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.

  • bluewing@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    12 days ago

    Oh I’ve seen pictures of them. Just haven’t seen one in the real world nor seen one tossed on the ground. I do suspect they just aren’t popular around me. Smokers around here probably prefer real cigarettes.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      12 days ago

      Eh, my coworker alternates between cigarettes and vape, and plenty of people vape or smoke in the parking lot here.

      I’ve never seen a vape on the ground though, I think most at my office don’t use disposable vapes.