All that a user needed to do was to decide on the brand that they wanted, pay for it and start vaping. When the eliquid run out, they would dispose of that e-cig and get another one, and start vaping once more.
There was the version that could be refilled by the user so that running out of e-juice or battery power did not mean that the device had served its course. There came batteries that could be recharged and e-liquid tanks that could be refilled once they were emptied.
Each of the two varieties had its own problems. The disposable was very costly in the long run, among other shortcomings that users noticed. The refillable and rechargeable e-cigs still did not give the vaper a lot of control over his or her device and that was not acceptable to many members of the electronic cigarette community.
The dissatisfaction with the existing e-cigarette models led to the birth of mods that enhanced the functionality of several features of e-cigs. Some gave users some control over how much power got to the heating element so that more or less vapour could be produced, resulting in a bigger throat hit.
Others introduced the use of more than one heating coil so that much more e-liquid could be vaporized, again stepping up the degree of satisfaction that the vaper obtained from their device.
Then came the rebuildable atomizers and all of a sudden, each vaper who wished to could become an engineer and build their own device almost from scratch. Having an RBA was a statement of personality, status and so many other things. They were, and still are, a prized item to own and more and more people are taking to these devices.
What Is Wrong With That?
The thing is, technology is supposed to move forward in the way that is easily obvious to everyone. This seems not to be happening with e-cigs due to the RBAs.
Consider this. In the beginning, devices came factory made and all one had to do was to buy and vape. Now, instead of factories churning out better pieces, the work of building devices seems to have fallen back to the individual vaper.
The vaper has to go out to a store or vape shop and buy an assortment of goodies, get home, put on his or her coveralls and gloves then get to work building a device that they will use. What happened to industrialization?
Is it because factories cannot come up with devices that address the concerns of users? Is it because users want the pride of a handmade one-in-a-million vaporizer? Is it that users want to get the satisfaction of personally making a device which actually works? Are the RBAs a way that the e-cigarette industry shows the world that it is so different that it does not have to rely on factories to produce what its members use?
And the biggest question of all, are RBAs driving the electronic cigarette industry in reverse gear? What do you think?
