It’s not a project for most people, but watching someone ride up to 20 miles, and up to 30 mph, on tossed-out vape batteries is transfixing.

Disposable vapes are indefensible. Many, or maybe most, of them contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but manufacturers prefer to sell new ones.

To make a point about how wasteful this practice is—and to also make a pretty rad project and video—Chris Doel took 130 disposable vape batteries (the bigger “3,500 puff” types with model 20400 cells) found littered at a music festival and converted them into a 48-volt, 1,500-watt e-bike battery, one that powered an e-bike with almost no pedaling more than 20 miles. You can see the whole build and watch Doel zoom along trails on his YouTube video.

  • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    3 days ago

    We used to have a great vape market for those types of vapes. Since 2020 state and fed government has rinsed the market “for the kids” and basically created what we see now, a market of 98% disposable sold by overseas companies. Before that there were countless brands making batteries, tanks, etc. now a lot of smoke shops don’t even sell refillable vapes or liquid.

    • Steak@lemmy.caEnglish
      13·
      3 days ago

      Yeah it’s a shame. I’ve been vaping for 14 Yeats now and seen the whole story unfold. It really sucks.

      • LucidBoi@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        devil told me howda get rich quick numba is 666

        Edit: It’s a Yeat (rapper) reference, get over yourselves guys.

    • acid_falcon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      … What? I used to smoke a pack a day, now I just vape. I’ve never seen a smoke shop that doesn’t sell juice

      • hex@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        Different legislation in different places. My country banned flavours, but they still sell disposables somehow.

      • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        My local shop has about 3 full 6 foot wide floor to ceiling bookcases of just disposables. Then there’s one shelf with one brand of juices and about 7 options.