Hi Paul, and welcome!
Don't be too concerned if the battery is a clone or not. Many of them work as well and as long as the "name" brands. But you do want to have some backups. IMO, no backups is worse than running out of cigs, since they're harder to come by!
The topper - i.e. juice holder + heating coil - will be the issue, although even with those, the brand may not be critical. Again, many of the clones work fine. Good advice above on some alternatives to the CE style. The CE is a top coil - the heating coil is at the top of the tube. Devices like the mentioned Evod are bottom coil - the coil is, duh, at the bottom! Bottom coils tend to give a slightly cooler vape (when running the same resistance, voltage and juice.) Wouldn't be a bad idea to try one of each, to see which you prefer. Other variations of both also abound. I like the Kanger T3S - big brother to the Evod, holds more. Some like the Vivi Nova, a top coil like the CE, but holds more. Lots to pick from, so if you try both a top and a bottom coil to see which you like better, then you can explore the different styles in that type.
And get that friend a bottle of juice!
