The fact that an Atomiser can only last and work properly for about 4 weeks and sometimes as little as 3 days make them very expensive in my opinion. They are disposables. In the UK they can cost as much as £8 each (you do the conversion into whatever currency you use) and i have to buy at least one a month to be Certain that i'll have a working e-cig.
With the advent of the USB passthrough battery they appear to last a bit longer because there is no Cleaning Cycle (self destruct).
The only problem with those is that they cost £20 each and are themselves subject to many different types of faults and cannot be trusted.
A Charger on the other hand can last years.
That's the main reason I asked. I've been looking at all the dead atomizers I have, so far about 20 of them since I started e-smoking, and adding up all of the cost came out over 200 bucks for a little over a year of moderate e-smoking, whereas I've only gone through 3 twelve dollar batteries. I have given up on e-smoking until:
A.Atomizer cost comes down because companies realize how limited their lifespan is, and that a warranty carousel isn't going to be cost efficient for anyone in the long run.
B. A reseller imports any long totem style disposable atomizer at a price somewhere near the one advertised on the Loongtotem site.
C. A complete redesign of the Atomizer.
Until then, I've been snusing to satisfy my nicotine craving thanks to TropicalBobs thread in the smokeless forum here.