If you have a new vape that you’ve just bought and you’re not familiar with how it works, you’ll probably be quite keen to understand how to know if it’s fully charged, how much juice it has left inside it and other similar information.

To help you with questions like this, in this post, we explain how to tell when your vape is fully charged so you’ll know if it’s ready to use or if you still need to leave it charging for a bit longer.

How to Tell When Your Vape Is Fully Charged?

Nowadays, there are so many different types of vapes on the market from a huge number of brands and manufacturers, and although they are all similar in many ways, they all work differently.

This means it’s impossible to say how your particular vape indicates that it is fully charged without knowing which model you have since they all use different systems.

However, that said, vapes are generally designed to be as user-friendly and intuitive to use as possible, so we can give you some pointers as to what to look for.

1. Lights that change color

Most disposable vapes and even some refillable ones use a system of lights that change color to give you information about the status of your vape.

For example, a light might be green when it is fully or mostly charged, orange when largely depleted and red when empty or almost empty.

With such vapes, you just need to wait until the light turns green to know that it is fully charged.

Alternatively, some might change to a different color – for example blue – or they might flash to let you know charging is complete.

The best advice is to check the user’s guide or the information on the packet that came with the vape for the most accurate information about what the different colored lights mean.

2. Information readout

Many refillable vapes – and even some more advanced disposable devices – now include a screen that provides you with more detailed information about your vape than can be indicated just by a simple light.

For example, the readout can tell you exactly how much battery is left as well as how much vape juice you have left in your vape.

An example of this type of readout can be found on the Katana BP10000 disposable vape from up-and-coming brand Spiritbar.

These vapes include a high-quality display that gives you information about both the battery and vape juice level, allowing you to know when to recharge your vape and when to discard it and buy a new one.

Along with this intuitive readout, this vape, which takes its design inspiration from the legendary Japanese katana sword, provides users with up to 10,000 puffs of high-quality, luxurious vape juice, representing the perfect combination of style, convenience and ease of use.

With vapes like this, all you need to do is check the display screen – and when it tells you it’s at 100%, it’s fully charged, so you can unplug it and start vaping.

How to know if a vape is empty?

Similarly, you might also want to know when your vape is out of battery or when you need to charge it.

Again, this depends on the model you have, but this information will also be displayed through the use of colored lights or on a screen.

For example, a vape that uses a light system will usually have a light that turns red when it’s running low and needs to be charged up – although you’ll need to refer to the user’s manual for the most accurate info about what it means.

Alternatively, if your vape has a screen that displays the information, all you need to do is check what it tells you about how much power is left and then charge it when it starts running low.

However, also be aware that a vape will stop working because it’s out of juice, so you’ll need to work out how to tell when it’s the battery that’s empty and when it’s the juice that’s run out so you don’t end up getting rid of a vape that still has lots of juice left by mistake.

When should you charge a vape?

Another important question concerns when you should charge your vape. Should you leave it to run out completely before you charge it or should you charge it before? And is it ok to top it up while it still has plenty of power left or is it better to wait?

The best advice if you want to ensure your battery lasts as long as possible is to let it run down to around 10-20% each time and then charge it.

It’s not usually a good idea to let it run down completely before you charge it because this will reduce its lifespan – although it’s not a big deal if this happens once or twice.

When charging your vape, it’s better to let it charge up completely before you use it again, but again, if you sometimes only charge it partially before using it, this is also not a big deal and won’t have any lasting effect on the battery’s life.

If you have a vape with a detailed display like the Spiritbar device we mentioned above, it’s easy to see when you need to charge it.

On the other hand, vapes with colored lights will have another way to tell you your vape needs to be plugged in.

For example, some vapes use a “traffic light” system where orange tells you the vape is starting to run low and then red tells you the battery is almost empty and needs to be recharged.

Tip: Note that while what we’ve just mentioned are best practices for maintaining your battery’s health, if you’re using a rechargeable device, following these best practices is less important.

This is because disposable vapes are only designed to be used for a short time before you dispose of them and buy a new one – so maintaining battery health is not so much of an issue.

How to charge a vape?

If you’ve just bought a new and unfamiliar vape, how do you charge it?

As we’ve already mentioned, for the most accurate information about your device, you should consult the instructions that came with it – but generally speaking, recharging a vape should be easy and is usually no different to recharging a smartphone or tablet.

All you need to do is locate the charging point, plug in your charger and connect it to a power source.

With most modern vapes, both refillable and rechargeable, you’ll need to charge them using a regular USB-C cable.

However, so use Micro-USB instead, and if your vape has a slot for this rather than USB-C, this is the kind of charger you’ll need to use.

Once you’ve worked out where to plug the charger in and which kind you need to use, all you then need to do is connect it to a power source and leave it to charge – and the vape will then tell you when it’s ready, as we’ve explained above.

How long do you need to charge a vape?

With old batteries such as nickel-metal hydride batteries or nickel-cadmium batteries, it used to be important to charge a battery for up to 12 hours first time, but with the types of batteries found in modern vapes, this is no longer necessary.

Most modern vapes come ready to use, so you don’t even need to charge them before you start vaping. After that, you just need to charge it up until it’s fully charged or until it has enough charge in it for you to use – as explained above.

How long this takes will depend on a range of factors, including the size of the battery you have and the charger you’re using – but usually, it takes around 30 minutes to two hours – or up to four hours in some cases – to fully charge a vape.

The Spiritbar model we mentioned above charges extremely quickly and can be ready to use in as little as 10 minutes.

How do you know if your vape is rechargeable?

Vapes are designed to be easy to use, and the charging port will be easy to find.

This means if you can’t find a charging port, it’s most likely to be a non-rechargeable vape – so you’ll just need to get rid of it and buy a new one.

Can you charge a vape if it’s not a rechargeable model?

Non-rechargeable vapes are not designed to be recharged, but it’s technically possible to recharge one if you break it open and take it apart.

However, we wouldn’t recommend this since it’s a complicated and potentially dangerous operation – and since non-rechargeable devices are extremely cheap and you won’t be able to get much more vaping from one if you do charge it, it’s not something we’d recommend.

Easy to charge and easy to know when it’s ready

As we’ve seen, modern vapes, both refillable and disposable, are designed to be as intuitive to use as possible, so if you know how to charge a smartphone or tablet, you’ll also be quite capable of charging a vape.

However, the different systems vapes use can vary and may be based on colored lights or a display screen – so for the most accurate information about the vape you have in your hand, you should refer to the instructions that came with it.

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