Topic: Jetboil Bargain (Read 7196 times)

Chris E · « **on:** July 20, 2015 »

Called into Maplins today and found that they have Jetboil Zips for sale for £65 at the minute.

RedLeader · « **Reply #1 on:** July 21, 2015 »

Bargain. Jetboils are awesome if you only want to boil water.

Chris E · « **Reply #2 on:** July 21, 2015 »

Not sure if that is a sarky comment!

Thanks to an Army friend, I've learned a range of new tricks with mine. The squaddies have adopted them to heat thair ration packs with less fuss than the traditional burners etc. When you combine them with the Mylar pouches you have, IMHO the best solution for an individual eating in the wild. (unless you are going to be out for a significant period of time or have to feed the masses.) When you combine it with a good quality food flask , ie Thermos you can make up dried meals without the need to use up copious amounts of gas too. Another bonus with this is minimal washing up.

And no I don't work for Jetboil!

RedLeader · « **Reply #3 on:** July 21, 2015 »

Definitely. Heat in the pouch ready meals and then use the water you boiled it in to make coffee. Zero waste. For super lightweight if there's water on the way then dried eat from the pouch meals. Either way Jetboil + Water + Pouch = clean and easy.

I'm actually quite like eating the MRE style deserts for breakfast. It's a great way to start the day.

Rich.H · « **Reply #4 on:** July 22, 2015 »

While the Jetboil is a good bit of kit I do think it is vastly overpriced, if you compare it to something similar such as the Alpkit brupot then the value factor of the Jetboil is way off. They bot do exactly the same thing, which is to be a container you boil water in, both have their own heat fin base and both have their own gas burner. In addition both are designed to carry a gas can inside for small packing. The difference is the cost, the Jetboil comes in at £65 (at a sale priced) and the Brukit clocks in at £35. For the Jetboil to be worth considering over the Brukit it will have to do two things. Firstly it has to last twice as long under the same usage, secondly it has to be able to boil water twice as fast. I own only the Brukit but am willing to take a bet of any amount that the Jetboil fails in those two factors.

It was a good bit of kit when it came out, but now it is nothing more than a shiny iphone playing on the hipster factor as an excuse to over inflate it's price. For me it will always be a case of get the Brukit and use the money saved for more gear.

RedLeader · « **Reply #5 on:** July 22, 2015 »

Like all innovation, the first to market is expensive, then people see the idea and copy it but have to sell cheaper to compete. I have a Jetboil (my 2nd) but only because it was all that was available at the time. I daresay now I'd go Alpkit and save the money.

Chris E · « **Reply #6 on:** July 22, 2015 »

Yes price is an issue alright, but I find the netbook is big enough. The brupot can be brought directly from China without going through Alpkit though on the likes of Aliexpress even cheaper. But it is that bit that concerns me slightly given the record of dodgy corner cutting in Chinese cut price products. I know I can trust the Jetboil gas seals etc - can I do the same with rebranded cheap gear?

Rich.H · « **Reply #7 on:** July 22, 2015 »

Quote from: Chris E on July 22, 2015

Yes price is an issue alright, but I find the netbook is big enough. The brupot can be brought directly from China without going through Alpkit though on the likes of Aliexpress even cheaper. But it is that bit that concerns me slightly given the record of dodgy corner cutting in Chinese cut price products. I know I can trust the Jetboil gas seals etc - can I do the same with rebranded cheap gear?

One thing to remember about most mass made products is that unless they specifically state something like "Made in the USA" etc then they were also most likely made in China or India and such. Also look out for the exact wording as you could find a product that is "Assembled in the USA" which basically just means all the parts were made in China, then it was shipped out and some chap put a few screws in thus justifying the claim, and allowing them to fool folks into buying a product based on the great industrial quality of their home country.

When you look at the flood of stuff from China and such the problem is not that it is all the classic "plastic rubbish", far from it as often you will find a copy product can be made in the very same factory less than 200m from where the official stuff is being produced. This was the case with a brand of sport shoes not long ago where they even used the same branded boxes, and materials, the only difference was they did not have access to the latest designs and so were using templates from the previous seasons models. When it comes to actual knock offs from Asia you tend to run into only two real problems, the first one is the flat out scam where you pay and get nothing at all and have to hope you can hit up your credit card to refund you. This is not that common though and easily avoided if you pay in the right way on the big websites with protection. This leaves the second issue which is just quality control and it can sometimes catch you out, since the knock offs are generally out to make as much as they can before they get shutdown they tend to sell everything that comes off the line. This in no way though means you are getting inferior products as the big brands simply do not sell the 1 in a 100 or so items that fail, they bin them and take the losses instead of knock off companies shipping everything regardless.

The biggest issue is the classic word of mouth thing, anyone in business knows that you do a good job and a customer tells perhaps three friends about it, you do a crap job and they run around telling 10 friends about it. The same principle has happened with the Asian knock off market and now everyone thinks it is all plastic tat. Then they go and pay four times the price for a product that came from a factory next door to the knock off one, using the same materials and same exploited under paid labour, but it is ok because at least some big wig CEO gets to make a killing profit on a product that is not four times the quality of the knock off.

In general if you can get a copy of the Jetboil etc and a knock down price it will probably be ok. As to the safety margin that comes down to your own judgement, if I were doing it then I would simply just make sure I did not use the thing inside a tent or sat between my legs while I am sitting on a log etc. If it is out in the open and not right next to you then just shout "fire in the hold" and hit cover if it makes funny sounds. Chances are though that if you did get the 1/100 bad ones it may well be a sparker or turn valve that went wonky leaving it unable to work rather than a larger part that does not get moved at all.

Darran · « **Reply #8 on:** July 23, 2015 »

I'm just using a tin can stove. Does the trick

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Author Topic: Jetboil Bargain (Read 7196 times)

Chris E

Jetboil Bargain

RedLeader

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Chris E

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RedLeader

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Rich.H

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RedLeader

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Chris E

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Rich.H

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Darran

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