This is a couple months late, but I wanted to throw my $0.02 into the ring

For a beginner I'd recommend an automatic KR-808D battery. V2 are higher quality, Kanger or generic are cheaper but also less reliable & need to be replaced more often. I've been vaping 1 1/2 years, and only like using auto batteries. I never got into the push-button models as it seems unnatural to me, more like a pipe than a cigarette (cause you can't dangle it in your mouth and take a drag, you have to press a button down). KR-808D are the smallest, lightest, and most cigarette-like.

Combine this battery with a KR-808D-threaded clearomizer, you can get a 5-pack online for about $12-15. Then all you need is vape juice.

I'd start with 18 or 24mg of nic if he smoked full strength cigarettes or adjust down accordingly, but err on the high side. Buy several flavors and see what works. All I use now is Grey Matter from Mister-E-Liquid, but it took some time to find what I liked. VG or PG have slightly different tastes, so play with that too. Many boutique e-juice stores will formulate their flavors with either and you can specify when ordering.

Also, if he hasn't cut over to vaping already, be aware that it takes about a week or so for the e-cigarette to really give any satisfaction. Up until that time, he'll still be withdrawing from the other chemicals in the smoke besides the nicotine, and the e-cig will NOT feel like it's satisfying the craving. It's very important not to mix real cigarettes & e-cig for this reason. When I cutover fully, I got seriously depressed for like a week afterwards, then I read some e-cig forums and realized it was just that tobacco smoke has MAOI which I was no longer getting.

Another thing to be aware of is that PG & VG are humectants and will rob your throat/mouth/sinuses of moisture as you inhale and exhale the vapor. Drink a LOT more water than normal! Especially if vaping a lot before bed.

Hope this helps!!!! Best of luck, it's well worth it. Let me know if I can give any other assistance.

What makes you say not to mix the two? I beg to differ, I had a great and easy experience using the two, real cigs and an e cig to quit, however as I said I was only using real cigs when I was ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT A DOUBT CRAVING A CIGARETTE AND NOTHING MORE COULD HELP THAT. But do you have any docs showing not to mix the two of course using a high amount of nicotine in any form is poisonous but so is drinking coca-cola I'd say, so cannot I not drink coca-cola with pepsi in the same day? Do you have any docs to back this up if used occasionally together I found no adverse effects again I stress it helped me quit.

I had a different experience. When I used both, I always found the e-cigarette to be either less than fully satisfying, or barely satisfying at all, which is why I recommended not to mix them.

Tobacco smoke has about 3,999 more chemicals in it besides nicotine, including MAOI (anti-depressant). These other chemicals have a synergistic effect with the nicotine and make it MUCH more addictive than nicotine alone.

This effect is most likely what you experienced as the "having a nice herbal smoke" aspect cigarettes vs. e-cig. And why during times of great craving you'd have a real cig.

By giving a week or two purely using ecig alone, you will let these other chemicals fully drain from your system and break the addiction. If you keep using both, you're keeping the addiction to the "cocktail" nicotine/MAOI blend alive, no matter how weak and small.

I'm not trying to start shit with you at all but I just want to point out if you're smoking cigarillos now & then you really haven't quit tobacco. I just say this cause I did the same thing many times after quitting cigs, thinking I could smoke blunts on the reg and take drags of friends cigarettes occasionally, but since I didn't buy packs of smokes, it was ok.

Then some type of serious stress comes along and next thing I know I'm buying a fresh pack. By transferring the addiction completely to the e-cig, that will be much less likely to happen now.

As far as docs, check this out: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/38/8593.full

Peace brother