Tester Information:
Name: Jason Boyle
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 6"/ 1.68 m
Weight: 170 lb/ 77 kg
Email address: c4jc"at" hotmail "dot" com
City, State, Country: Waldorf, Maryland, U.S.

Backpacking Background:
I have been camping and backpacking for about 16 years. My introduction to the outdoors started with the BSA and has continued as an adult. I have hiked mostly in the Southeastern and Northeastern United States. I currently live near Washington D.C. and have made the mid-Atlantic mountains my playground. I used to carry everything and the kitchen sink, but I have become a lightweight hiker.

Product Information:
Manufacturer: Jetboil
Model: Jetboil Personal Cooking System
Year of Manufacture: 2004
URL:www.jetboil.com
Listed weight: 14 oz (397 g)
Measured weight: total of all pieces 14 oz (397 g)
Burner Base 6 oz (170 g)
Cooking Cup and Cozy 6.5 oz (184 g)
Companion Cup and lid together 1.5 oz (43 g)
Full Jetpower Fuel Canister 6.25 oz (177 g)
MSRP: $79.00 US Dollars

Summary:
The Jetboil Personal Cooking system is great: simplistic in use, miserly on fuel, and lightweight. Over the last 6 months, I have boiled numerous cups of water, cooked quesadillas, and "wowed" friends everywhere. Of course nothing is perfect though, I have had problems with my cooking cup fitting smoothly on the burner, the plastic bottom cup is not easily removed, and the Jetpower fuel provides an unstable base. Otherwise this is a great personal stove that performs as advertised.

Long Term Test Conditions:
The stove has been tested at the following places since the field report: the Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia and Shenandoah National Park. I went on two trips to the Dolly Sods, one three-day trip and one eight-day trip. My trip in SNP was a three-night trip. Elevations ranged from 4000 ft (1219 m) to 1000 feet (305 m). Temperatures ranged from the upper 50's F (14 C) to the 90's F (32 C). Weather ranged from complete downpours to sunny days. Winds were insignificant during my tests.

Long Term Test Results:
This stove has been a joy to use the past six months. It is super simple to operate, which I really like. As I said previously, I had only used white gas priming types of stoves, well no more - I am converted. The only thing I have not tested is winter use in sub freezing temperatures, I have heard canister fuel stoves do not operate well and will home test that hypothesis when winter rolls around.

The stove is super convenient to use! I have not encountered problems using the stove and all of the pieces are still in proper working order. Additionally, I have conducted absolutely no maintenance on the stove. I just screw in the canister, turn on the gas, and push the lighting button and it is ready to go.

I have not spent any more time analyzing cooking speed. I am not fond of timing boiling times on backpacking trips and when water actually boils is very subjective. That being said, when I am preparing a meal or coffee I add water to the cooking cup, start the stove, and by the time I am ready for boiling water I have it.

Fuel canister life has been pretty good. As I in my field report, I had boiled 2 quarts of water on my second Jetpower canister and during this testing time frame I was able to boil another 2 quarts of water and cook nine quesadillas. Cooking the quesadillas is a huge waste of fuel because I had the stove running on medium high heat for probably twenty plus minutes, however, quesadillas in the backcountry are worth it.

Since I was now out of the supplied fuel canisters, I went out and bought my own. I opted for the Coleman butane/propane mix. The size I used was 7.75 fl oz (220 g) and was a mix of 70% butane and 30% propane. I cannot compare the mixture to ratio to the Jetpower canister since their mixture is not listed. The Coleman canister was basically double the size of the fuel canisters supplied by Jetboil. One thing I really liked about the Coleman canister was the diameter for the canister; it was almost twice as large and provided a much more stable base for the stove to operate on. Of course, the Coleman canister would not fit inside the cooking cup, and that is a trade off for a more stable base.

I was able to boil 8 quarts of water on the Coleman canister and make quesadillas for four people (as opposed to two people earlier) before the canister kicked the bucket. I would say that the Coleman canister was just as good as the Jetpower canister, but that is based on my observations and no analytical information. One advantage the Coleman had was price, for a little less than the price of a Jetpower canister I was able to buy the Coleman canister, which is double the size and had close to double the burn time.

The durability of the stove has been great. I have had no problems with construction or operation of the stove.

Lessons Learned:
I have learned a couple of new things about the stove over the last four months. One of the most important things that I learned was to not leave the unit out in the rain. I did one night and the stove was extremely hard to light. The steel mesh in the center of the burner was completely soaked and it took a couple of tries before the stove would light.

Another lesson learned was cooking with my frying pan. It was quite a challenge making quesadillas without a stove to set the pan on. (As I stated in my earlier reports the user cannot set anything other than the cup on the stove base because the piezo electric lighter rises above the outside ring of the stove base.) I would set the pan on a table or rock while I made up the quesadilla and then had to hold and move the pan over the flame to keep the quesadilla from burning. This was not very convenient and time consuming, but the quesadillas where worth it.

Improvements:
I would like to see Jetboil develop a stability base for their fuel canisters. I really like compactness of the system, but I don't like instability of the stove. I would also like to see an attachment ring that is just the heat exchanger. This would allow me to use other cooking pots or pans with the stove but retain the efficiency provided by the heat exchanger stove combination.

Customer Service:
I was not happy with the way my cooking cup sat on the base and how hard it was to remove. I called the customer service department and they have offered to replace my cup at no cost. They stood by their comments that the cup should not fit that tight. I have had the opportunity to see other cooking cups and they fit much better than mine does. As soon as this report is accepted I will be returning my cooking cup to Jetboil for a new one.

Thanks again to BackpackGearTest and Jetboil for the opportunity to participate in this test.


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Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Jetboil Personal Cooking System > Jason Boyle > Long Term Report