If you want to have the best possible experience with empty or pre-filled vape cartridges, you need a good 510-thread battery – and when you examine the selection offered by a top manufacturer or vape shop, you’ll see no shortage of options. There are so many cart batteries on the market today, in fact, that you’re likely to feel a bit overwhelmed when it’s time to select the battery that you want to use.
The easiest way to find the best 510 battery for your needs is to narrow down the selection as much as possible by eliminating the products that you know aren’t right for you. After you do that, there will be fewer remaining options – and that’ll make it much easier for you to select the one you want.
All 510 batteries have one of two methods of operation. Some generate vapor automatically when you puff on them, and others have fire buttons that you must hold in order to vape. A few vape batteries offer the ability to toggle between puff-activated and button-activated firing, but the majority use one firing style or the other. Therefore, you can eliminate nearly half of the options by deciding whether you’d rather use a button-activated or draw-activated 510 battery.
So, which is the best option if you’re trying to choose a 510 battery that’s going to provide a great experience with vape cartridges? These are the things you need to know before you buy.
Holding a Draw-Activated Battery Feels Like Holding a Cigarette
One of the biggest benefits of draw-activated 510 batteries is that you can hold them however you like. With a button-activated battery, you need to hold the device in such a way that your thumb or index finger can reach the fire button – which some people actually find fairly uncomfortable. If you’re using a draw-activated battery, you can hold your device as if it were a cigarette or cigar, and many people find that experience more enjoyable.
Button-Activated Batteries Usually Produce Bigger Vapor Clouds
The biggest benefit of button-activated 510 batteries is that they typically produce more vapor per puff than draw-activated batteries. That’s because when you puff on a battery with an automatic airflow sensor, there’s always a slight delay before the device begins to produce vapor. The delay may only be a fraction of a second, but it’s noticeable. During that split second, you’re not inhaling vapor – you’re inhaling plain air.
When you use a button-activated battery, on the other hand, you can start inhaling after you push the button. Since everything that you inhale after holding the button will be vapor rather than air, your device will produce a bigger and more potent cloud. Therefore, if you want a battery that provides a more intense experience and allows you to take really big, flavorful rips, you definitely want a 510 battery with a manual fire button.
Button-Activated Batteries Can Turn On and Off
In addition to proving a means for you to use the device, the button on a manually activated 510 battery also gives you a control interface. Although some button-activated batteries have more advanced features – we’ll discuss those in a moment – the one feature that every battery with a manual fire button has is the ability to turn on and off. In most cases, you can turn a button-activated 510 battery on and off by pressing the fire button five times. Having the ability to turn your vape battery off is good for safety because it ensures that the battery can’t activate accidentally.
A draw-activated battery, on the other hand, it always on if a cartridge is connected. In this case, there’s no way to turn the battery off except by disconnecting the cartridge from the device – and if you do that, you’ll need to find a place to store the cartridge. That’s not the most convenient way to manage a vaping device.
Button-Activated Batteries May Offer Advanced Features
In addition to giving you the ability to turn the device on and off, a manual fire button may also allow you to access a vape battery’s more advanced features. For example, many high-end vape batteries have the ability to operate at different voltages. It’s common for this type of battery to offer as many as three different power levels, which means that you can get slightly larger clouds out of certain vape cartridges. Also, using a variable-voltage vape battery means that you can lower your device’s voltage to prevent a burnt flavor with a cartridge that isn’t designed to operate at higher power levels.
Switching between different voltage levels might not be the only thing that you can do with a button-activated 510 battery. In some cases, a button-activated battery also has an automatic preheating mode that you can use to soften wax concentrates. If you have a vape battery with this feature and are using a wax coil, you can activate the preheating mode after putting some wax on the coil. The battery automatically operates at a low voltage to soften the wax, so you can vape without worrying about getting a burnt hit.
Draw-Activated Batteries Are Sometimes Smaller and Cheaper
Although button-activated 510 batteries offer better vapor production and more advanced features than draw-activated batteries, they’re typically a little inconvenient and uncomfortable to hold compared to draw-activated batteries. Convenience, however, isn’t the only benefit of draw-activated batteries – another feature is that they’re typically smaller and less expensive than button-activated batteries.
Vape batteries with automatic puff sensors are some of the most common vaping devices on the market, and they’ve been around as long as vaping has existed. The fact that draw-activated batteries are produced in such bulk means that their retail prices are often extremely low – and without the need for a more complex microprocessor and firmware to control the battery’s advanced functions, devices with puff sensors are often smaller than those with manual fire buttons. If you want to get started with vaping as cheaply as possible – and you want to use a device that can fit in any pocket – you’ll probably be happiest with a draw-activated 510 battery.
