I recently found a disposable e-sigarette on the sidewalk while I was walking through the neighborhood. Knowing that these devices usually contain a rechargeable and almost brand new lithium cell I picked it up to take it apart.

Construction

The device is made out of a single stainless steel tube with a plastic end cap and a plastic mouth piece. The stainless steel tube is wrapped in a sticker which has the flavour and brand name printed on it.

UPENDS UpBAR: Front

UPENDS UpBAR: Back

UPENDS UpBAR: Bare tube

Internals

The device contains, from top to bottom, a liquid container, a battery, and a controller embedded in the plastic end cap.

UPENDS UpBAR: Internals

Liquid container

The liquid container is a plastic tube filled with some sort of spungey material which holds the vape liquid. The tube is closed by a silicone end cap at the bottom which has holes to feed the wired for the coil through.

UPENDS UpBAR: Liquid container

In the middle of the spungey material sits a tube of heat resistant material. The coil is wound around some sort of fibers which will transport the liquid from the spungey stuff to the coil.

UPENDS UpBAR: Coil

Controller

The controller is attached to the end cap. It is pressed into place with a silicone part.

UPENDS UpBAR: Controller module

There are three wires going into the controller. One ground wire, one wire connected to the positive terminal of the battery, and one wire connected to the coil. There is also an LED between the pads the wires are soldered to.

UPENDS UpBAR: Controller module

The controller module, seen from the other side, looks like a small microphone.

UPENDS UpBAR: Controller module

The small patch of filter material covers a hole in the case. Behind that hole sits small metal plate with multiple small holes.

UPENDS UpBAR: Controller module

Opening up the case of the controller reveals that there is a membrane behind the small metal plate.

UPENDS UpBAR: Controller parts

The controller chip sits on the inside facing side of the PCB. The chip is marked S085 B071.

UPENDS UpBAR: Controller PCB

Battery

The battery is a rechargeable 400mAh lithium battery, however the device is not reusable at all. This means that the device is meant to be thrown away when it is empty, wasting a perfectly good battery. The battery is marked with the text BPI 13300 400mAh 3.7V 1.48Wh 22J26.

UPENDS UpBAR: Battery

Update 2023-03-29

I found another one of these, different flavour this time.

UPENDS UpBAR: Blueberry Ice