Smoking is almost universally regarded as just about the most disgusting of human habits. Still, millions of people do it anyway despite the fact that a much cleaner alternative exists. The jury is still out regarding the safety profile of vaping. We can be fairly certain that it’s safer than smoking and less safe than not smoking. One thing we can say for sure, though, is that vaping doesn’t leave the user’s skin, clothes, hair, car and home smelling terrible. That quality should make vaping extremely attractive to anyone who cares about their image – particularly women – and the statistics bear that assumption out. According to Statista, 60 percent of women in a survey of 2,203 people reported that they had tried vaping at least once.
Why Is It So Rare to See Women Vaping in Public?
While the statistics suggest that vaping is of great interest to women, it sometimes feels as though vaping is a man’s world because few women ever use their vaping devices in public. That could have something to do with the larger “mods” that so many mainstream vapers used until recently. It’s possible that many women don’t want to be seen puffing on enormous vaping devices in public. A major shift in the vaping industry, however, has begun to reverse that trend.
As long as the vaping industry has existed, companies have tried to design e-cigarettes for women. They’ve tried to appeal to the fairer sex by creating e-cigarettes decked out with Swarovski crystals or designed to be worn around the neck as lanyards. None of those products managed to gain any traction. As it turned out, women weren’t looking for flashy or fashionable e-cigarettes; they were simply looking for devices that delivered satisfaction without requiring a pair of batteries and weighing half a pound. The vaping industry has finally come up with that, and female smokers are responding with great enthusiasm.
Pod Vaping Systems Have Provided the Vaping Experience Female Smokers Want
When e-cigarettes first appeared on the market in the late 2000s, the devices that were available were all small. Some were roughly equal in shape and size to tobacco cigarettes, and others were a bit larger, like ballpoint pens. Smokers loved the tiny size of those early devices, but tastes quickly shifted toward larger mods because the early small e-cigarettes didn’t deliver nicotine efficiently enough. While “cigalikes” still exist today, they primarily only appeal to the people who successfully used them to quit smoking years ago.
Tastes shifted back in the direction of smaller vaping devices in a hurry with the release of the first modern pod vaping system – the JUUL – in 2015. The JUUL introduced some new technologies that continue to influence the vaping industry today. Before long, it became the world’s most popular vaping device. The JUUL also proved that female smokers don’t want a vaping device that panders to their fashion sensibilities; they simply want something that works.
How the JUUL Changed the Vaping Industry
The most important way in which the JUUL influenced the vaping industry was by popularizing nicotine salt e-liquid. Compared to traditional e-liquid, nicotine salt e-liquid has a slightly lower pH that makes it less irritating to the throat. The reduced irritation makes it possible for nicotine salt e-liquid to deliver almost as much nicotine per puff as a tobacco cigarette while remaining completely smooth and enjoyable to inhale.
Female smokers found themselves particularly attracted to the JUUL because it could completely satisfy the nicotine needs of even heavy smokers without requiring the effort that larger mods demand. With the JUUL, there was no need to worry about battery safety, no need to fill a tank constantly and no need to exhale huge plumes of room-filling clouds just to feel satisfied. The JUUL had a few shortcomings of its own, but it’s fair to call it the vaping industry’s first revolutionary device.
Modern Pod Vaping Devices Continue Where JUUL Left Off
Although the JUUL is undeniably an important vaping device, it’s important not to overstate its relevance in today’s vaping industry because it hasn’t received a major update since its release four years ago. Newer devices such as the Aspire AVP have drawn inspiration from the JUUL while bringing some important new updates to the table.
Jason Cugle – owner of the online vape shop Triple 7 Vaping – notes that the Aspire AVP has been particularly popular among his female customers. “I find that a lot of AVP buyers are JUUL converts,” Cugle says. “Eight flavors can only keep you satisfied for so long. People buy the AVP and devices like it because they want to start choosing their own e-liquids. Many of those people go on to use their refillable pod devices as tools to help them lower their nicotine intake.”
What’s Special About the Aspire AVP?
The Aspire AVP has several vital features that the JUUL and other similar closed-system vaping devices lack. The most important of those is a refillable pod that allows users to choose their own e-liquids rather than limiting themselves to the few pre-filled pod flavors available from any one manufacturer. The AVP is simple to fill; simply add e-liquid through the filling port on the underside of the pod.
Many JUUL users have complained about the device’s poor battery life, and the Aspire AVP fixes that with a much higher-capacity battery and only a modest size increase. The AVP features a 700 mAh battery with a greater capacity than three fully charged JUUL e-cigarettes.
The last special feature of the Aspire AVP is one that makes it unique among pod vaping systems. With most pod systems, there’s no way to increase or adjust the vapor production. The typical pod system offers one level of performance, and that’s the only type of vaping experience you’ll ever have with it. The Aspire AVP, on the other hand, has the ability to toggle between three different power levels: 8, 10 and 12 watts. If you have an e-liquid that tastes best at a certain temperature – or you just need a little burst of extra vapor – the AVP makes it easy to toggle between the three different modes.