive! I have found and removed the battery from one of the round ones so far, will keep my eye out for a fat one! 1500mAh is a very useable size cell!

I love how there's straight up a chemical hazard symbol for acute toxicity on the box, at least they're being honest.

I've been keeping mine when they run out, I've always known they were containing lithium cells and I'm glad somebody made a video about it.

Sounds like a PSA. It's time to talk to your kids about the dangers of street lithium. 😂

There are larger "disposable" units in the US with USB C charging ports and circuitry in them that I've found quite useful for small IOT projects!

I remember being really really surprised that they put a *rechargeable* battery in these disposable vaps. As soon as a learned about that, I started to collect the batteries, I now have a nice collection :)

I’m becoming the full manager of a vapor store and it always sickens me the amount of waste comes out of retail store, I’m taking steps for my own business to be more eco friendly it’s just a drop in the bucket but at least I can feel better about my own corner. Shit is heartbreaking to see them thrown away

it disgusts me greatly how careless people throw them away. producers of these should be made to pay for the cleaning.

An interesting thing to note about devices like the ones from SMOK is that they’ve been designed to be refilled. They come with a refillable, removable pod, and some of them even let you change out the coils when the cotton wick begins to get burnt. This is why I don’t like the disposables. They make absolutely no sense.

The reason they are less harsh now is the use of nicotine salts. A note to those handling the devices; these typically have 50mg e-liquid inside (very concentrated) it can be dangerous to have a large quantity on the skin for extended periods of time. I would recommend using nitrile gloves to be on the safe side.

Hi Clive, I really appreciate you taking the time to explore how these can be upcycled. I live in Glasgow and was astounded. I have been picking them up and collecting friends' leftovers for nearly a year now :)

Adafruit's MicroLiPo USB is a great charger for such recovered cells. Defaults to 100mA current, but can be set to 500mA with a simple solder bridge if one finds a lot of beefy cells. Granted that it's a bit more expensive than a TP4056, but might be less fiddly for some. (Yes, I consider soldering surface mount components by hand to be "fiddly.")

You have an amazing style for showing your distaste for the littering. Just mentioning it, w/out any personal remarks, is very effective. You have taught me more than just EE.

I always knew that following along at home with these videos could carry some risk, but now I am exposed to a new risk I had not even thought of. This risk is Tripping as I walk around the streets looking for these things with my eyes on the floor! Great little cells inside and only been used once. Hope you are keeping well Clive and thanks for the new hobby. Chris, UK.

Thanks to Clive, I picked up 3 so far but haven't taking them apart yet.

We have a2 schools and a colledge about 500 meters from us and we pick up 3-5 a day. So far I have converted all my xbox 360 controllers with 2 of these and a 3.3V regulator boards. Filled an old 4Ah gel battery with 48 of these and a 12V BMS for an 8.4Ah battery in the same size of the old 4Ah. Various head torches and other devices that require 5V with the little 5V charger/protection boards.

Never thought I'd see the day lithium ions were used as single use disposable batteries. Seems so wasteful but given the amperage requirements of these devices it sort of makes sense.

Thanks to your video's I started collecting them for the batteries. A few friends are helping me, one of them is the owner of a bar ;) By now I have over 100 batteries saved. Less than 10% of them are too low to trust. Most are well over 3v still when I take them out the device! Thank you SO much for the tip. It saves me a LOT of money in hobby components, and is good for the environment too!

I have a hundred of these also I took it for Sidewalk I used it for my tiny wipe drone.. 😅 Also you can open Recycling you just need some new parts like a sponge. There are many ideas.. 👍🤞 Go ahead guys.

These small cells are very versatile. I'd recommend people to go exclusively for the TP4056 board with included protection (the slightly longer ones with two extra chips on them) which if you really need to can be shaved a bit in size anyway. You can also fit a through hole resistor to reprogram the charging current (R3) with not much difficulty (look at the - trace for a hint where to solder one of the sides of the resistor). The most fun thing to do once you gather these cells is to convert stuff that previously used AA or AAAs, if the devices needs 4.5V it can easily be converted without much fuss and if the devices needs only 3V you can add a voltage regulator.

People think I'm weird for using a rebuildable mod, but it's for this exact reason, who in the right mind would toss a perfectly good Lithium-Ion cell? Thanks for the excellent work as always Clive, I honestly didn't think I'd see you playing with these kinds of devices again.

'Let's just take this small bit of plastic off'- Pulls out a Gigantic Pair of Linesman Electrical Pliers!

I found one in the street in front of my house many years ago, before they were popular, and I did not recognize what it was. I, as any normal person would, disassembled it as you did and discovered its true purpose. I think I still have the salvaged battery.

I've been collecting the elfbars, taking the cell out, keeping the outer casing aswell as it fits two battery's perfectly, plus the caps that you take off as they create a good end cap. Making some sort of battery pack, have about 20 cells so far 🤣 needed this info, thanks

You mentioned the possible use of anesthetics. One explanation is that these devices typically use a salt based nicotine which does not have that hit to the throat. If it's 20mg(2%) or higher in nicotine it is salt nicotine. The lower 3-15mg(0.3-1.5%) range is usually a free base nicotine that has a harsh feel in the lungs. The latter is only available in refill bottles in my area. I make my own liquid as I question these products too. Great video by the way! I have several of these lithium batteries now but still looking for a use.

I just found one of these vapes thrown in the street today on my way home from work! Called it "Street Lithium" in your honor. It was a "double barrel" design, with the liquid in one side and a quite unusual and unique 18500 cell in the other. Mind-bendingly simple electronic control system. I've never seen anything quite like this cell. It's a cylinder cell, but instead of the standard hard shell case, it's wrapped in a LiPo style wrapper pouch! It's labelled "XSQ18500 5.55Wh, 3.7v 1500mAh, 2022B01". Interestingly it's still almost fully charged. I just got excited and really wanted to mention it! And then I got depressed thinking about how many that are just thrown into the trash or the road without "hackers" like myself or others here to find them. This thing was basically brand new, there was "tons" of fluid left inside of it and the battery still had a full charge. The cartridge consisted of a ton of cotton wadding pieces, the largest being inside of a substantial plastic cylinder and saturated with the liquid. What I presume to be the heater was pressed into the end. But the wires were so mind-warpingly thin that I can't imagine it'd have ever worked particularly well. MAYBE 26 ga. And the "control" is nothing but what looks like a *microphone* with three wires coming from it, that presumably is supposed to switch on the heater when the user inhales through the unit. I wouldn't be surprised if it never worked correctly, and that's what prompted the user to throw it out of their car window for me to find.

When I do railway tracks patrols, I walk passed at least 10 of these thrown in each of the platforms.

My favorite part of your videos is watching your draw schematics of these random chinese made objects. It's like asmr to me

Hi Clive, regarding the "lung anaesthetic", It's likely that you are used to trying normal nicotine, and they are probably using nicotine salts - and as they're much less acidic from the classic freebase nicotine they are much less coarse than the other ones. Edit: Yes, I made an oopsie and mixed acidic with basic. VG:PG ratio is also a factor but a much smaller one than salt/freebase, and most prefilled pods and small pods use PG-rich mixtures due to the PG being a lot more "watery" than VG. I can detect the difference between 3mg freebase and 4mg salts and can say with confidence that the throat hit of eg. 20mg/ml from a pod with salts is comparable to a 10mg/ml from the same pod with freebase.

Found this video and guess my excitement when I realized I have a shoebox full of these. Thanks!

I have been picking them up when I see them, just for the cells. I guessed they were an update to the original e-cigs that were very small from poundland and I did dismantle the first couple just to see. I was rewarded with the 500mAh cell so just have carried on picking them up.

Interesting, I see many of these laying everywhere too and wondered if the lithium cells were reclaimable... Thanks

Big Clive’s one of my heroes. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Bro what an awesome page, So glad I found you Where I live these things are rife, You can see them all over them place!! I can’t believe how lucrative they are!!

As a fairly long time vaper; it pains me watching people use disposables. Tossing them just adds to the misery. I had thought pod mods with their plastic throwaway cartridges was already wasteful (all that plastic, metal for the coil housing, short device life) but disposables....

If that rye bread one was a street find, you're going all in to expand the horizons of your audience, and we salute you. It'll add a nice earthy undertone to the fruit factory, at least.

When this video came out I’d NEVER seen one of these. A week or so ago I spotted my first one and yesterday I spotted about five in a day. Literally like Shaun of the dead introducing the zombies.

I was just about to take one of these apart but had no clue. So stoked I ran across your vid! You answered a million questions I had about these, the internals, and their batteries. Thank you! Edit: also, here in the US, the device itself and the packaging says not to throw it in the trash and to recycle the device.

I've began collecting dozens of these off of my friends that use disposable vapes pretty often lately (and now have a reputation for it, haha!). I've collected a large number of ~950-1050mAh 18350-sized cells and am building 8 of them into a USB-C PD/QC3.0 fast-charging power bank kit. I managed to also find some 16450-sized ones in a pair of disposables I found in a parking lot, with a 975mAh one replacing a 680mAh 14500 battery in my electric toothbrush.

Finding the Insides of such a device in the streets made me pretty clueless - thank you for clearing things up!

The cooling sensation is called ws-23 or koolada. But as for the nicotine it's probably nicotine salts with other additives to make them very smooth to not give a harsh throat hit while delivering high amounts of nicotine. Very interesting video. Liked and subscribed.

I'm a trash-diver in Oklahoma and live right next to a student hang out hot spot. I find these in the trash all the time. I always take them out, tear them down and keep the batteries aluminum or stainless steel bits for scrap. Usually the outside case is aluminum, sometimes stainless. Sometimes there is a stainless steel tube inside the wicking material. For those who want to find out, use a neodymium magnet, I use one from an old computer hard drive. Stainless will be very weakly attracted to it and its own weight will cause it to let go of the magnet. Aluminum, no attraction.

Bigclive has taught me a lot including this free battery trick. Find them everywhere especially behind the gas stations I maintain. Thanks for spreading lessons peace ✌

It seems other people have caught on to this. I found 4 of them and recovered the batteries and assumed I was the only one in the know. The last two I saw both disappeared before I went back for them. I use pipe grips to open them. Destroys the plastic, but is quick and I don't need to handle the 'mouth' part directly!

Very useful, thanks. I was in London last week and picked up two of the 500mAh ones. Nothing like as exotic as yours - one grape, one apple peach. [I stocked up on elastic bands too.]

Seeing a couple of these laying around here and there is still way better than piles of cigarette butts at every stoplight.

I actually use a bunch of batteries from the "elf bar" vapes that I keep finding around Central London in order to power my bike light haha, Amazing content as always!

It has a built-in microphone so the Chinese government can gather intelligence on its enemies

I have literally no idea what I just watched, but it was great and informative!

Great video, i made one like this for the Vype ePod a few years back which ranked number 1 for along time. The reason this is smoother on the throat is the amount of vegetable glycerin. Which is healthier to breath in, also the air flow. Although i gave up vaping, ive been looking for a project for my recharging modules and i was initially reclaiming these for the breath activation switches! Thank you for your content! Great stuff.

That "rye-bread" flavor in the white device is one that i've seen sold as "Oat Pudding" and under a different brand while in the same shell. I wouldn't doubt the one you featured is the exact same one that I bought.

The pure waste generation of these things angers me in a way that I can't adequately express.

I'm a traffic flagger for the state and I find these all over the roads. I collect them exactly for this reason. I probably have 30 or 40 kg worth of these things in a box waiting to be torn apart and salvaged.

I do find a lot of these discarded. They are a great source of essentially brand new low capacity lithium cells useful for powering IoT stuff.

That sequence of unpacking a new device happens here in my little Australian country town... Thankfully they're quite rare here as shops can't legally display them in my state.

That "less feeling" in the lungs/throat is because there are two types of nicotine, and regular nicotine is quite rough, but "salts" of nicotine (eg. nicotine salicylate) produce less of that rough feeling.

Those cylindrical batteries you explored first appear to be the same as in the rechargeable devices I used to purchase. They were good for up to 2 years cycling daily- charge discharge. Their energy content is near what the nicad rechargeable drills use, in a smaller form factor, so I've stripped out a bunch of them and and making a battery pack now for my drill.

Good to know I'm not the only one to pick these up off the streets to use for parts! I see you charge them the same way, too! The power bank charge circuit with some gator clips attached! Thanks for showing me I'm not the only one!

I've been doing this recently too. The puff bar is exactly the right size to jam the PCB of a flash drive into, and the batteries are great for tiny projects

Hey big Clive, I have several dozens of these batteries. I bought a small metal can that has a flip-top lid & a plastic liner. I placed it in a vape shop uptown. I have the words "recycle" on it. I work as a bus driver at a recycling facility. This works out fantastic for me! I disassemble them for the batteries. Some of them even have a charging circuit built in. When I'm done, I just recycle the bits and pieces. One thing I noticed about these cheaper lithium ion batteries. The positive and negative tabs will break off really easy. You have to be real delicate with them!

I managed a vape shop for years. These are an atrocity to the vaping industry. Thank you for bringing light to this very large problem. The dummies that toss these are the same silly "save the planet" fools we can't shut up. Thank you.

Just a few days ago I was at a boat museum by a lake and there I found one of these and remembering I had seen a never video from you about these I brought it with me home. Now I just got to decide what I want to use the free battery for.

I was passing by a concert back in February and I saw a bin full of these things. I quietly took the whole bin and shove it in the back seat and drove away. I got a lot of cells and now I'm having trouble charging them one by one. I reused the aluminum bodies as containers for spices that I use when camping. The bin they came in is still on my backyard.

Thanks Clive for making aware of theses items , Have reused many for bottle lights as they fit in where the cork goes - run for more than 6 hrs Now to upgrade my cap with lights on the brim with rechargeable battery instead of CR2032 cells👍🏻 (Don’t forget a dropper resistor or you blow the leds..doh)

Lol funny to find a video like this...I do the same thing ,it only came to my attention seeing a crushed one on ethe street and a revealed battery! Great vid

I use these batteries all the time in my small drone .Thanks for the advise on the charging boards, Also, I refill them all the time, On average you can refill them 3-4 times before the coil gets burned and they taste bad.

I've been picking these up and checking the cells. Most still have about half a charge left in them. I charge them and have put them in parallel in my solar motion sensing lights around my large yard. Now they last until the sun comes back up. I still have 5 batteries left so, I'll pair them with some super capacitors and make a battery jump pack for my car. Of course with a proper charging circuit.

Its crazy to waste that many batteries. Wonderful uses video.

Revitalizing. I have a thing for deconstruction and reconstruction...I've noticed these trashed as well, sad..but I've collected some, so now makes it worth something. Blessings

Thank you!!! I’m a vaper and a diyer…. Just recharged a almost one year old disposable vape, still had 70% of liquid in cartridge. Will be sharing this wonder with my fellows. One less piece of rubbish

I’ve been rescuing these things for a while and I now have quite a collection of rechargeable cells. The larger devices with a square cross-section contain 1500mAh cells! 😳

Would it really be so hard to stick a hefty deposit charge on these and set up a return/recycle service?

Just made a smaller, lighter, more powerful and longer lasting battery pack for my R/C buggy. These batteries can output 20 amps! The cheap 18650s I have (from a laptop battery pack) will only output 5 amps! I was very impressed, and they're 100% rechargeable.

Wow I never thought of this and you sparked a new hobby

I found one of the first type taken apart here and the device had cut off from low battery rather than being empty. when i checked the battery voltage it was at 3.05v so they will take the batterys right down to the low charge limit but just about within tolerances. i charged the cell on my big charger and it put 602mah into it so the claimed capacity is actually genuine for a change!

I am distraught that the old familiar bench-top has been replaced, and that any government would allow importation of these poisonous devices without full reclaim and recycling measures in place. Madness, madness!

Got my dad to be on the lookout for these, having recently retired and taking liberties with his free bus pass. Just came back with a watermelon flavour one it really does smell a lot, got the top off easily enough wasn't have much luck with the bottom with pliers, but surprisingly the glass ketchup bottle tap allowed the cell to work its way down to reveal a 550mah cell. Slightly different package and looks like it may have a protection circuit, though I haven't released it from it's 'shrink wrap' to reveal it as I might use it for mini pocket torch or something along those lines.

Hey big Clive, Love all the videos. I am also interested in the single use vapes pens. Currently I am running a build log on Hackaday with project that use parts from vape pens. Hopefully it turns into a viable project case like altoid back in the day. Cheers, Mitko

I have 50+ of these in a Celebrations tub. I've been making sure my cousin saves them all for me, but some are ones I've found. I've got some really nice batteries from some weirder high end ones. 👍