Jetboil Sol Titanium Stove

EMS has these for ~$120 with a 20% off any single item bringing the cost down to less than $100.

I much prefer my SVEA, but it IS heavier than the SOL. The SOL is more expensive to buy and to buy gas canisters for, and, it is relativly bulky and inflexible (you have problems over a fire with the fins, the fins do not generally fit on many other stoves, you need special pans/attachments to do any real cooking, ie, you cannot dry bake or fry stuff, for example.) If you eat dehydrated meals, this stove is good compromise between weight and speed of boiling water. If I were to change out my SVEA, I would definitely consider this stove, though.

Note that with a full canister (7.5oz,) the outfit weighs about 16oz ready for operation.

Susan,

I didn't really like my jet boil. It was kind of bulky and had literally no flexibility. All you get to do is boil water…which is fine, except those couple of times when I want to add dried milk or something.

Anyway, I have a Soto micro regulator stove and I use it with a snow peak 700 tall/skinny pot – the canister fits inside, the stove fits inside, and the whole thing weighs 8 ish ounces. It's about the same price, maybe even a tad cheaper, and works great. Also nice and compact…and I have a bit of flexibility in terms of being able to just boil water efficiently or simmer if I want to. For a canister stove I can't recommend it enough.

Yes! It is an excellent stove. Fast, light, and reliable. Over 100 boils without issue.

And the look on your hiking partner's face at the speed at which you go from unassembled, to boil, to eating is priceless.

Jen, I have to disagree with you on the flexibility of the Jetboil stove. Yeah it is a bit heavy and kinda heavy, but not too much more than other canisters by the time you add in the canister, cup, and lid.

And as for flexibility, all it takes is a bit of imagination. I have made biscuits and gravy, eggs, and muffins for breakfast. I have baked a pizza for lunch, and had a hot ham and cheese sandwich for dinner.

The Jetboil is a lot more versatile than most people think, sometimes you have to carry a bit more weight to make some dishes, but not much. All it takes is a bit of imagination, and the time and willingness to experiment.

Oh yeah, and the willingness to try your own experiments.

I love this stove; one of my hiking buddies really digs a cup of coffee mid afternoon, and this stove is so fast to assemble, boil, and break down that we lose almost no time on the trail.

Being a canister system, there is a weight savings over alcohol after a few days. For weekend trips, clearly an UL alcohol system is a bit lighter in net.

When I hike with 3 or more folks, the speed of the Jetboil stoves is great when everyone is waiting on boiled water. Let everyone carry a bit of fuel, and carry only 1 stove, or two for bigger groups.

As mentioned above, utility is less if you want to cook; I get by with meals that need only hot water.

Will Rietveld did an official BPL review of the Jetboil Sol Ti awhile back, and it was given a "Highly Recommended" stamp of approval.

Here's the article:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/sotm11_jetboil_sol_ti_premium_review.html

If you're a backcountry gourmet chef, the Jetboil will frustrate you. If you're more of a freezer bag "get it in my stomach" now sort, the Jetboil will be your baby!

"Being a canister system, there is a weight savings over alcohol after a few days. For weekend trips, clearly an UL alcohol system is a bit lighter in net."

And, if you're on a weekend trip, your total weight will be less, so it doesn't matter so much that your canister stove weighs a few ounces more than alcohol

If you're on a longer trip, your total weight will be larger, so it's more important to cut any weight you can, and a canister stove + fuel may actually weigh a few ounces less

I am – mostly – a boil-water-eat-it-of-a-bag kinda gal, but simply trying to cook something that involved milk caused a huge headache because I had no way to adjust the heat. Even with an alcohol stove I can separate the pot from the stove for a second or two to calm things down.

I loved the jet boil when I first got it, but after a while I wanted just a little something different from my regular meals and found I just made a huge mess of things trying to use the Jetboil for anything other than boiling water.

And my soto boils water just as fast as my friends' jetboils if that's what I'm doing, and frankly for that much money I really didn't want to be THAT limited.

But obviously people have their preferences; I really think it all depends on what you do for cooking.

I've experience with the SOL AL (it's cheaper twin). Very good stove. Excellent flame control. And of course it boils water faster than most any system. If you are an impatient freezer bag cook, the Jetboil Sol-series is hard to beat.

That's why I said experiment. I did a lot of that at home in my kitchen and came up with a lot of good ideas. You don't have to use the pot it comes with. For pizza and frying I used a stainless cover that is for keeping electric oven coils clean along with an aluminum pie pan for a cover. The jetboil cup worked great with silicon cupcake cups to steam bake muffins. And my jetboil had excellent flame co trol.

All I'm saying is that the jetboil is a lot more than the one trick pony you make it out to be.

My little pocket rocket with a small titanium pot and, most importantly, a windscreen boils water very fast, and because of the windscreen is super efficient. It's also versatile. My windscreen weighs 2 oz. or so. A 4oz. canister gets me six days of two boils a day.

I've never used the jet boil system. It looks like it would take up a lot of space in my pack and be heavier than my set-up; I could be wrong here. An REI employee insisted that he used it personally and really liked it. I was tempted, but after having to buy four new tires it's not in the budget anyway!

I've used a lot of portable stoves in my life and must say that this is one of the best I've found.

Caveat: This is more or less a "special purpose" stove that is truly one of the best for its "purpose". But, it is a water boiling stove, not a gourmet and/or simmering unit. To boil water fast for dehydrated and/or freeze dried foods, you'll be hard pressed to find anything that combines light weight, compactness, durability, and speed with such fuel sipping efficiency.

You can control the flame a bit, with practice. But, the nature of this water boiling machine is to put the heat on the attachable cup (call it a pot if you want to, but it is really just a large cup with a heat exchanger welded to the bottom). Exactly what you want to boil water fast and limit the need for carrying a large amount of heavy fuel on longer trips. But, not for cooking from scratch and simmering sauces, etc. If that is what you are after, try the MSR Dragonfly Stove. It's the cat's meow for slow cooking, simmering, and back country baking and can still boil your water relatively quickly, for re-hydrating foods and making hot drinks. That said, if what you're after is a fast, efficient water boiler, you really can't go wrong with the Sol.

If you often pack with a partner or group, like me, try having one guy take this along for hot drinks and quick boiling needs and have a second hiker bring a 2nd stove like the aforementioned Dragonfly along for your more glamorous supper and large pot cooking needs to have the best of both worlds.

A couple of a side notes:

Jet boil makes a decent little coffee press that fits this unit and weighs almost nothing. It makes better coffee than most and fits inside with the rest of the parts to this stove easily.

Give some serious thought to how you intend to handle your fuel needs with this stove. You "can" fit the smallest iso-butane can inside here for storage. However, on my longer trips, I take along a larger 440g can instead of more of the smaller canisters and end up cutting a decent amount of weight in metal container weight. Less space is good, less weight is even better!

Lastly, the neoprene sleeve offers some protection from the very hot cup/pot. But exercise care when removing this from the burner unit, after heating it. The joining mechanism sometimes sticks (ouch if you splash boiling water out on your hand while removing it) and the sleeve does not completely insulate your hand from the heat. Not a deal breaker… just something to pay attention to for safety's sake.

UPDATE:
Just wanted to take the time to share with everyone that one of the "hooks" on the plastic tripod that supports the gas canister broke (Temps were in the low to mid teens and it got a little bit brittle) during my last trip to the mountains. This is not really surprising, as we all know that the "pro" of plastic is that it is lightweight and less-expensive and that its "con" is its durability.

However, I shot Jetboil customer service an email on a Sunday night to ask if this would be covered as a warranty issue and, low and behold, I had a response early Monday morning that a replacement would go out to me that very day (at no charge). This kind of customer service and product support is simply nonexistent for most companies these days and I wanted to give credit where credit is due. Way to go Jetboil! High Quality, Innovation, Performance, AND OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE! Keep up the great work!

NOTE:

I would also mention that the weight you saw listed does not include the pot holder attachment and the plastic fuel can stabilizer tripod. You'll find that information in the fine print if you look at the listing again.

Thanks everyone. I didn't mean this to be a debate between alcohol stoves and canister stoves. I love my alcohol stove and will continue to use it. However, there are times and places where using an alcohol stove is inappropriate, like during a fire ban. For these times, i was thinking of the Jetboil. Just boiling water or viscous liquids is okay for me.

I have a cansiter stove that just scews onto the canister, but that's it. I still need to use my pot, windscreen, etc. and that set up is not very stable, which is anotehr reason i was thinking of the Jetboil system.

If you don't put the plastic base/fins on it, is it still stable?

Not to get into a debate, but alcohol is heavier than most fuels for extended trips, ie a week or more. Depending on your exact usage, this may extend to two weeks. With both alcohol and JetBoils, they are both designed to simply boil water. If 90% of your heating needs are such, then you cannot go wrong with a JetBoil. Some of the rules on the PCT are very restrictive due to fire dangers. You need some sort of shovel (read potty trowl) and perform a clean up around the stove for 5 feet. In California especially, the rules make sense and are enforced. No alcohol stove is allowed, except those that function as a WG stove does. Often the Sol is banned except at designated campsites with fireplaces.

As far as stability, it sort of depends on what you can handle, safely. The Helios system or other "non-toppers" supply much greater stability. The Sol is tall and top heavy. It will never have the same stability as many other stoves. Some of the tiny Whitebox alcohol stoves are much worse for stability. The provide "maybe" an inch and a half of platform. There is no leeway for softer soils, and it requires a solid surface. The Sol is acceptable even without the plastic feet.

The JetBoils are never the lightest option, but not bad considering. Without accessories (additional pots & pans and adapter,) They are limited in cooking ability. Yes, you can cook in these. But, it is rather like forcing something than being at ease with it. Compared to other stoves, it is more difficult. And you should never dry-bake with a Sol, there have been reported cases of fin damage. Steam baking is OK, if you don't mind breads and muffins being soft. Soups and stews always seem to boil over for me, though…well 4 out of 5 times, anyway. You do have to remove the lid. Anyway, I only used the JetBoil for about a week, "on trial."

I find that the JetBoil really comes into its own when doing hikes with more than one person, even short ones (hikes, not people). The weight can be divided over several people and it boils water fast enough that 2-3 people can be eating in the time it takes for solo hikers with alcohol or Esbit stoves to start eating. I couldn't justify the cost of the Sol Ti at the time, and went with the Zip. If solo, I usually use the alcohol/Esbit when allowed. My local mountains do not allow them, and probably won't anytime in the near future, so its usually the the little canister stove (when solo) or the JetBoil (with others).

Susan,

"If you don't put the plastic base/fins on it, is it still stable?"

I have never used the plastic base and quite frankly, not sure what I did with it. Completely unnecessary as I can always find a flatish surface to use the stove. If it is windy enough to warrant using the pot supports, then it is likely too windy to use the stove and you would need to find a natural wind break anyway. The pot supports are more for the REI crowd.

I love REI and must be in said crowd cause I used the plastic fins in my first outing. I dont think that they are necessary but hey they dont wheigh much and take up no extra room so I thought why not. Ive only used it once and it boils water at an incredible rate…. But from what I have been told the Titanium version should only be used to boil water no cooking in it or you could damage the fins same for melting snow-you need to start with water or you could damage it.

I like it so far easy and lightning fast… almost too fast.

Josh, I like that you like the fins.

I use mine for boiling snow and no failures to the fins.

On the pot support. I don't even take it along anymore. On the rare occasion that I use a pot for cobbler or something other than dehydrated/freeze dried, instead of the jetboil cup, it works ok without it.

On the tripod, I've found that it is especially nice to have along when I set it up on a picnic table or tent platform (usually stay at a trailhead site the night before heading into the backcountry). Then I leave it in the truck when I head onto the trails. Sandy soils or a few rocks around the base of the fuel can serve the same purpose for me.

Davey- Im just joshin yeh

yeah I was told that the snow would be fine as long as there was some water in it. I rarely melt snow with just snow any way. It always goes faster if I start with water and get that to boilig then slowly add snow.

But if you use yours with just snow and no issues thats good to hear its an expensive little stove to damage.

A buddy has the MSR Reactor. A heavy beast but you should see that one boil snow in heavy wind. Remarkable.

I backpack with people with the Jetboil, and I use a Pocket Rocket.

Boil times are essentially identical.

The Jetboil is more efficient. It boils at the same speed as my Pocket Rocket, but it uses less fuel to do so, which I see as a +1 for the Jetboil, especially on longer trips.

The Pocket Rocket has the ability to simmer, which I see as a +1 for the Pocket Rocket, or most other canister stoves for that matter.

The Jetboil is slightly bulkier when packed up than my canister stove + 700mL ti cup. But not a lot bulkier. The components stack down inside the pot, the same as my components stack inside my ti cup.

I think it's going to depend on what you plan to use it for.

"Boil times are essentially identical. "

This is absolutely, factually not true.

Davey Jones-
I can only speak to my own experience, but my stove vs. my companions' stoves boiled water in the same amount of time +/- a few seconds. As with any statement I make, YMMV. FWIW, I was using a wind screen.