JetBoil Sol update?

For those who are sorry Jetboil's lightweight Sol Ti model is going away, Sierra Trading Post has some left at decent prices, as well as the Sumo Ti.

Hi Jim

> After months on the trail, their stoves are fine,
Oh, a brass thread should last many years. Mine (GST-100) died in France, but I had been using it fairly intensively for well over 5 years. A LOT of use.

It's very hard to put an 'average' life on the brass threads. There are going to be huge variations on the 'average', such that it might not even make sense. But maybe 10 years? To be sure, some will get a lot more, while others will get rather less.

I have answered for brass. I thought the Pocket Rocket has a brass thread? The new replacemment might have an aluminium thread though. The aluminium thread might last a couple of years imho, but that would depend hugely on how the user treated the thread. It would not be hard to strip it in 1 year if you are rough. But both the original PR and the replacement are such atrocious designs (imho) I would hate to think of someone using one for years.

Cheers

Note: Roger has always been against the Pocket Rocket.

There are others of us who used them for ten years or so, and they were still going strong when we moved to something more lightweight.

–B.G.–

ha, ha,… yeah, Roger doesn't like Pocket Rockets

I've used one for a couple years without problem. No brass.

Any self respecting mechanical person would be embarrassed to admit they stripped threads. You just got to feel it as you screw and don't strip the threads.

If you screw roughly, you can strip them in one usage.

Pocket Rocket also has a narrow flame, but if you're just boiling water it doesn't matter.

PR weighs 3 ounces. Maybe you can get a stove that's 2 ounces but saving 1 ounce doesn't matter much

I wouldn't recommend a pocket rocket, but if that's what you have, it would be about the lowest priority to replace with something slightly better.

Oh man….I got myself really worked up when I saw the sol ti for $120 at sierra, plus I had a 40% off coupon on your entire order (not the whole…only 18,000+ products thing), and that jetboil products were not on the exclusion list. Plus…the 9% activejunky credit was going to make for a $65 or less jetboil sol ti! But…alas……the sol ti is on the exclusion list….a customer rep informed me it was under the "- Other Select Items" on the exclusion list….sigh.

The Jetboil Zip is a step backwards relative to the Sol lineup… no Pizeo igniter (not a great loss) and a heavier burner (with less sensitive control) and smaller capacity pot… not really sure how decreasing a pots capacity below the current Sol's .8 liter make's sense… all this compromise is heavier than the Sol Al with higher capacity pot.

I believe that the Zip and the Sol have the same pot capacity (both 0.8 L).

Presumably they stopped making the Sol because it wasn't bringing in enough money to justify its existence although it's possible that the "big conglomerate" (Johnson Outdoor) that bought Jetboil doesn't understand that the one ounce difference between a Jetboil Sol (Al) and the Jetboil Zip actually matters to some people.

HJ

Sure,there may be a few percent.of Jetboil's customers that are will to pay $40 more just to save one once.

Apparently it's not enough folks to keep the Sol Ti in the lineup.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's because of the lack of money that the Sol Ti is supposedly leaving the Jetboil lineup…

Also, as I understand it, the entire SOL lineup is leaving as of 2015, which is a bummer. I think that they should keep the AL version though. IMO, it's the best of the entire Jetboil lineup… It incudes the regulated stove, is lighter than any of the other models (excluding the TI version), and IMO is adequate volume for a solo hiker. It's there best offering…

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's because of the lack of money that the Sol Ti is supposedly leaving the Jetboil lineup…

OK, I'll bite. Why then are they discontinuing the Sol line of stoves?

HJ

"OK, I'll bite. Why then are they discontinuing the Sol line of stoves? "

They must have red Rogers review of their regulator technology and realize that it does not actually do anything. So back to less expensive to manufacture stoves perhaps.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/pressure_regulators_myth_part1.html#.VKayElpg5nE

My guess is because of the issues with the Ti version. Likely more of a headache, and possible costly, to get it to work like they wanted… As I said though, I could be wrong, considering the issues, I can't help but think that they at least somewhat influenced their decision to scrap it all together.

Actually though,it still gets down to profit.

First,you had the consumer restance to the additional expense of the Ti.
THEN you had the limited recommened use of the Ti pots (boil water only)plus no real simmer function with the burner.
Then ,there was the perception amoungst informed consumers of QC/reliabilty issues with the JB Ti pots which further hurt sales( the mere existence of this thread shows that)
So,you ad the slower sales plus the cost of dealing with the fin issues and you have an unprofitable headache for Johnson Outdoors..

Also, there could be another issue at work with regards to the scrapping of BOTH the Ti and AL Sols is the name itself. They both are called "SOL" ..It could be Johnson may be wanting to start with a fresh and come up with a new lightweight replacement for the Sol line..

Who knows?
I do agree with Jim that the Sol AL being disontinued is unfortunate..At 10oz, and at about 100 bucks, it had a place in the market..

Sorry..:(

Ken,

I believe that they are not discontinuing regulator valves entirely. The new MiniMo has a regulator valve as does the Joule.

And there's a real anomaly. Why discontinue a stove with a relatively broad appeal (the Sol) while keeping an extremely specialized stove with a very narrow audience (the Joule).

HJ

"OK, I'll bite. Why then are they discontinuing the Sol line of stoves? "

"My guess is because of the issues with the Ti version."

This plus I very much doubt that they are too worried about us gram weanies. I think we're a significant source of revenue for much of the cottage gear industry but I suspect 90% of the REI/Sportsman Warehouse clientele couldn't care less about or even notice four ounces.

Brad A brought up the Olicamp XTS. My experience with it paired with my Soto ODR was that I wasn't saving any fuel and I could get the same job done with a lighter non hxr titanium pot. It's been a year but if memory serves, I was burning about .25oz of fuel to boil 16 oz of 40*F water. It's my understanding that the SOL (which I've never owned) can get the same job done at 1/2 the fuel.

If someone is getting different results with a different stove, or if my numbers are wrong, I'd certainly like to hear it as I still have this pot.

Maybe Jetboil is just keeping it alive long enough to recoupe their R&D and tooling costs on it.

Ian,

A boil of 500 ml that requires 0.25 ounces of fuel isn't very good for a HX set up. That's about 7 g of fuel per boil. That's about the same as a conventional pot.

A Jetboil would take about 5 g under good conditions to do the same.

HJ

Jimmer,

I'm not quite sure what to think about the Jetboil Joule. It's big and it's HEAVY, but it does kick some serious ass in the snow melting department. In my testing, I've been getting boil times with an entire liter that are equal to the boil time I would get for half a liter with another integrated canister stove. The Jetboil Joule beat a Reactor by nearly a full minute in my testing. If you've got snow to melt for a group, no other stove comes close.

It's also really good in wind unlike most Jetboils which will blow out even on high in gusty winds.

The Joule is very specialized, but if you need that specialty, it performs extremely well.

It doesn't do as well on the human factors. Whereas the WindBoiler that I recently reviewed is very polished, the Joule is generally rough around the edges. The thing that really kills me is that you have to remove the (suspended from the pot) windscreen before you can remove the pot from the hanging kit. What the heck were they thinking??

HJ

Just wanted to point out that with my Jetboil Sol Ti, I can routinely boil 2 cups in good conditions and use 4 g of fuel. Yes, this changes in bad weather, but a good wind block really helps… :)

remote cannister stove like the Kovea Spider or MSR Whisperlite with a good windscreen and HE pot as to fuel consumption or boil times?

I have regularly used my Kovea Spider with a 2.1 L HE pot. That set up is good, but it's no match for the Joule. On the other hand I think the Spider is a much more versatile stove and far more compact. Far more.

In terms of fuel consumption, and I don't yet have good numbers yet, but the Joule appears to be quite prodigious in its fuel consumption. I ran some tests yesterday and went through 105 g of fuel just shooting some demo videos. I make sure to bring more fuel than normal when I bring a Joule.

One drawback to the Joule's design is that one cannot use a 450 g canister which would have some advantages when melting snow with a high output stove like the Joule.

HJ

and lowers the minimal operating temp?

"Brad A brought up the Olicamp XTS. My experience with it paired with my Soto ODR was that I wasn't saving any fuel and I could get the same job done with a lighter non hxr titanium pot. It's been a year but if memory serves, I was burning about .25oz of fuel to boil 16 oz of 40*F water. It's my understanding that the SOL (which I've never owned) can get the same job done at 1/2 the fuel."

Ian, the reason you saw no fuel savings is your Soto ODR has the wrong burner to utilize the Olicamp pot. You need a burner like the MSR Pocket Rocket or the Olicamp Vector… those have a tiny burner that concentrates the flame upwards (just like a Jetboil).

That's how one saves fuel with the Olicamp XTS… not just any stove is going to benefit from that pot.

BA

My experience has been that to get the benefit of the HXR with this pot, which is wider than the Sol, you need a wider flame pattern that will saturate the fins. Unfortunately to achieve this, you have to crank the stove up to a point where it's not achieving any fuel efficiency. Keep the flame pattern down low like I do on my ti pots, and I burn more fuel due to the long burn times. Plus this is the heaviest pot I own.

A true lose, lose, lose situation. It does achieve faster boil times but I don't care about that.

I'd love to be proven wrong.

Conditions 16oz of 40*f water. Stove allowed to fully cool between boils. Stove turned to its setting where it gets the best fuel economy regardless if that's wide open or whatever. Boil times not a concern. Average of 10 boils.

I'll post new ODR results later.