Jetboil Helios Stove System

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

Gave it the old college try, and returned it the day after I got back from my trip. It is pretty bulky, and there is no temp control. It goes from 0- a million, and that is it. If you only want to boil lots of water, this would be great, but if you are trying to cook anything else, I would highly recomend not going this route. The insulating strip also burned on it the one time I used it, and I don't think that plastic is a good choice for a wind screen. (but im no expert) hope this helps...

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

I used this for camping. It was really windy and the windscreen came in handy. The stove is very stable and so easy to use. It is worthy the money. Everyone loved the stove.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

This flame thrower is as good or better than most canister stoves! It boils fast .. but MSR Reactor is probably 30 sec faster .. if that matters?

There are lots of options:

1. Canister upside down for hotter/bigger flame and cold temp operation. Fuel is vaporized in tube, near burner; so canister does not cool due to evaporation of fuel.

2. Canister upright for better flame control but cooler burn and evaporation cooling effect of other canister stoves .. warm temp use mode.

3. You can elimate the wind screen for less bulk / complexity like most other canister stoves.

4. You can remove the rubber pot girdle if the odor after heating bothers you.

In conclusion, this stove has all the pros/cons of other canister type .. plus other options/features listed above.

Happy camping and playing!

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

You have to experiment with any new product.
Just turn over the canister to get far better temperature control!
A side by side test on my deck (no wind) on a warm summer nite @ 600 ft showed this stove to boil 1L of water just as fast as the MSR Reactor .. I was amazed at this!
It seems a bit bulky to carry, but OK for a group since the pot is larger than many stoves.
Also .. somewhat complex to setup and tear down and get it all back in the pot.
I'm not sure yet about the plastic windscreen.
It seems to get warm, but did not melt while boiling for a few minutes .. time will tell.
Also the plastic pot lid gets quite soft after boiling .. wonder if it will hold its fit/shape over time.
And finally, there is a slight smell of rubber after boiling due to the neoprene pot girdle.
This probably would not be noticed in the field when you are tired, hungry, and anxious to eat.
A slight breeze would probably eliminate the odor.
I think this stove has lots of potential!
I am anxious to try it on a trip .. especially in winter. They advertise performance down to -10F .. amazing .. just have to wait 4 months to find out.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

I kept this as my cool stove. Our trips are usually so fast paced and all day trips that we just snack during the day. We came back from a long day of hunting and were tired at the truck. I told everyone that I would boil some water for some Cup-O-Noodles. It was zero degrees with no wind. Well, twenty minutes later, the water was nice and LUKE WARM, which doesn't go well with hard crunchy freeze dried noodles. We dumped the water out and left hungry. All the reviews about temp control are right, it was also hard to light when it was that cold. I have been with people who have those tiny little burners that fit in your shirt pocket that do ten times better. I can't imaging someone who relies on this stove every weekend. Mine is going back!!! Find something that is more than "Cool Looking" get something that "WORKS."

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

I first tried the Helios in temperatures just under 30 degrees. It took over twenty minutes to boil one liter of water. The same night, we tried the Helios again. It blew two fireballs and did not work again. Thinking that the Helios was defective, I returned it and tried a new one several times....once after putting it in the freezer for six hours, it worked great. Then I took the new Helios (and a backup) to New Hampshire for a four day backpacking trip in the whites. It failed the first time we tried it. It would not melt one batch of snow in thirty minutes

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

This thing is a gimmick. If you need a real high altitude stove get the classic MSR XGK. At the Piedre Grande Hut (13,900feet) sheltered from wind in above freezing temps the Helios took close to 40 minutes to boil 1.5L of water. The MSR's and Snowpeak's other people brought worked circles around this thing boiling water. It is nice and quiet though, because it's barely working. The flame control is a joke too, the only setting at altitude seemed to be very very low. Only with a brand new canister did it really light up despite the design with the inverted canister. To sum it up; only buy this thing if it's more important to you to have a nice quiet stove than it is to eat and drink warm meals in the backcountry. Save your money and REI from another return of this gimmick and buy something else.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

The stove itself is very nice in that it will work in cold weather.

The base of the stove is very stable. The large feets spread out makes it stable. The canister is tubed in, which is good for when using a windshield. The jetboil comes with a windshield.

However, the pots do not use heat resistant rubber, and hence the lid can ot be used during cooking, so forget about efficiency. Jetboil tries so hard to be efficient with the flux ring, but then wastes everything on not having a lid. The rubber on other parts of the pot beside the lid is also of poor quality and will easily melt. The insulator and the grip has melted on my pot.

Other problems.
Too much plastic! The windshield is plastic. A aluminum or titanium shield would have been better. Also the shield will come off the cips even if slightly touched. The fit is very poor.

I will keep the stove with a few modifications I will make, like replacing the windshield and carrying a wire so I can secure the pot stand from folding back down. As for the pots, I will not be using them. Just too combustible. I'll use my Snow Peak pots and my GSI pots.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

I think the Jetboil system works great. We have gone on numerous camping trips (both back country and car camping) and this stove worked wonderfully.
It was easy to light, everything condensed down perfectly.

The only con on ours was on the second trip one of the snaps broken on the wind guard, but it never caused any problems.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants the entire stove system.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

We purchased the JetBoil Helios on Sale last summer and thought "Wow what a great deal". It looks great in person and the stats seem great on paper...

We are currently on our second one and it's going back just as soon as I order another stove... It will most likely be the MSR XGK EX Stove.

I love to cook out but I'll save that for car camping, and here is where the JetBoil fails in its uses. I love grilling and cooking at home as well as outdoors. But bringing fresh sources of protein with me on even a weekend trip out isn't realistic due to lack of refrigeration.

This pretty much limits you to MountainHouse type meals. So we think... "Well I just need to boil water" that means we shouldn't worry about simmering, plates etc. We just need our Titanium sporks and dig in to a MRE bag. :)

My girlfriend and I decided cleaning pots and pans isn't our thing and we would much rather boil water rehydrate a meal and enjoy ourselves instead of cooking and doing dishes out in the woods.

The first unit after being used twice cleaned and stored malfunctioned on a gear check in my garage prior to heading out for a weekend trip. The malfunction seemed to be within the burner. Basically it wouldn't light with the igniter but I was able to light it with a lighter. The flame would stay lit for about 40 seconds before going out. The unit would then need to cool down before it would relight for another 40 seconds etc. We exchanged the JetBoil at our local REI.

The second unit came with what seemed like a different shade lid. The second unit served well for making eggs and bacon as well as simmering soup cooking up brots and rice etc for our car camping type needs. However, the lid deformed (shrank from the heat or maybe pot expanded don't know) and will no longer close to seal the stowed contents. This means I either have to wedge it between things in my pack or everything will fall out. Furthermore, after typical cleaning (soap and water) all the nuts and bolts became highly corroded. This is after about 2 months of ownership about 6 total cooking sessions and 4 water boilings for Mountain House meals. It will still fire right up and work just fine. But I'm worried what it will look like in about a year. Yes I can replace the nuts and bolts etc as the main structure is fine, but why should I after only using it for basically a couple of trips. What if I were going somewhere for a few weeks and needed this unit to function several times a day? So here is what it all comes down to: cheap materials and reliability issues with the first unit. If they fix those two things I think it will be ok.

But it will be ok for minimalist car camping trips where you have a cooler and want to cook things. Personally, for those kind of trips I would much rather bring a Grill and do it "the right way" you know burgers, brots, chicken, steaks etc. So I don't really know who this is marketed to I guess the guy that wants to cook Top Ramen or something while on a car camping trip.

Before buying a stove ask yourself "what will I really be eating on most of my trips" if the answer is MREs then get something that boils water fast and a titanium pot to throw it in.