Problem with Jetboil Sol

that's the problem with piezo's isn't it, they have to be in the exact correct position to work properly, one little knock and they become useless, until you re-correct the position anyway.
I'd personally never rely on one, but then again i use alcohol stoves.

Piezo’s nice — when it works.

I had my ignition go out on my JB. I took it a part and reassembled it, and then it worked fine. Not sure my rigorously scientific approach will work for everyone. :)

You might try calling JB customer service.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving

I'll fiddle with it for a while, but if it doesn't work, I'll take it back and try again with a new one.

Yep. That’s what I would do.

There’s a silver retaining pin that holds the orange piece of plastic on to the burner. If you slide out the pin, you can remove the orange piece and reposition the piezo. Careful to take a look at how things are assembled beforehand. If things shift, it’s tough to remember how they went back together.

I found that turning the piezo in so that it most directly pointed to the center of the burner did the trick.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving

Bic…good advice.

Check your Piezo gap, it worked for me:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=58723&skip_to_post=509600#509600

Jetboil piezo adjustment info

Jim,

Good link! I hadn’t seen that. On mine, just rotating the wire so it most directly pointed to the center was sufficient, but your link provides a lot more info including the gap size and how to adjust it. Excellent link.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

Good info, Jim and Jim! Thanks!

Another thing you might try–somewhere I'd read that a flat end at the tip of the piezo metal rod can be made pointed, like a #2 pencil tip. I took my Dremel to my old JB stove, secured the piezo rod with a hemostat, and very carefully made the tip conical rather than flat. This did the trick! I'm not sure of the physics involved here, but it seems like maybe it somehow focuses or concentrates the spark in some way.

Hi, Gary,

Interesting fix. If one of mine goes south, I’ll have to try that.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

Sharper points => greater charge density => stronger electric field

Here's an explanation by way of cute analogy:
http://scienceblogs.com/builtonfacts/2009/06/yesterday_we_dumped_a_bucket.php

However, the field strength from a sharpened tip seems to decrease more rapidly with distance, as discussed here on why moderately blunt lightning rods may be best:
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/1520-0450-39.5.593

For a small gap, like on a piezo igniter, probably sharper is still best.