Most beginner problems are not mysterious. A burnt taste, a device that dies in two days, a leaking pod: nearly all of it traces back to a handful of habits nobody mentions at the point of sale. This is that list, written for Nairobi conditions.
Sold to adults of 18 and over. We verify age before dispatch, and our riders may ask for ID on delivery.
Do prime a new coil or pod
The most common cause of a burnt first vape. A new coil arrives with dry cotton in it, and firing it dry scorches that cotton permanently. No amount of liquid afterwards fixes it.
- Drip two or three drops onto the exposed cotton before you fit the pod
- Fill it, then leave it standing five to ten minutes so the wick saturates
- Take three or four draws with the device off to pull liquid through
- Start on the lowest power setting and work up
Don't fit a fresh pod, fill it and immediately take a hard pull at 30W. That is how a KSh 2,000 pod becomes rubbish in one draw.
Don't chain vape
Draw after draw with no gap means the coil cannot rewick fast enough, the cotton dries between pulls, and you get the same burnt note as an unprimed coil.
Leave fifteen to twenty seconds between draws, longer on a high-powered device. If things turn harsh after a heavy session, put it down for ten minutes. It generally comes back. This applies to sealed disposables too: a device being hammered tastes dry and thin, and people mistake that for an empty one.
Do charge it, even if it says "disposable"
This trips up more new buyers than anything else here. Every sealed disposable we stock recharges over USB Type-C, and several have to be recharged, repeatedly, long before the liquid runs out.
Take the Tugboat T12000: 24ml of liquid on a 600mAh battery. That will not vaporise 24ml on one charge, nowhere close. The Evo Pro 15000 holds 30ml on 750mAh. Same arithmetic. So when a "disposable" stops producing vapour after a couple of days, it is almost always a flat battery. Plug it in.
Charging habits that matter:
- Use a standard phone charger and a normal USB-C cable
- Do not leave a device charging overnight or unattended
- Do not charge it on a bed, a sofa, or anything that traps heat
- Unplug it once it is full
On devices with a display, such as the T12000, battery and e-liquid level are shown separately and do not run down together. When the liquid indicator empties, the device is genuinely finished, and charging further just produces dry, burnt vapour.
Don't leave it in the sun or a hot car
Nairobi is kinder than the coast, but a car parked in the open at midday gets far hotter inside than the air outside, and that is where devices die. Heat thins e-liquid so it leaks past the seals, dulls flavour, and stresses the lithium cell. A device that has cooked on a dashboard often leaks the moment you pick it up.
Do keep devices and bottles out of direct sun, store spare liquid somewhere cool and dark, stand pod devices upright, and let anything that has been somewhere hot come back to room temperature first. Don't keep your vape on a dashboard, in a glovebox on a hot day, or in a pocket pressed against a warm phone.
Do treat the battery seriously
Most of the range uses a sealed internal battery, and the rules above cover it. If you move to removable 18650 cells, as on the VOOPOO Drag 5 Mod Kit at KSh 10,000, there are extra rules, and they are not optional.
- Never carry loose 18650 cells with keys or coins. A short across the terminals is the classic cause of a battery fire
- Use a plastic cell case for any cell not in a device
- Replace any cell whose wrap is torn or peeling. A damaged wrap is not cosmetic
- Use cells in matched pairs on a dual-battery device: same brand, same age, charged together
- Stop using anything that gets unusually hot, smells odd, or swells
Do dedicate a pod to tobacco or menthol
This one saves money. Strong flavours ghost: they soak into the cotton and plastic and turn up in whatever goes in next. Tobacco is the worst offender, double apple shisha close behind, and heavy dessert and menthol flavours both linger.
Replacement pods are cheap relative to a kit: UWELL Caliburn G3 and A3 pods KSh 2,500, Caliburn GPP pods KSh 2,000, SMOK Novo 5 and Nord 5 pods KSh 2,000, VAPORESSO XROS mesh pods KSh 2,300 for a four-pack.
One pod for tobacco, one for menthol, one for fruit. Do it from the start, and you will never wonder why your mango tastes of cigarettes.
Don't buy from an unvetted seller. Fakes are real
Elf Bar and Tugboat are two of the most counterfeited names in vaping, and both turn up copied on open marketplaces, in social listings, and through resellers who cannot say where the stock came from. A counterfeit is not the product you paid for, and you have no recourse.
What to check:
- The authenticity seal. Genuine ELFBAR cartons carry a holographic seal. Missing, or flatly printed rather than holographic, means walk away
- Print quality. Fuzzy text, wrong fonts, off colours and misspellings are the usual giveaways
- The price. A device well below the going rate is the loudest warning sign there is
- The specification panel. Real cartons carry one. Copies often have a vague panel or none
- The seller. Buy from a specialist who can answer a question about a battery rating, not a listing that copied its description from elsewhere
Do dispose of a dead device properly
A finished disposable still contains a lithium cell. Lithium cells do not belong in household waste, and Kenya runs no kerbside collection for them, so there is no bin to drop one into.
- Do not put a dead vape in your household rubbish
- Do not burn it, or leave it anywhere likely to be burnt
- Do not puncture, crush or open a sealed device to get the cell out
- Collect dead devices in a box somewhere cool rather than binning each one
- Hand them to an electronic waste collector. Several operate in Nairobi and take small electronics
A punctured lithium cell can vent and catch fire. That is the whole reason for the rule.
Don't share a device around
A vape is a mouthpiece. Passing it round a table shares whatever is going round that table, and disposables are not designed to be cleaned. If you do hand one over, wipe the mouthpiece. Better still, keep your own: a KSh 700 BAR Salts bottle and a pod you already own is cheap enough. And do not hand a device to anyone under 18, for any reason.
Strengths we stock, for reference
We are not going to tell you which to pick. Here is what exists, and the choice is yours.
E-liquid | Price KSh | Strengths |
|---|---|---|
800 | 10 mg (1%), 20 mg (2%) | |
BAR Salts 10ml | 700 | 20mg (2%) |
2,000 | 30mg (3%) | |
2,000 | 35mg, 50mg | |
2,000 | 35mg, 50mg | |
2,000 | 3mg freebase | |
2,000 | 50mg | |
2,500 | 3mg, 6mg, 12mg, 18mg | |
2,300 | 3mg, 6mg, 12mg | |
2,300 | 0mg as supplied; 3mg with two 18mg shots, 2.5mg with two 15mg shots |
Sealed disposables: the ELFBAR BC10000, KSh 2,500, comes in two separate collections at 20mg (2%) and 50mg (5%). The Tugboat T12000, Tugboat Evo Pro 15000, ELFBAR Ice King 30000, Ice King Pro 40000 and Trio 40000 are all 50mg (5%).
If you want a device where the strength can change later, that points to a refillable pod kit. The UWELL Caliburn A3 Pod Kit is KSh 4,000, the Geekvape Sonder Q2 KSh 3,800, and the UWELL Caliburn G4 and G5 Lite SE both KSh 5,000.
Still deciding whether to make the switch? The vaping vs smoking comparison covers cost, smell and what you need to get started. Once you have your device, the cleaning and maintenance guide covers how to keep it running properly.
Getting set up with Vapesoko
We stock sealed disposables, refillable pod kits, pods and coils, and e-liquids from 10ml to 120ml. We are online only: no in-store shopping, no customer visits, delivery only.
- Nairobi: typically 15 to 90 minutes. Typical, not guaranteed
- Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret and Naivasha: next business day
- Rest of Kenya: 1 to 2 business days
- Free delivery within Nairobi on orders over KSh 2,000
- Payment: M-Pesa and cash only. No card required
- Age: sold to adults of 18 and over. We verify age before dispatch, and our riders may ask for ID on delivery
Last updated: September 2026