JetBoil
It's the quickest, handiest, most efficient hot water maker yet. It takes the piezo-ignited butane trail stove to maybe a 50% overall improvement---worth converting for many.
The main tricks are: fin-like heat exchanger ("FluxRing") where the flame meets the pot; pot attaches to stove (vastly less fiddly); pot has a cozy on it to hold heat and make gripping the pot easy; the plastic lid of the pot doubles as a cup lid for sipping direct from the pot; and the stove stows inside the pot. The weight is 12 ounces, the same or less than other light butane stove systems, but you save on weight of fuel, small pack volume, and overall convenience.
The heat exchanger means you can heat 2 cups of water in about 2 minutes, with significantly little fuel expended. So little heat escapes that you can hold the whole thing in your hand while it cooks, and the cozy never burns. The pot works better for eating from than for drinking from---I still prefer an insulated Alladdin cup (with the meaningless handle sawed off), but it's manageable for drinking if you want one less implement.
It's fine for dinner for two, or an instant cup of coffee or tea under way. You could use it riding in a car (open a window). Danny Hillis plans to use one on his desk for tea making. Alexander Rose wants it for melting snow to drink while dangling on belay.
-- Stewart Brand
JetBoil
$80
Fuel cannisters (JetBoil or others) are $3.
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Jetboil
Favorite (15)
Oryctolagus habilis
Very curious about these! From what I can see on their site, those isobutane/propane canisters are recyclable, which I hadn't known. I'm very happy about the newly available recyclable "greenkey" version of the non-refillable (Coleman-style) propane cylinders, too, since these are in such wide use in "car-camping". I still like the MSR Whisperlite Internationale: Mine's still going decades after I bought it in vain youthful hopes of camping in those parts of the world where you might have to resort to re-filling your napthalene bottle with gas or diesel!
Ash
I've owned my JetBoil for about 3 years, and absolutely love it. It excels at its primary purpose -- boiling water while camping -- but I've found lots of other good uses for it too. It's so compact and light that we now carry it in our diaper bag, to warm up bottles for the baby when we're in town. (lighting up a butane stove at a restaurant gets some looks, but it's not been a problem). We've used it to cook supper when our stove was on the fritz (for that we took the cup off the JetBoil and just used its burner under a grill). And we've cooked soups, boiled vegetables, and warmed up solid foods in the JetBoil when out in the country. It's the best piece of camping kit I own.
LapsedUnitarian
I bought one a couple years back based on CT recommendation - a good move.
It more than paid for itself on a 3-week vacation by allowing us to make coffee by the side of the road, melitta drip style. My wife has a serious Starbucks habit and she packed her own grounds along. The savings in money and time not spent searching for a Starbucks was significant.
Now we take it any time we go away overnight, and use it at rest stops and in motel rooms.
We inspected one at Sports Authority, ordered online, then bought the fuel at Sports Authority.
We used to use a typical compact backpacking stove -- this is far more evolved for heating and dispensing liquids on the go.