What Are Elf Bars and Why Are They So Popular?

What Is An Elf Bar?

Elf Bars are a range of disposable vapes that, despite only being launched a few years ago, have become one of the most popular brands on the market. Like most other disposable vapes, they are pre-filled with e-liquid and usually contain a small single-use battery.

Elf Bars are known for their fruity, sweet, candy-inspired e-liquids, with more than 30 flavors available across two dozen disposable device styles. They are available in a wide range of sizes, from 400 puffs to more than ten times that, and in several nicotine strengths up to 50mg/ml. You can even buy zero-nicotine Elf Bars.

Best-selling Elf Bars include the early pen-style Elfbar 600 and, more recently, the hugely popular BC3500 and BC5000. The brand is even dipping its toes into the pod vape market with devices like the FB1000.

Elf Bars, Elfbars, Elfies, or Elfs (as they are variously known) were some of the first reliable and cheap disposable vapes on the market, along with rivals such as Geek Bar, Riot Squad, and Elux bars. They have since grown to be one of the most popular vape brands in the world.

The Elf Bar Trademark Dispute

You might have noticed Elf Bars vanishing from stores and online vape shops in the U.S. in early 2023. This is because of a trademark infringement dispute brought by another vape company. Florida-based VPR Brands registered the “Elf” brand name in 2017, and a recent court injunction has stopped the sale of Elf Bars.

While an appeal has been lodged by iMiracle Technologies, the company behind the Elf Bar, these popular disposable vapes are having to go through a rebrand to get back on the shelves. Yep, that’s right, in the United States, Elf Bars will no longer officially be called Elf Bars. They will soon change to use the name EBDESIGN, although model names and numbers (such as BC5000) will remain the same.

How Much Are Elf Bars?

The price of Elf Bars varies slightly between retailers, but a single 600-puff disposable should cost around $5-6. You can often buy a bundle of five small Elfbars for $20 or less. For something like the ever-popular BC5000 Elf Bar, you’ll be paying around $18. Not bad for around a week’s worth of vaping.

The price of an Elf Bar in other places around the world works out to be approximately the same. In the United Kingdom, a small 600-puff Elf Bar is around £4-5. These are the most popular vapes from the brand, but that is due to the larger puff-count devices not being available from British retailers (U.K. disposables can only have 2ml of juice inside).

Disposables like the Elfbar aren’t the most cost-effective way to vape. Over time, it will usually be cheaper to run a simple pod vape and buy bottles of e-liquid. With disposables, you’re paying for the convenience of not having to refill tanks or change burnt coils. And Elf Bars are certainly a simple and convenient way to get your nicotine hit.

How Long Do Elf Bars Last?

Elf Bars are available in a wide range of sizes. Just how long each lasts is based on puff count and by volume of e-liquid. The puff count is only an estimate or average: not everyone draws on a vape with the same intensity.

The lowest puff count is 400. That’s in the smallest devices, which contain 2ml of liquid. More liquid equals more puffs. You can get Elf Bars with 600, 800, 1500, 2500, and even 5000 puffs. The largest of these contains an impressive 13ml of vape juice. Assuming an average of 200 puffs per day makes it pretty easy to estimate how long each size of Elf Bar will last.

The average vaper (if there is such a thing) can expect a 600-puff device to last 2-3 days. But again, this is only an average, and drawing more heavily on the vape or using it more frequently will affect how long each Elf Bar lasts. But how long a disposable vape lasts is about more than just how many puffs you can get out of it. It’s also about flavor.

Early disposables often lost flavor intensity a long time before reaching the end of their estimated puff count. This is probably down to low-quality coils, a drop in power as the battery runs down, and sometimes low-quality liquid. Elf Bars did a great job of bucking this trend and became known for holding their flavor almost to the last puff. That is something that undoubtedly helped fuel their rise in popularity.

Can You Charge an Elf Bar?

You can’t charge every Elfbar vape, but most of the large-capacity devices can be recharged. It might seem like a slightly strange idea to have a rechargeable disposable, but the feature became a necessity when the larger Elf Bars arrived.

Disposable vapes generally have a small battery compared to a mod vape or even some pod vapes. These will be enough to last around two days but not much longer, and even the heaviest vaper wouldn’t be finishing a 5000-puff Elf Bar in a couple of days.

Modern rechargeable disposables feature a USB Type C port for charging, and this is the case for most of the larger Elf Bars. You won’t get an Elf Bar Charger, as you might with other rechargeable devices. As far as we know, none of the Elf Bars are even supplied with a USB-C cable, but we’re guessing that most vapers will already have one (or more) to use.

How long it takes to charge an Elf Bar will vary between devices. Some have battery capacities of 850mAh, but others have much less. The devices with the biggest batteries should recharge from empty in less than an hour when using USB-C.

Are Elf Bars Safe?

As long as you buy authentic Elf Bar vapes, they are as safe as any other vaping device. Elf Bars sold in the United States must conform to the same rules and pass the same safety tests as any other battery-powered device. The same goes for the e-liquid they contain. In fact, we could argue that because the liquid is sealed within the vape, it is even more likely to be unadulterated than e-liquids bought in bottles.

Sadly, the trademark dispute that saw Elf Bars removed from the shelves has resulted in a growing number of fakes on the market. Such a popular brand was always likely to be a target of unscrupulous vendors who wanted to cash in on the name, but the authentic Elf Bars being withdrawn allowed knock-offs to proliferate.

Here are some invaluable tips for spotting fake disposables and other vape products.

The debate over whether any type of vaping is safer than smoking continues to rage in almost every country where vaping is legal. We aren’t going to tell you that vaping is 100% safe, nor that Elf Bars are safe for everyone to use. But as long as you buy authentic and vape responsibly, Elf Bars are as safe as any other disposable vape.

Why Are Elf Bars So Popular?

Elf Bars are undoubtedly one of the most popular disposable vapes in the world and THE most popular brand in several countries, including the U.K. In the United States, the largest vape market in the world, Elf Bars must surely sit at or near the top of the most popular disposables list. But what makes Elf Bars so popular?

Timing is one factor. Elf Bars hit the market early and in time to take advantage of a big increase in vaping in general and disposable vaping in particular. In some countries, between 2020 and 2022, the percentage of vapers using disposables rose from 6-7% to 45-50%. And much of that growth was due to brands like Elf Bar.

They have also been warmly embraced by younger vapers, which is evident on social media. The #elfbar hashtag on TikTok had 1.5 billion views at the start of 2023! Elf Bars can be seen in the coolest places, being used by influencers and celebrities, which is certainly going to make them more desirable.

On top of that, the brand is quick to evolve, regularly introducing new flavors, new device sizes, and new ways to vape with a disposable. Many of the most recent Elf Bars use QUAQ coil technology, which provides better liquid absorption, less power consumption, and greater flavor retention over the life of the vape.

In the end, the massive popularity of Elf Bars is probably down to hitting the sweet spot between price, flavor, choice, and brand credibility. They work, they taste great, and they are everywhere. Whatever else you might think about Elf Bars, the fact that they are helping spread awareness about and access to vaping is undeniable.

FAQ

Here are some of the other Elf Bar questions that we get asked regularly.

Do Elf Bars have side effects?

Vaping, not just Elf Bars, can produce side effects. These can include coughing, dry mouth, and even nausea. If you experience these (often temporary) side effects from using an Elf Bar, you’ll likely experience them with any vape.

How many cigarettes are in an Elf Bar?

The answer to this depends, of course, on the Elf Bar you are using. But a small Elfbar 600 (600 puffs) is equivalent to around 20 regular-strength cigarettes. It will provide approximately the same use time as a full pack of smokes, and a similar amount of nicotine (based on a 20mg/ml device).

Are Elf Bars Made in the USA?

The parent company for the Elf Bar brand, iMiracle Technologies, is based in China. But the Elf Bars sold in the United States are now made by an American company in California.

How do I know if my Elf Bar is Empty?

The easiest way is to look at the LED indicator. A red light usually signifies that the Elf Bar is out of juice or battery. You should also be able to taste the difference in an empty Elf Bar. If it tastes burnt or lacks flavor, it is probably empty.

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