An electronic cigarette vaporizer that includes a heating element and further includes or co-operates with an electronics module that (i) detects characteristics of the resistance of the heating element and (ii) uses an inference of temperature derived from that resistance as a control input. The temperature of the heating element may be inferred from data stored in the electronics module that has been empirically obtained for a specific heating element design. The electronics module controls the power delivered to the heating element to ensure that it is no higher than approximately 130 C., plus an error tolerance.

An electronic cigarette vaporizer that includes an air pressure valve or device to enable excess air to escape from an e-liquid reservoir in the vaporizer during pressurized filling of the vaporizer with e-liquid. If the vaporizer includes a ceramic cell, then the air pressure device is the wall of the ceramic cell and the reservoir is the chamber arranged outside of the external wall of the ceramic cell.

An electronic cigarette vaporizer includes a heating element, an air pressure sensor and a microcontroller; the microcontroller stores, processes or determines the extent of each inhalation using signals from the air pressure sensor. The microcontroller can calculate the approximate e-liquid consumption from the extent of each inhalation or provide data that enables an external processor to calculate approximate e-liquid consumption. The extent of an inhalation is a function of one or more of: duration; peak flow rate; average flow rate.

An e-cigarette PV that includes an air pressure valve or device so that excess air can escape from an e-liquid reservoir in the PV when that reservoir is being filled under pressure with e-liquid from a parent reservoir. The valve or device is a barrier made of an air-porous material, such as a sintered polymer or metal, coated with or otherwise including a barrier or layer of an air-porous substance that is not porous to e-liquid, such as an oleophobic material or a hydrophobic or super-hydrophobic material. The oleophobic material is one of: sintered phosphor bronze, sintered stainless steel and sintered PU plastic.

An electronic cigarette vaporizer is not dis-assembled for filling with e-liquid, but is instead filled from a user-replaceable e-liquid cartridge. The vaporizer includes a front section comprising a wick and heating assembly but no e-liquid cartridge, the front section being removably fitted to a body of the vaporizer to enable a replacement front section to be used once the original wick or heating element starts to degrade, that replacement front section being supplied to the end-user with no e-liquid in it.

The invention is an electronic cigarette vaporizer system operable in a discrete mode to reduce the amount of vapor produced by a vaporizer that forms part of the system, compared to a normal mode. The discrete mode causes the vapor produced to be less visible or noticeable, compared to a normal mode.

An electronic cigarette vaporizer that includes a heating element and further includes or co-operates with an electronics module that (i) detects characteristics of the delivery of power, current or voltage to the heating element and (ii) determines if those characteristics are associated with degradation of the heating element. A characteristic that is associated with degradation of the heating element is an increase or other change in the heating element resistance. The heating element resistance can be established by the electronics module sending a test current through the heating element that is sufficient to enable a measurement of resistance to be made.

An electronic cigarette vaporizer includes a heating element for heating an e-liquid and a microcontroller; the microcontroller determines the type and/or characteristics of the e-liquid being used and uses that as an input to automatically control the power delivered to the heating element to heat the e-liquid in a manner suitable for that specific type of e-liquid, or e-liquid with those characteristics. The e-liquid can be supplied from a cartridge and that cartridge then includes a record of the type of e-liquid stored in the cartridge and/or its characteristics and the microcontroller reads that record or is provided data from that record. A variable for the type of e-liquid and/or its characteristics is the water content of the e-liquid.

A container for an electronic nicotine delivery system. The container has a body having a pair of end walls spaced from each other by a base wall and the body also includes a recess extending between the end walls to receive an electronic nicotine delivery system. A lid is pivotally attached to the body for rotation between open and closed positions about an axis parallel to a longitudinal axis of an electronic nicotine delivery system received in the recess.

A retractable container includes: a cover part of which both ends are open; a body part which is disposed in the upper inside portion of the cover part and receives contents; an elevating part which is disposed in the lower end of the body part, rises inside the cover part, and has a locking protrusion defining a seating position; a pressing part which is disposed in the lower portion of the elevating part, rises inside the cover part according to a user's pressing, and has an elastic piece; and a guide part which is fixedly disposed on the upper side of the pressing part and has a guide surface which contacts the upper end of the elastic piece, wherein, when the locking protrusion is seated on a first catching protrusion formed on the elastic piece, the rising of the elevating part and the body part is limited.