some interesting test data, this time focusing on the material the pots are made of - aluminum versus titanium.

If you look it up, you'll find that titanium isn't really a good transmitter of heat energy, although if used thin enough, it should not make that much of a difference, or so at least the potmongers will tell you grin

So since I was itching to buy a fourth stove during REI's 20% off days, I did this test with my two large pots, one a Montbell Titanium 1.5L pot, the other the JetBoil Helios aluminum pot.

So let's have a look at the truly geeky stuff I went through to see how fuel efficiency is affected by titanium compared to aluminum, which is 10x better as a heat conductor.


The setup, Sunday afternoon on the kitchen table:

Stove 1: Jetboil Helios, with canister upright, 10 ounces without windscreen

Stove 2: Snow Peak remote canister stove 10.7 ounces
Fuel: MSR large canister, reheated between tests with warm tap water to
maintain pressure

Water: 1 liter tap water, 68F room temp

All stoves turned up 100% output (i.e. as far until no visible increase in output)

window fan in patio door blowing a light breeze over the setup


First Test Stove 1 on full blast output:

Stove 1: Jetboil Helios 100% flame
Pot 1 - Jetboil Helios 2L aluminum
Boil time: 4:45 mins
Fuel used: 9.9 grams

Stove 1: Jetboil Helios 100% flame
Pot 2 - Montbell 1.5L titanium
Boil time: 7:15 mins
Fuel used: 12 grams


Control test with a second stove, to rule out unfair advantage of
Jetboil Helios pot being designed for what appears to be a relatively large distance between flame and pot

Stove 2: SnowPeak at full output (what a torch!)

Stove 2: Snow Peak 100% flame
Pot 1 - Jetboil Helios 2L aluminum
Boil time: 3:15 mins
Fuel used: 10.6 grams

Stove 2: Snow Peak 100% flame
Pot 2 - Montbell 1.5L titanium
Boil time: 4:35 mins
Fuel used: 15.3 grams


And since I wanted to know if I could save weight by using the Jetboil pot on the Snow Peak stove, running the stove at lower output, I tried setting that burner to about half the power it can put out (so the metal wasn't completely glowing red hot)


Stove 2: SnowPeak at 50% output

Stove 2: Snow Peak 50% flame
Pot 1 - Jetboil Helios 2L aluminum
Boil time: 5:05 mins
Fuel used: 9.7 grams

So because that was better than full blast on the Jetboil stove, I did another control run of that pot on the original stove, this time low power flame to see if the lighter stove can also be the most efficient with the Flux pot

Stove 1: Jetboil Helios 50% output

Stove 1: Jetboil Helios 50% flame
Pot 1 - Jetboil Helios 2L aluminum
Boil time: 7:05 mins
Fuel used: 8.6 grams


summary:
Jetboil pot and stove most efficient. Compared to my setup from last summer, I am easily saving 35% or more fuel. That is quite a lot of weight on longer stints and may save an entire cartridge (I will be cooking for 3 on up to 9 days without resupply)

Clearly, the aluminum fluxring pot seems to make a big difference - and the Helios isn't even rated as efficient as the regular Jetboil. Is the difference a result of that heat exchanger design or just because the pot is aluminum? To answer that, I will need to do another test with a plain aluminum pot, if I can dig that out of the bottom of my gear closet.

The test did make the choice between Jetboil Sol Al or Ti easy - got the Al version and love it: 10.6 ounces including pot, lid, cozie and it boils 0.5L 68F water in 1:50 mins using 4.8 grams of fuel. A 1/2 liter of water with ice cubes still floating in it boils in 2:10 mins, using 5.5 grams uf fuel.

And then there's the little detail that you can get a coffee press for the Sol...

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