Jetboil Helios Cooking 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."

"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."

"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."

"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..."

"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."

"having been a jetboil fan for some time, i was a little dissapointed with this one.firstly the plastic windsheild press studs broke straight out of the box so i couldn't clip it together. The press studs are totally inadequate and i thought the design boffins at Jetboil would have come up with something a little more innovative than a couple of 5 cent press studs,made in korea - it is useless and is in the bin. the product works fine without, but that might be an issue if your are using it in higher altitudes where its realy windy!the temperature control is a bit slow to respond. I guess this is because of the long lead from controler to burner. this makes you lift the jetboil off the stove top to prevent something buring, rather than just turning down the burner.the burner doesnt seem to lock right into the stove top. its not a major issue but it just doesnt lock into place exactly and makes it feel a little cheap. (sorry I am a nit picker)having said that, the burner is very powerful and its very quick to heat up and cook your chow!.It is also very efficient at draining every last drop of juice from your fuel cannister and burns consistently right to the last drop.the classic Jetboil pot with fluxrings is realy solid.there are some great features with the new helious but some clumsy designer issues are annoying. I expected more from Jetboil.I would probably stick with the earlier model jetboils unless your buying it for the larger pot.Two and a Half stars **1/2"

"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."

"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.""

"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."

"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."