【Newbie Vaper Tips】Atomizer vs. Cartomizer vs. Clearomizer: What are they?

Whether you’re new to vaping or an experienced user, choosing your next vape kits, mods, parts, coils and accessories can be a daunting task. You might have heard of RTA, RDA and RDTA. But you will still have confusions on atomizers, clearomizers, and cartomizers.

Actually, they are devices that you attach to a battery or power supply to vapor e-juice (e-liquid). Being three major types of devices on the market today, they work on the same principle of heating e-juice to a temperature of vaporization.

An “atomizer” is used to refer to the coil of any vape tank, the part that is responsible for vaporizing e-liquid. It was later stretched to describe the entire vape tank, i.e. what you would put on top of a mod to vape. Rebuildables, clearomizers and cartomizers were all considered “atomizers.”



Nowadays, the word “atomizer” refers specifically to the rebuildable side of vape gear — the tanks where the user has to build their own coils. RDAs, RTAs and RDTAs are what we commonly refer to as atomizers, although the term is sometimes still used for non-rebuildable vape tanks.

“Clearomizers”, combining “clear” and “atomizer”, are the most popular and widely used devices for vaping. They usually comprise of a glass or plastic clear tank, a replaceable coil, a chimney that connects the coil with the top cap, and a mouthpiece. The first popular clearomizers were the CE4 and CE5 by Aspire. In fact, all vape tanks that take replaceable coils are clearomizers.



A “cartomizer” is a vaping device attached to the end of a battery. They are also commonly referred to as cigalikes or just e-cigarettes. The word comes from the combination “cartridge” and “atomizer.” Cartomizers are similar in design to the atomizer. The big difference is that cartomizers have polyfill wrapped around a heating coil. A polyfill soaks e-juice and allows for longer vape time over atomizer.



With these three terms defined, you’ll know more when you look for your next device. Hope this will guide you to find the most satisfying one to achieve your great vaping experience.