Remember those awful “homemade sploofs” that everyone was making back in the day? You know the ones. You took the cardboard tube out of the paper towel roll and stuffed a bunch of fabric softeners inside and then blew your smoke through it? Yeah, those sploofs. What could be better? Just about anything. And this is where the SmokeBuddy stepped up to the plate and hit the ball out of the park with their personal smoke filters. The question, though, is do they work with vapes?
Does The SmokeBuddy Actually Work With Vapes?
Hell yeah. The SmokeBuddy definitely work with vapes. How do we know? We tested. A lot.
So here’s the deal. A SmokeBuddy is a lot like that old homemade sploof you might have made, only it’s about a billion times better. Instead of a cardboard tube, it uses plastic. And instead of some dryer sheets that don’t actually capture any vapor or smoke, it uses a carbon filter. Unlike those dryer sheets, the filter inside a SmokeBuddy actually captures the particles. It doesn’t capture 100% of them but as a rough estimate we’d say that it has to be capturing most of them, let’s call it 95% or maybe a little higher.
When you use one with a vape, there is a huge problem: vapor from an e-cigarette contains a lot of moisture and the moisture, once captured in the carbon filter, basically wrecks the filter. For this reason, a SmokeBuddy will work with a vape but it won’t last very long. And if you use it a lot, the moisture will build up quickly and you’ll eventually get mold growing in and out of your filter. Super gross.
What can you do about this? Basically nothing. But if you don’t use your SmokeBuddy that often, it should have time to dry out before uses and this will allow you to use it for a while.
If you’re using your vape with your SmokeBuddy a bunch of times throughout the day, it’s probably not going to last that long.
Is The SmokeBuddy Worth Buying?
Is it still worth buying? For sure. If you need to eliminate the odor from your vapor then it’s definitely worth buying, assuming you can afford to buy one. They’re not all that expensive so for a lot of you reading this it shouldn’t be a problem. You can actually order them online but your local smoke shop probably has some too. You might even be able to find some for sale on Amazon, which is cool if you have Prime and can get them delivered quickly with no extra charge. We’ve ordered a few from Amazon and picked up a lot more than a few at a nearby smoke shop — they all worked great.
If your local shop doesn’t have them, they might have something similar. We’ve tested some other brands of personal smoke filters with our vapes and they all seem to work about the same, which isn’t surprising given that the ones we tested also used carbon filters. The SmokeBuddy, from what we’ve tested, is the best. It has a rather large filter that lasts a while so you don’t have to replace it as often. It also has a pretty large opening and exit so you don’t feel like you’re blowing vapor through a straw.
How Long Does A SmokeBuddy Actually Last?
When used with a vape, a SmokeBuddy filter lasts at least a week. This assumes it’s being used with an e-cigarette. If you’re using with a vape pen that you only hit a few times a day or so then it’s likely to last you a lot longer than that. We’d estimate that it should last well over a month, probably multiple months, under that type of usage. But if you’re a heavy vaper and you’re puffing on your vape multiple times an hour then don’t expect it to last too long because the vapor’s composition is way different from smoke.
What’s The Difference Between SmokeBuddy And Junior?
The only real difference between the original SB and the “JR” version is that the Junior is way smaller. Because of its smaller size, there’s a lot more resistance when blowing through it but it’s definitely usable. The Junior also has a smaller filter and that means it doesn’t last as long as the original. So why would you even buy a SmokeBuddy Jr? Well, the huge upside is that it’s way more portable. You might not realize it just looking at a photo of the SmokeBuddy on the internet but it’s pretty big. You’re probably not going to fit it in your pocket, at least not comfortably and without great effort. So the Jr, if you’re going to bring it somewhere, is the obvious choice. It’ll slide right into your pocket without any trouble.
