Friday, 02 May 2014 21:39

Jetboil Helios - Tested Reviewed

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Overall View
It's not cheap, but the Helios is far more than a super-efficient, super-fast stove. The 2L pot is a good size for one or two people and with remote inverted gas feed you start recovering the capital outlay from day one with efficiency savings. At almost a kilo including gas it seems a little heavy, but with lids acting as plates and a even pan handles integrated you don't really need anything else - and there's something reassuring knowing you can just take it all out in one go and have a warm drink in 3 minutes.
Real World Test
Let's start by pointing out that this isn't a stove, it's a cooking system that's designed to be everything you need (bar fuel) in a single easy to use package. As with the Jetboil PCS everything packs away inside the main pot, with enough room for a 100gm gas canister inside.

 

Assembly is fairly straight forwards, but you get a decent set of instructions if you do need help and the more you do it the easier it gets as it's pretty intuitive. Take the plate and lid from the pot and attach the burner to its stand. The burner attaches by slipping two tabs inside the base with a burner arm into a notch on the stand. Fold out the burner's three arms on the burner base.Now move onto the stabilizer and fold out the legs then screw a canister into the fuel line and attach to the stabilizer. At this point you get the option of standing the canister upright or inverted. Bend the windshield around the burner and snap into place you're ready for the pot to go on.

The whole unit is much more stable than the PCS and the fuel line fits easily underneath the windshield without causing balance issues. The fuel line's about 30cm long with a fold out valve control for flame adjustment at the canister end and a piezo ignition. The piezo ignition is surprisingly reliable, firing up first time almost every time, and you get the familiar jet-engine sound as the Helios burst into life. The advertising blurb quotes a 3 minute boil time for a litre of water, and with the canister in its inverted position this was no problem, with a good 10 seconds to spare even in a breeze. Once boiling the flame adjuster worked very well, giving a good rolling simmer with a gentle turn of the handle, and the flame sounded totally consistent.

The Helios claims to be efficient to -23C, thanks to the inverted position providing a liquid feed and not allowing gas to evaporate and cool in the canister, but we've not had chance to test it under winter conditions yet. So far the Helios has performed very well in late spring/early summer and certainly handled 0 degrees without a hint of trouble and it's as fast as anything we've seen. If there is one slight niggle it's the lid - if you clip it onto the pot when cooking don't expect to get it off till you've finished. Fortunately, or maybe it's by design, the lid works well upside down during cooking and you can remove it to keep an eye on the contents without destabilising everything.

 

Price: £135.00

Weight: 793g

Colour: Various using cosies

Features:

  • FluxRing® Pot with neoprene cozy
  • Pot-supporting burner base
  • Push-button igniter assembly
  • Fuel can stabilizer
  • Snap-on windscreen
  • Lid and bottom covers that double as plates (lid makes a good flying disc’ for added fun around camp)
  • Optional 3 liter pot

 

Pros: Easy to use and very fast. All-in-one solution

Cons: Not the lightest option, If one part malfunctions you've lost use of everything



Note: This article was restored from the archives. It's published creation date is inaccurate.

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