Jetboil Helios Stove System

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

Leg cramps and dehydration kept me on Wilson Glacier for 2 nights while my team proceeded to the summit of Rainer. Left to myself and no extra water purifier, I had to boil the snow. Although a bit bulky, the 3-liter pot provides its own space for storage and allows for lots of water quickly to be boiled. This system met all my needs while on the the glacier waiting for my tearm to return.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

I rented this stove for camping trip last weekend. There was a grill at the campsite so we intended to use this stove mainly for boiling water for coffee and for cooking side dishes for other meals. What I liked: there is plenty room to stuff bags of spices, a dishrag/sponge, etc into the stove/pot when packing.It boiled water quicklyIt was easy to set up, relatively lightweight (perhaps not for backcountry camping, but we had 1/4 mile walk to our site and that was fine)Easy to useVery sturdy and stable - I felt it was much more stable and secure than, say the Pocket Rocket.Here's what I didn't like:The ignitor never worked -not once. No big deal since we had a grill lighter with us and that worked fine, but lame that a main feature of this stove did not work.There seems to be one volume only on this stove, and that is BLAST. It was NOT windy, but even with the 360-degree wind shield snapped in place, this stove had to be on full blast in order to work. It definitely cannot simmer (I was warned of that by the place where I rented it).The flame kept going out. Brand new canister of fuel, so I knew it wasn't that. It went out repeatedly, all weekend long. The only way to keep it going was to have that sucker turned up HIGH.It was really loud. Not a big deal, but it was louder than I expected it would be.Top lid was very hard to fit back on when packing up - a bit of a struggle there.There is no pour spout, as others have mentioned, for pouring hot water out of this pot into something else. It was difficult not to spill water trying to pour into our coffee press.Having said all that, this stove was just fine for boiling water for coffee for 7 people each morning, and the pot cozy helped keep water warm longer. We sauteed some swiss chard in garlic and olive oil and that worked fine. We also made scrambled eggs in the pot - a bit tricky. CONSTANT stirring was required along with occasionally removing pot for a minute and then putting back on heat. Simmering was impossible, and if we turned the heat down too low it went out and we kept having to re-light with the grill lighter. Cous-cous was a piece of cake and the stove worked nicely for that.It was great to have quick hot water for coffee and the ability to cook up some extra side dishes, but I was left thinking it was a bit high-maintenance or temperamental for the retail price of [$]. There must be an easier, less fussy stove for basic car / group / or comfort camping.I was glad I had the chance to rent it first and will be checking out other stoves before I consider purchasing this one.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

I bought the Helios for a 220 mile winter ski tour and tested it this winter on Mount Whitney. Key reasons for purchase were fuel efficiency and cold weather performance. It delivered during the Whitney trip and will be in my pack when I head out for a few weeks into the cold.

Comments about it not heating water are hard to understand - melting snow and bringing over a liter to a boil went rather fast, even with just 10 degrees ambient temerature. Its fluxring pot is quite effective. Using the canister upside down is great to extract the last drop of fuel. Just be sure NOT to start it with the canister inverted, as it will most likely create a puddle of liquid fuel before things ignite. Knowing this detail, you can get all the fuel from a canister even in really low temperatures and without having to heat the canister.

Once used in the upside down position, the regulation of output is more difficult, since you have a liquid in the fuel line and it takes much longer to get to the burner head before reacting to your flow adjustment. That is just a side effect of the design with the valve near the canister (easier to use there, but you have the delay).

The pot is nice and large, great for large chunks of snow to be melted or to cook a large meal for a group of three. The pot is not very good for pouring water into another container, though - every time I did that, I spilled some and soaked the cozy. It appears that to make the lid snap tight they chose not to shape the pot to have a small spout. Definitely a disadvantage.

The pot lid also is the perfect frisbee - perhaps a plus for some, but when you are camping in 50mph wind gusts and you don't get it secured properly (hard when it is super cold), you may find yourself hiking for half a mile to retrieve it. I had to get down to frozen Frog Pond below Whitney to retrieve it, after it got blown down from the ridge we were camping on. It cleared the lake 200 feet below, and made it about 1/4 mile across.

The good news about windy days - the included wind screen really works and we had no issues with the flame even with brutal wind gusts dropping from the peaks above.

The included tin foil shield for the bottom works, but is rather flimsy and difficult to attach to the buttons that hold the wind screen. I use a separate MSR windscreen base instead.

Disappointing that the Jetboil frying pan doesn't work on this unit, but then I don't really need that in winter. This is a heavy stove compared to a regular Jetboil, so I won't be using it for solo trips, even if that means wasting somme fuel in cold conditions (you can always find a way to compensate for that down to rather low temps). For group trips in the cold it is perfect, and I may even use it in summer for a group of 3 on longer hikes, as it will make up some of its weight by being very fuel efficient.

It is a rather large chunk once packed up and splittling the load isn't easy unless you have another way to pack the stove outside the pot.

This is a special purpose stove, not something meant to compete with a regular ultralight stove. Once you accept that and realize why it is designed the way it is, it makes sense. For casual camping and summer trips with 1-2 hikers, I'd get something else.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

Absolutely a critical piece of gear for all of my expeditions. Just returned from K2 and Helios literally saved my life. I'm somewhat confused by the issues these other folks have had in the past. Helios performed reliably and flawlessly during my 10 day expedition. If you want a high-performance stove that performs reliably in all conditions for a group of 3-4 people - Helios is the answer.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

The igniter failed on the first use. I sent to the manufacture for repair. When it came back it had the same problem. I will return it to REI today and get a different brand.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

This product is not what it advertises to be. I bought this for a winter expedition last year and I will never ever take it with me again. It's bulky, the wind screen is a joke, and when in frigid conditions, this stove barely boils. It takes way longer than advertise to reach boil. I almost threw it out on the mountain...but I don't litter so I had to carry it back down the mountain.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

Just used a combined helios system and a personal cooking system that ended being 2 stoves and 3 pots. (a 1.5 l and 2 3l pots) Used them at Philmont Scout ranch with a crew of first time kids.The system proved to be fast and fairly trouble free. No issues at altitude. The stoves temp controls I found to be very easy as long as you stop and look at what you are doing. With the helios system I found turning the fuel bottle upright prior to lighting then flipping over after lit worked well to prevent too much fuel from rushing the stove and making lighting difficult. Otherwise turn on stove until you hear gas run, turn off and light, then turn back on. The stoves and pots held up to the abuse of young boys, and didnt require the extra work of the white gas. We used 2 and a half 16oz fuel bottles in 12 days. Overall, light, fast easy. Only things to beware of is setting pots down where coils can get debris caught, or dent flux rings. would be beter with protective ring similar to pcs system on pots.

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.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

I bought this for a trip up Mt. Rainier this year. We got 20 liters of water from melting snow on one 4oz. canister. Of those 20, we boiled 5 liters for cooking. It performed very well even up at 13,700'. I do wish there was a better lid because ours melted, but the stove performed great.

Comments about Jetboil Helios Stove System:

We just used the stove for the first trip, a 5 day backpacking trip. We camped at 10,600 feet and the stove boiled water very fast. Cooked trout twice and had great results. Just turned it down and cooked them slow for best results. It does take some getting used to to light it without flame up. Turn it on for a second or two, then turn it off and light it. Then turn it back on and adjust the temp setting. Basically just like the priming procedure on my MSR Dragon Fly stove. Very stable, easy clean up, cooked very well. The plastic wind screen worked fine in medium wind. One draw back is that you can't use the pot on a campfire in a pinch. I think it would damage the fins on the bottom of the pan. Over all we were very happy with the stove once we got used to it. Of the 3 stoves I have it is the fastest to boil water. One 220g canister lasted all 5 days using it 4 to 6 times a day. No more bulky than my Dragon Fly with a cook kit. Acutally it has reduced the weight we carry.