The Top 5 Biggest Carto Trends
It's amazing what difference a year can make. The changes to cartomizers alone in the past year are astounding! There are so many cartomizers out there now, it's very difficult to keep them all straight. I’ve been reporting on e-cigarette news, writing various articles about the subject and of course, doing a lot of articles on this subject. As I watch the market, I’ve been starting to pick up on certain trends and patterns.
So let's take a look at what I see as the top 5 e-cigarette cartomizer trends.
5. Clear Cartomizer Variations
The CE2 clearomizer itself is a fairly new entrant in the e-cigarette industry. This was a radical new design. It featured a clear tube and the heating element located at the top, rather than the bottom of the device. Initially, the only variation on this design was a longer version that held more e-liquid.
Seemingly overnight, dozens of different variations of the cartomizer have sprung up. They range in simple changes like designing specifically for eGo e-cigarettes. There are also more radical designs that look almost nothing like the original.
Many of the new riffs on the CE2 focus on higher capacity, but usually also bring a little more to the table such as tips that prevent e-liquid from flowing out through the drip tip. Other clear cartos get away from the CE2 engine completely.
You can now find otherwise average cartomizers sporting clear exteriors rather than metal shells. Personally, putting a clear tube on a cartomizer that uses filler seems sort of silly, but who am I to judge? Of course there are some radical new clearomizer designs that have hit the market…
4. Uniquely Oriented Coils
Perhaps one of the newest trends in cartomizers, horizontal, bottom coil cartomizers also generally use a clear (or smoked transparent tube). The new models depart considerably from the venerable CE2 cartomizer. The CE3 which is the next revision to the CE2 features this bottom coil design.
This design features a coil on the bottom encased by a protective surrounding to keep the liquid out. The G4 cartomizer was one of the first on the market sporting this radical new design.
Critics and consumers were not overly enthused with the first wave of bottom coil cartomizers. Second and third generation versions of these devices have improved the reliability a great deal. There are second and third generation versions of these products on the market now. There are also other devices that are similar, but otherwise totally different devices.
Beyond clear cartomizer designs, there are also traditional style cartomizers that are moving to the bottom coil. A new entrant into the market is the horizontal coil cartomizer made by Kanger. This cartomizer can be found in a number of places. For example, V2 Cigs' popular new cartomizers use this design.
3. Bigger Cartomizers
Somebody in the e-cigarette manufacturing industry just took the old adage “bigger is better” and ran with it. Original cartomizers came out with around a .5-1.0ml capacity. XL cartos housing around 1.5ml came out and the market stayed there for a while.
Now it seems like every day I see a vendor announcing even bigger cartomizers. First came the 2-2.5ml capacity in the CE2 Giantomizer. It wasn't long before 3ml cartomizers came out. Right after that came cartos that held 5ml of e-liquid. The trend seems to be across the board as well. You can find giant versions of almost everything from CE2s to dual coils and plain cartomizers.
2. Carto Tanks
This kind of goes along with the bigger is better thing. Tanks let users cart around a day's worth of e-liquid in one shot. Tanks were originally the domain of hobbyists making these things in their basements.
Mods that held 3 and 5ml of e-liquid were based on the innards of the CE2 cartomizer. Some of the original tanks available in retail also used the CE2 parts. More variations of the CE2 tank hit the market ranging in capacity from identical to an XL CE2 to the massive 9ml Juice Jar.
Eventually someone decided that if you stuck holes in a traditional cartomizer you could stick that in a tank and it would work too. That was the beginnings of the dual coil cartomizer tank. Now big companies like Smoktech produce very inexpensive cartomizer tanks.
1. DCCs
For the most part all those tanks come with a dual coil cartomizer. That goes to show just how popular DCCs are. When dual coils came out, it seemed like they would be just another fad. That notion quickly wore off. Dual coils are hands-down one of the most popular types of cartomizers on the market today.
The cartomizers, which feature two heating coils run in parallel to provide a larger heating surface, can be found at a wide variety of vendors. The cartomizers are popular for the large amount of warm vapor they produce. The cartomizers are also available in just about every form factor imaginable.
Summation
Cartomizers have taken off in terms of variety lately. There is no sign the innovation will stop anytime soon. I'm sure that also means some strange designs are ahead. For other trendy topics check out other articles I've written.