For the e-cigarette gear with a nominal 40k vape (40,000 pups), its own lifespan is determined by many factors. Assuming an example user who has a regular daily usage of 500 bottles, under laboratory conditions (25°C temperature, 50% humidity), the theoretical device lifespan would be 80 days. However, in real-world circumstances, due to battery degradation and differences in the rate of evaporation of the e-liquid, the real usage cycle must be cut short to 65-75 days. As an example, the Vaporesso GTX 40K series is equipped with an internal battery capacity of 1800mAh. Under the repetitive test usage (3 seconds for every inhalation with 30 seconds of intersegment), on the 200th cycle, battery capacity dropped to 82% nominal and the number of total bites dropped to approximately 36,000 bites with a 10% error rate.
The environmental conditions play an extensive role in the range performance. Low temperature environment (< 10°C) will increase the e-liquid viscosity by 17%, the range of atomization core resistance fluctuation becomes ±0.3Ω from ±0.1Ω, and the amount of e-liquid consumed per mouth also increases from 0.05mL to 0.07mL. The actual test data of Nordic consumers show that the amount of actual 40k vape clips consumed during winter is 22% lower compared with summer season. Actual users’ life in the case of 500 clips daily has been minimized from the mentioned 80 days to 62 days. Unstable temperature conditions (> 35°C) cause the e-liquid to oxidize more quickly. The natural monthly rate of decrease of nicotine content is up to 3.5%, and the ratio of flavor ingredients lost can reach 8%.
Maintenance of the equipment has been a significant variable. In the state of weekly cleaning, the atomization efficiency of 40k vape (e.g., SMOK RPM 5) with ceramic atomization cores can be maintained at 95% of the nominal value, and the residual e-liquid of the uncleaned equipment will reduce the number of mouths by 31%. British Consumers’ Association testing determined that consumption of e-liquid with 99.9% purity lengthens the lifespan of apparatus by 28% more than that of standard e-liquid (95% purity), and the chances of atomization core clogging are decreased from 17% to 4% due to the lowering of impurity deposition.
Restrictions in compliance result in varying costs of use. The EU TPD directive requires that the capacity of cigarette cartridges not be more than 2mL, and producers are forced to implement a split design (main chamber + expansion chamber). Like the Elf Bar 40000. There is a need to fill manually with oil every two days (3 minutes per charge), and the total working time in a whole year is 18 hours. Although the US market one-piece design is convenient, its customs clearance rate reaches 34% since it does not meet the standard of the EU. Figures of the German customs in 2023 show that 23% of packages of 40k vapes were returned for excessive capacity, and the average processing cycle was extended to 21 days.
The economic study shows the cost of compliant equipment per unit (e.g., the UK variant of Aspire Flexus 40K) to be £0.0005. Although it is 15% higher than non-compliant counterparts, due to removing concealed costs (fines, returns, etc.) brought in by legal risks, the total amount is reduced by 9% rather. For the heavier users (average 800 cigarettes per day), when they use compliant products, the average yearly expense is approximately £146, a saving of £327 from using disposable e-cigarettes, and the payback period is reduced to 5.8 months.