Jetboil Stove

Initial Report

April 1, 2004

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Reviewer Information

Product Information

Initial Impressions

Initial Testing

Testing Strategy

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Reviewer Information & Background

I started backpacking 21 years ago, mostly 3 day trips with at least one 7 day trip per year.  By backpacking, I’m referring to summer, winter camping, and occasionally fall hunting.  About half my trips are light weight solo and the other half with family or friends.  At least once a year I bring a small group of church kids on a 3 day trip.  I purchased a pet/pack llama, named Sarapi, when my 3^rd child was 2, some 11 years ago.  This allowed me to continue backpacking as a family activity.  When I’m not with the family/llama I tend to take less-traveled trails or bushwhack the hard mountainous terrain in and around Idaho.  In recent years I’ve begun substituting a collie for the llama.

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Product Information

Maufacturer:	Jetboil	MSRP:	$79.00 (US)
Model:	PCS	Listed Weight:	14 oz (397 g)
Year of Manufacture:	2004	Measured Weight:	15.4 oz (436 g)
Color:	Aluminum/Black
URL:	http://www.jetboil.com

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Initial Impressions

 

Packaging and Package Contents: The Jetboil PCS (Personal Cooking System) arrived in good order, along with 2 Jetboil 100 gram fuel canisters.  The Jetboil PCS box is attractive, compact, and designed to provide adequate protection for on-the-self merchandising.  The over-package shipping container was cleverly designed to house the Jetboil PCS with a special cardboard cradle to house 2 fuel canisters.  Since neither Jetboil nor their WEB listed distributor, Eastern Mountain Sports, has the PCS listed as a package deal, it would appear they developed this special combo shipping container for test distribution.

Instructions are provided in English only, populated with numerous photos, and loaded with safety warnings.  One would think this thing was a small reactor with all the safety warnings, but given the possibility of lawsuits, they covered themselves well.  If the user spills hot liquid, use the unit inside confined spaces, or unscrews the fuel canister while in operation and causes a flare up, they have no-one to blame but themselves, as they are thoroughly warned.

Overview Of Materials, Construction, and Features: Jetboil's web site does a good job of providing an overview of the unit and from an arm-lengths distance it appears the same.  The unit consists of 5 pieces, a Burner Base, Cooking Cup, Lid, FluxRing™ protector, and insulator they call a Cozy.  The heat-exchanger, which JetBoil trademarks as FluxRing™, is composed of anodized aluminum, as is the cooking cup, with each fin welded to the cooking cup.  They definitely are onto something with this heat-exchanger, as will become evident when I discuss the efficiency test results.  

The insulating Cozy is about 1/8 in (3mm), which seems thin from both durability and insulating properties, but that will be noted during field testing.  The lid has a drinking spout, is made from stout plastic, and attaches via friction fit.  The Burner Base is comprised of a plastic base, stainless wind shield/housing, and steel/brass burner.  The only component on the unit that would be susceptible to corrosion would be the steel gauze in the center of the burner.  As a side note, the burner head itself and piezo electric igniter are almost identical to another manufactures burner I have, except the orifice is restricted which translates to a restricted flame size.

One item that is not listed on their web site nor appears in any of the manufactures photos is a plastic cup/protector that attaches to the base of the cooking cup.  Even though the heat-exchanger fins are nested inside the base, Jetboil must feel that they are susceptible to damage, thus providing the protector.  Nevertheless, the base protector also doubles as a drinking cup and even has a 1 cup (525 ml) marking.

As per Jetboil's web site the Cooking Cup does have a 1 liter capacity when filled to the brim, but the documentation states that the maximum fill is 2 cups (or 500 ml) and is marked inside the cup.  The instructions warn that filling beyond 2 cups results in potential boil over. I see this as a discrepancy when listing the unit as having a 1 liter capacity, but then informing the user not to exceed 2 cups .  I have a concern on stove stability if filled beyond 2 cups, considering that the combined Cooking Cup and Burner Base have an overall height of 9 in (23 cm).  Place that on top of a 100 g fuel canister that has a 3.5 in diameter by 2.5 in height (8.9 x 6.4 cm) and you have a top-heavy stove and pot combination.

Cooking Cup interior dimensions are 3.75 in dia. x 9 in (9.5 x 22.9 cm), exterior dimensions are 4.1 in dia. x 7.1 in (10.4 x 18 cm).  Jetboil's 100 g canister and Burner Base pack into the Cooking Cup for stowing/travel, but there is opportunity to damage the piezo electric igniter.  The combined height of the fuel canister, canister valve protective cap, and Burner Base push the limits on what the Cooking Cup can handle, and leaves the Piezo electric igniter pushing on the lid where it is susceptible to damage.  If packed without the fuel canister protective cap this is not an issue, but is in opposition to how the instructions describe packaging.

Individual component weights

Description	Weight
Cooking Cup & Cozy	7.4 oz (210 g)
Lid	1.1 oz (32 g)
Burner	6.0 oz (170 g)
Lower Cup Protector	0.9 oz (25 g)
100 g JetBoil Fuel Canister	6.8 oz (193 g)

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Initial Testing: 

Testing revealed that the Jetboil is highly efficient in comparison to my white-gas and canister stoves.  Traditional stove efficiency is a function of the cooking pot surface area and flame size.  A small 5 in (12 mm) diameter pot on top of a large burner is very inefficient due to the flame extending beyond the pot and heating the surrounding air.  Conversely, a large 10 in (25 cm) diameter pot on the same burner would be considerably more efficient due to the flame contacting 4 times the surface area.  This same principle is applied to the Jetboil with its aluminum heat-exchanger.  The flame must travel through a maze of coils before exiting.  Unlike the small pot and large burner where the exiting flames are very hot, the exhaust on the Jetboil is so cool that your able to put your hands within a couple inches (5 cm) of the exhaust ports.  Unlike traditional stoves, the efficiency of running the burner at full open verses reduced flame was not substantial, as it only reduced fuel consumption by 7%.  Traditional stove efficiency increases substantially when the flame is reduced to accommodate a small surface pot.  I generally run my traditional stoves at about 60% when using a 6 in (15 cm) pot.

Testing between a generic Isobutene/Propane 8 oz (227 g) fuel canister and JetBoil 100 g canister were also conducted, and there were no significant differences.  I did observed that during consecutive boil tests the boil time increased slightly with the smaller JetBoil canister, however if 5 or more minutes passed between tests this phenomenon went away.  I suspect this can be explained by the larger canister’s mass sinking more heat caused by the vaporization of the liquid fuel, whereas the small canister became colder.  This is due to reduced gas pressure caused by the vaporization of the fuel cooling the canister.

Running the unit with and without the lid made negligible difference in fuel consumption, but did require 5% more time.  Interpolation of my 0.1 g balance beam scale could account for the negligible difference in fuel consumption.

Initial Report Test Setup

• Tests performed with 500ml (2 cups) of 10^oC (50^oF) water

• All temperatures in Celsius with partial immersion mercury thermometer (boil temp of 98^oC)

• Weights in grams, measured by 0.1 gram accuracy triple beam balance

• Ambient temp of 68^oF (20^oC) @ 2100 ft (670 m)

• 5 minutes between test with cup filled with ambient temp water

• For comparison purposes, traditional canister (w/o wind shield) and white gas (with wind shield) stoves with 1.3 liter titanium pot

• White gas required 2 ml of fuel to prime and 1 ml of fuel was resident in hose that is discarded upon disassembly (1ml = 0.7 g)

Field Report Test Setup (anticipate completing the table during field test period at different altitudes and reposting)

	INITIAL REPORT							FIELD REPORT
	JetBoil				Non JetBoil with  1.3 liter 6" base Titanium Pot			JetBoil
	Lid On			Lid Off	Canister Stove	White Gas	White Gas 1 liter water
	Full Flame	~60% Flame	~30% Flame	Full Flame	~60% Flame	~60% Flame	~60% Flame
Boil Time	193 sec	240 sec	405 sec	202 sec	227 sec	330 sec	720 sec
Fuel Consumed	5.4 g	5.0 g	4.8 g	5.4 g	7.1 g	10.5 g	16.9 g
Initial Temp	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
30 sec	22	22	16	20	25
1 min	35	35	24	33	38
1 min 30 sec	49	46	29	47	48
2 min	63	56	36	60	59
2 min 30 sec	76	66	43	73	69
3 min	89	76	49	85	81
3 min 30 sec		86	56		92
4 min		96	62
4 min 30 sec			68
5 min			74
5 min 30 sec			80
6 min			86
6 min 30 sec			92

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