How Vapelion ranks and recommends vapes
The criteria behind every comparison, score, and "best for" badge on this site.
Last reviewed: 7 June 2026
Our principles
Independence
Rankings are not for sale. Outbound links carry no affiliate commission, so no retailer relationship can affect the order of products.
Transparency
Every score corresponds to a defined input. If we cannot explain why a product was chosen, we do not list it.
Compliance-first
We only list products that meet UK law. We do not list single-use disposable vapes.
Total cost of ownership
Most vape comparison sites quote the sticker price of the device. That number is only part of what you actually spend, so we publish the one-time hardware price separately from the recurring liquid-and-coil spend.
We publish light, typical, and heavy usage bands. Homepage highlights use the typical band. Conservative comparison scoring still references the heavy band so we do not understate spend.
The Vapelion Formulas
Monthly consumables
coils x unit_cost + liquid_ml x cost_per_ml6-month total estimate
device_cost + (monthly_cost x 6)Occasional or lower-output daily use.
A realistic everyday refillable-pod pattern for many UK buyers.
A conservative higher-usage scenario used to avoid understating spend.
Our published assumptions
To keep comparisons fair, we publish the bands above and keep the conservative band consistent across the dataset wherever a single comparison baseline is needed.
| Factor | Value | Our definition |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative baseline | 6ml/day | The heavy-use baseline we keep in reserve for conservative comparisons. |
| Monthly liquid | 180ml | Equivalent monthly liquid at that conservative baseline. |
| Average liquid cost | £0.50/ml | UK street average for branded 10ml bottles. |
| Coil lifespan | 7 days | Worst-case interval before flavour and performance drop. |
| Coils per month | 4 | Conservative monthly maintenance count tied to the heavy-use band. |