Rating: 4.75 / 5
Pros:
Simple, durable, compact and light-weight, easy to maintain, fast, boils enough water to make food for two, fold-up stabilizer base fits in the pot with burner and fuel for transit
Cons:
Dependence on canister fuels, a little top heavy when full (buy the fold-up base to fix this), just barely does not fit in pouches/pockets designed for a 1-liter Nalgene bottle, danger of burns from boiling water-volcano if you leave it running too long
The Bottom Line:
This is an excellent, efficient, light-weight stove that would compliment anyone’s backpacking rig well. It would also be useful in emergency kits or in the trunk of the car with a couple single-serving Mountain House dinners and a bottle of water.
Using the JetBoil is simple enough, I almost think it came with a manual just for the CYA warnings. The JetBoil really is a no brainer. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any JetBoil-branded mini canisters along the remote route we took for our last trip, so I had to settle for a full-size Coleman canister. I’ll have to take their word for the whole “2 cups in 2 minutes” thing, as I was distracted by something and came back at around 3 minutes to find my water violently boiling and the pot difficult to approach. Suffice to say it works very well, but don’t let it run too long or you might need a glove to get through the molten rainstorm to shut it off…
As I have read in reviews elsewhere, the completed assembly is a bit top heavy, especially with water in the cup. Caution around the stove, and perhaps even one of those stabilizing stands they sell separately would be a good idea. We had no problems on this outing, but I could see this being more difficult at a poorer campsite.
For some reason, when ordering the JetBoils it didn’t occur to me how easy it would be to simply boil a few cups of water and pour the boiling water into single-serving food containers. As a result, we purchased two of the stoves when one stove is quite sufficient for two people. I generally have the food packed this way anyhow so we can grab whatever meal we feel like. Of course, if you’re using individually packaged food you also have this option. If you intend, as I originally did, to finish preparing and serve your food in the JetBoil itself you will probably want one per person (or at least an optional extra cup/pot per person). Our second, unused JetBoil will be for sale shortly… 
The Bad
My only real quarrel with the unit is that a JetBoil stove will not fit “anywhere a 1L Nalgene will” as commonly advertised. Be forewarned: it will not fit in the 5.11 Bottle Carrier, the Maxpedition 10×4 Bottle Holder, the Nalgene pockets of any of the Maxpedition cases and Versipacks or even in the expanding Maxpedition Mini-RolyPoly. Maxpedition does make a 12×5 Bottle pouch it will fit in, however.
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