Who has experience with them? Thoughts? I'm looking for something primarily to boil water with for food and drink. I have a decent cookset, but find I don't use it much at all. I'm as likely to be in a kayak on the river for 2-3 days as I am to be out on a trail with a hammock and backpack for the weekend. I generally carry a canister stove, so the jetboil systems look appealing and fairly compact. Are they of decent quality and worth the price? Any input is appreciated!

They boil water rapidly. If that's all you need and you don't mind the weight they're golden.

I prefer a little more flexibility so I use other options. JB and regular cookware don't go well together.

I have the Jetboil Flash and use it exactly as you described.  I've never cooked in it because I never wanted to wash it.  It does a great job of heating water and snow quickly for trail meals and hot drinks.  The fuel canisters seem to last quite a while.  Having one is nice when you are camping or hiking where building a fire is prohibited.  It doesn't do anything you can't do with a fire and cook set... it just does it quicker.

The above poster made most of the points I would. I have typically used them as a guide in group settings. We could cook all our meals on open fire intentionally for the kids to learn that process and have to work together and such, but the adults would typically have a couple Jetboils fto boil water for our hot drinks. They definitely boil fast, are compact, and work well. You just can't do complex meals or things that need even, spread out heat. They are small diameter and tall sides so that effects how they cook.

The MSR Reactor is a similar option. It has a more refined heat transfer IMO. You can barely feel the heat coming off of it with your hands just an inch or two off when its running.

On back-country trips I use a jetboil to flash boil water I pour into MountainHouse meal pouches. 500 piping hot calories in my belly in no time. Zero buyers remorse.
I have a non-piezo model and I've used it as high as 9,000ft.

Thanks for the quick replies. It looks like a JB will fit my need. Rehydrating mountain house packs and making coffee while camping, fishing or hunting.

Another use is to make hot water to fill a water bottle which you then stick in your sleeping bag to warm it up before you climb in.

A jetboil will fit your needs well.  They're extreme efficient at making hotwater for Mountain House and coffee.  There's a pot adapter that you can put on there.  I haven't tried it and can't imagine that it'll work all that well because the heat is in a small concentrated area.

As for camping out of a kayak or canoe, you can also bring a fire great with you.  Whenever I'm camping out of my yak I make up some steak kebabs and grill them.

I'm pretty sure the pot adapter is only for JB cookware with the heat exchanger. I warped the shit out of my frying pan trying to run the stove low (which you can't in hindsight really do).

I got an original JetBoil PCS at an REI scratch and dent sale.  I've used it for several years and here's my take.

Mine came with the pot adapter.  It allows me to set any old 1 or 2 liter pot on top of the stove, if I should want.  It works fine for this.  Further, this burner only puts out say 1/3 or 1/2 the BTU's / hour that other common butane stoves put out.  My SnowPeak puts out something on the order of 10KBTU's/hr, while JetBoil only does 3K or 5K, can't remember.  It's burner is optimized to feed heat into the finned heat exchanger on the bottom of the proprietary pot.  10KBTU/hr would overwhelm it's ability to accept heat, hence the smaller burner.

That said, when you use the JB burner w/ adapter on a conventional, plain bottomed pot, it won't heat/cook as fast as a  conventional burner.  Maybe that's not a problem?  It hasn't been for me.

I have cooked plain white rice in my JB 1L heat exchanger cup, just to see if it could be done.  Whilst something of a fiddly stunt, it absolutely DID work.  Enquiring minds needed to know.  Later models may or may not have a nice enough simmer to facilitate cooking rice.  

The biggest technical issue with JB is the JetBoil Sol Titanium.  The issue here is that in the never ending quest for lightness, the cup was made of a material (titanium) which can't absorb heat fast enough from the fins.  In consequence, the fins can get hot enough to melt into a tangled blob!  So, just avoid that particular model.  All the rest are fine, if they have the form factor and functionality that you feel you need.  This issue is well documented in the backpacking press, complete with online pics.  Their other models are great.

In my experience the flame is directed straight up (again, to hit the heat exchanger). Other stoves spread out along the bottom of the pot.

I recently picked up one of JB's competitors stoves, the new MSR windboiler.  With some coupon codes from camp saver, it was a little cheaper then the comparable JB I could find at the time.  So far so good, but I've only used it a few times.  

Thanks for the info! I had not seen the new MSR. It looks like the JB may have a better cozy and the MSR may be better in the wind.

I just got my own JB after using my brother's for a few years. Its great for heating up water for mountain house meals when I hike solo or one other person. Amazon has the multi-cam one for $79 shipped right now.

Be careful when trying to save money. I was hunting with a guy who brought a JB competitor. Similar burner, but no fins on the pot. I was done eating before he got his water to boil.

Anyone have experience with the Jetboil Minimo system?

If you did get the JetBoil; get the coffee press too.  Works very well and you have coffee in about the same amount of time it takes to boil water.

Yep, can confirm, the coffee press works awesome.  Our Jetboil goes along with us on car camping trips for this reason alone - and it can make some seriously good french pressed coffee in just a few minutes.

I have a Sol that they claim has: Jetboil Regulator technology - consistent heat down to 20° F (-6° C)
It seems to allow better simmer control and I know it works at 14,265 feet.

if you need cold weather or high altitude, look at the models with the regulator.