If you’ve been vaping for a while, there’s a good chance that you’ve experienced what it’s like to outgrow your vaping device. Maybe you started with a pre-filled pod-based device from a local convenience store, and you eventually upgraded to a refillable pod system so you could enjoy a wider selection of vape juice flavors. From there, maybe you switched to a more powerful vape pen. Once you’ve experienced what it feels like to use a vaping device that’s capable of producing some truly impressive vapor clouds, though, you’re going to start thinking about stretching the limits of your vaping experience even further. That’s when you’re going to begin considering an upgrade to a full-sized vape mod.

Buying a vape mod isn’t a small decision. Vape mods are the largest and most powerful vaping devices on the market, and the fact that they have such advanced capabilities means that they typically cost more than entry-level vaping devices. Buying a vape mod is an investment, in other words, and you want to buy one that you’ll be happy using for a while. Compiled from top vape review sites designed to help you choose the best vape mods in the UK, this is the simple buying guide for choosing your first vape mod.

Step 1: Determine Your Preferred Inhaling Style
The first thing that you need to do before buying your first vape mod is determine the inhaling style that you want to use when vaping. With any entry-level vaping device, you’ll draw the vapor into your mouth before inhaling it into your lungs. That’s the way you inhale when smoking a cigarette – and copying the airflow characteristics of a cigarette is the goal with almost any entry-level vaping device.

With most vape mods and their included tanks, though, the airflow characteristics are much freer and more open because those devices are designed to produce much larger vapor clouds. To get the best performance with a device designed for huge cloud production, you’ll need to inhale the vapor directly into your lungs. If you’re interested in trying the direct-to-lung vaping style, feel free to choose one of the more powerful vape mods that have become common in recent years. If you’d rather stick with the mouth-to-lung inhaling style, you should look for a vape mod that includes a tank with a narrow mouthpiece.

Step 2: Choose Between a Built-in or Removable Battery
The next thing that you’ll need to do when choosing your first vape mod is decide whether you want a device with a built-in battery or a removable one. Vape mods with built-in batteries are popular because they tend to be smaller and lighter than mods with removable batteries. That’s because a mod with a built-in battery can use a compact battery pack rather than a large cylindrical battery cell. A mod with a built-in battery also costs less because it includes the battery. When you buy a vape mod with a removable battery, you’ll usually need to buy the battery – or batteries – separately.

While vape mods with removable batteries do tend to cost more than those with built-in batteries, they have a benefit of their own in that they can sometimes last longer. That’s because no lithium-ion battery lasts forever. One day, you’ll connect your vaping device to the charger, and nothing will happen – or maybe it’ll charge, but you’ll find that it no longer provides a usable amount of battery life. If you’re using a device with a removable battery, you can simply replace the battery. If the device has a built-in battery, though, you’ll need to replace the entire device.

Step 3: Decide Whether You Want to Go Big – or Bigger
Vape mods are the largest and most capable vaping devices on the market. You already know that – but among the various vape mods, there’s a wide range of different sizes and power levels. A single-battery vape mod, for instance, can be a very compact device that delivers a maximum power of anywhere from 50-100 watts but still fits comfortably in your pocket. A dual-battery device, on the other hand, will be significantly larger and heavier – but it’ll deliver up to around 200 watts of power or potentially even more than that.

So, what level of performance do you expect from your first vape mod? Regardless of which device you end up buying, you can expect performance superior to what you get with your current vape pen or pod system. If you buy a single-battery device, though, you’ll get that performance with a vape mod that’s still highly portable and easy to carry. However, you’ll want to opt for a dual-battery device if you want to enjoy all-day life and full compatibility with the most demanding vape tanks on the market.

Step 4: Choose a Design That Suits Your Personal Style
After you’ve selected a vape mod with the right features and capabilities for your needs, the final step is to examine the devices fitting those qualifications and choose the one that suits your personal style. A vape mod most commonly has a resin or metal exterior. Resin is lighter and tends to come in a wider selection of colors. Metal vape mods, on the other hand, tend not to offer as many different color options. If you drop a mod with a metal exterior on a hard surface, though, the hard exterior might be more likely to protect the device’s internal electronics. Some manufacturers of vaping products take that idea even further by designing devices with certifications for dust, water and shock resistance.

In addition to vape mods with basic metal and plastic finishes, you can also find devices using luxury trim materials like leather, glass and mother of pearl. The addition of a luxury material doesn’t enhance the durability of a vape mod, but it does enhance the mod’s appearance. A luxury trim option might be something worth considering if you want to buy a vape mod that’s certain to draw attention when you’re vaping with your friends.