Jetboil Sol Review — Complete

Thanks for the thorough review. I'm seriously considering replacing my stove system with the JB Sol but have a couple of questions that I didn't see the answers to in the overall review:

How much does the universal pot stand weigh?

How effective is the cozy at keeping the contents warm? If i could drink out of the pot I could forego my thermal coffee mug.

Bill

Bill, the cozy is pretty much worthless, IMO. Probably better than nothing, but not by much. A good double wall mug is much better at keeping hot drinks hot.

I would have to disagree with Doug.
I find that it keeps the contents warm pretty well. Of course it depends largely on how cold it is outside. I don't winter camp and generally am out of the wilderness by the time it starts getting into the low 20's. I haven't carried a separate mug for years. Just my experience.

Kane

My thoughts/theory on the cozy – I find it to be good to allow me to pick up the pot after heating it and be able to pour. It functions fairly well in that regard. I do not find it to be a good insulator to keep the mug hot long term for drinking, and this (in my opinion) is not the fault of the cozy. Instead, I think that once you turn off the stove, the heat exchanger starts to work in reverse and pull the heat out of the pot and water like cooling fins, especially if its breezy out. I pour my hot water into a very light plastic GSI cup insulated with a neoprene cozy and it does an excellent job of keeping the contents hot.

Thanks for the thorough review. I’m seriously considering replacing my stove system with the JB Sol but have a couple of questions that I didn’t see the answers to in the overall review:

How much does the universal pot stand weigh?

How effective is the cozy at keeping the contents warm? If i could drink out of the pot I could forego my thermal coffee mug.

Bill

Bill, the Sol’s universal pot stand weighs 37g/1.3oz.

The cozy is pretty good at keeping things warm if you keep the lid on and cover the heat exchanger fins. The heat exchanger cuts both ways. Cool air blowing on the heat exchanger will cool the contents of the pot. You can use the supplied cup or you can use a fleece hat or something similar. The cozy is probably not as good as a thermal coffee mug.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

Regarding the effectiveness of the cozy…doesn't show much value in the following test:
http://youtu.be/FC-JRCHsf9Y
The lid, that is important.

Skip ahead to the spreadsheet in this 12-minute video, if you get tired of the presenter.

A very interesting video. I wonder if the lid portion of a Reflectix cozy would be worth taking. The biggest difference is with a full cozy. The only difference between the 3/4 cozy in the vid and the full cozy was the lid portion.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

The numbers are interesting, if a bit abstract. What I need to know is: What temperature is still hot enough for my coffee to be acceptable over the course of the 15 minutes or so it takes to drink my morning cup of coffee. I suppose I can test that at home.

Its a little difficult to rationalize going to this stove from my current 700 ml ti pot plus Coleman exponent f1 stove, which weigh a combined 7.4 oz. Being able to drop my insulated mug, at 4.7 oz would make it easy.

Thanks again for the review, Jim.

Hi, Bill,

My last post was hardly the paragon of clarity. [embarrassed look]

What I was trying to suggest was just taking a “cap” made out of Reflectix type material, not the whole cozy. If one were to put the cap over the top of the JB mug/pot, it might really retain some heat. Notice in the spreadsheet in the video that the hottest temps — significantly hotter than other modes — were recorded when a cap was added to the cozy. The cozy alone didn’t make that much difference. Since the JB already has something of a cozy, a little cap made of Reflectix might make a real difference, particularly since the JB’s lid has multiple openings in it. Of course it might be a hassle if you’re continuously sipping coffee. But if you sip, set it down a minute, and then sip again, the cozy cap might be worth it. I think it would definitely be worth trying for rehydrating/”cozy cooking” type applications.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving