Getting to Know Your Vape
E-cigarette, vape, mod, pen, cart, tank, atomizer. Vaping comes with a lot of terms, and they’re easy to mix up if you don’t vape or don’t work in the industry.
We made this video while a wave of lung injuries was in the headlines, and that confusion was showing up everywhere: in public opinion, in the media and among lawmakers. Here’s a plain-English guide to the terms, and why getting them right mattered.
The terms, decoded
- E-cigarette: the umbrella term for battery-powered devices that heat a liquid into an aerosol you inhale.
- Vape: the everyday word for those devices, and the verb for using one.
- Mod: a larger device, often box-shaped, with a bigger battery and power controls. The name comes from the modified devices early hobbyists built.
- Pen: a slim, pen-shaped device, often a simple starter setup.
- Cart: short for cartridge, a prefilled container that attaches to a battery. The word is used most often for THC oil cartridges, which are a different product from nicotine e-liquid.
- Tank: the refillable container that holds e-liquid and houses the coil.
- Atomizer: the part that turns liquid into vapor, a heating coil plus a wick. Tanks and pods contain one, and an RDA is one.
- Pods and disposables: compact devices that use small refillable or prefilled pods, or that come prefilled and are used until empty.
Why the difference mattered
At the time, lung injuries were being blamed on the wrong devices, bans were landing on the wrong products, and news coverage often blurred the lines. We asked viewers to share the video and help clear up the confusion, because knowing exactly which product is which matters for public understanding and for people’s safety.
New to all of this? Our beginner’s guide to vaping and our look at sub-ohm vaping and atomizers go further.
Watch the video
The video was posted on our YouTube channel. Watch ZampleBox Vape School videos on YouTube, and find more guides on the Vape School blog.
Where things stand now
The CDC later named that outbreak EVALI. Its investigation found that most patients had used THC-containing products, often from informal sources, and identified vitamin E acetate as strongly linked to the outbreak. No vaping product is without risk, so buy only from legitimate retailers, and for health questions talk to a doctor and check cdc.gov and fda.gov for current guidance.
WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. For adults 21+ only.