Reviews Accessories

JetBoil Flash Cooking System Review

This system lights with the click of a button and in just over 2 minutes provides two cups of boiling water for cocoa, coffee, instant soup or a gourmet freeze-dried meal. The newly designed burner secures the igniter, protecting it from bumps along the road. Flash is designed to be one of the safest cooking solutions out there. The cooking cup clips onto the burner, preventing accidental spills, and the fuel canister tripod ensures overall stability. The insulating cosy has a color-changing heat indicator that signals when contents are hot.

RRP: £69.95
More Info: www.jetboil.com

Specifications

  • Colour: Carbon
  • Item Weight: 14 oz (400 g) *System weight does not include pot support and fuel stabiliser.
  • Volume: 32 oz (1 Litre)
  • Boil Time: 16 oz (0.5 Liter) = 2 minutes, 30 seconds (Avg over life of Jetpower canister)
  • Water Boiled: 12 Litres per 100g Jetpower canister
  • Dimensions: 4.1″ x 7.1″ (104 mm x 180 mm)
  • Stabilizer Weight: 0.9 oz (27 g)
  • Power: 4,500 BTU/h (0.9kW)

Features

  • 1.0 Liter FluxRing® cooking cup with insulating cosy
  • Adjustable stainless steel burner
  • Push-button igniter
  • Color-change heat indicator
  • Drink-through lid with pour spout & strainer
  • Bottom cover doubles as a measuring cup and bowl
  • Compatible with all Jetboil accessories
  • Able to store a 100g Jetpower fuel can
  • Fuel Canister Stabilizer included
  • Pot Support and Jetpower fuel sold separately

Paddler Verdict

It’s very well constructed and will really appeal to those looking for space and weight saving. We can certainly see that it would be great for overnight trips, where you don’t mind sacrificing the ability to cook more ‘traditional’ camp fair for the speed and diminutive size of the Jetboil. It would also be a great backup for coaches, guides, group leaders and the like, who want to be able to carry the necessary gear to produce hot drinks should they be needed. A few tea bags, cuppa soups, coffee & dried milk sachets and some water and you could practically set up your own riverbank hot-drink café.
The Jetboil is certainly an innovative look at outdoors cooking and in certain situations provides a great, effective and efficient solution. But it is somewhat limited when compared to traditional systems.

It started life with a simple idea. Fed up with heavy vacuum bottles and clunky stoves, Jetboil founders Dwight Aspinwall and Perry Dowst set out to make outdoor cooking easier. They discovered that the secret to a fast and friendly design lies in increasing heat transfer efficiency. Alternating between lab and mountains, a series of designs were subjected to intense experimental and field testing. The result was the PCS.

It’s a tall one-litre pot/cup constructed from aluminium, with a hard anodised cooking surface and insulating neoprene, that then locks on to a ring of heat-conducting baffles attached to the pot’s base, that then attaches to a small gas bottle (it will fit most modern canisters). A Piezo starter then ignites the stove and once lit the baffles channel the flame precisely where it’s needed and produces a fearsome heat that results in a pot of boiling water in just over a minute. The fact that it’s all self-contained and removes the need to carry additional pots and pans makes it an attractive option for those looking to save weight and space, sea kayakers doing long crossings for example. In fact, the PCS system was used, in conjunction with Jetboil’s additional hanging stand system, by Patrick Winterton and Mick Berwick, to brew up and cook while afloat, on their groundbreaking sea kayaking crossing to the Faroe Islands earlier this year.

On the downside, though it’s size means that it’s very limiting and is best suited to boiling up water and reheating pre-packed food. You’re going to struggle to pan fry a steak, or even a rasher of bacon, in there that’s for sure! It’s also hard to control the temperature and it really didn’t want to know about simmering. It was all about the full-on, furious burn. Jetboil by name, Jetboil by nature! It’s a bit on the expensive side, though, especially when you consider that you can pick up a lightweight camping gas stove and pan set for around half the Jetboil’s price.

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