Lipstick on a Pig? Wind & Cold Temperature Testing of the Jetboil Stash (StoveBench)

I have never been a Jetboil fan. Most of their stoves that I am familiar with suffer from the same degraded performance in wind and cold. That fact, combined with their reputation of mediocre build quality, has steered me in other directions. Mostly I use alcohol. When I do use a canister stove, it’s a Soto Windmaster which I really do like. If I were to consider an integrated stove system, I would look first at the MSR Windburner.

Like Ryan, I decided to compare the new JetBoil Stash to the PocketRocket2 Deluxe with an MSR Titan Kettle (karma?).  Here are my conclusions:

• The JetBoil Stash is a fine “fair weather” stove.  Don’t use it where it will be windy and where it doesn’t get too cold.
• The stove will work as advertised when using a new canister.  The fundamental stove design suffers when the canister pressure drops (cold or consumption), this may be exasperated when using 3.9 oz. / 110 g fuel canisters.

Here is my recent video about the comparison.  Enjoy

I forgot to include these snapshots at 5.1 mph wind.

JetBoil Stash – flames separating from the mug

PocketRocket2 Deluxe – Flames fairly stable

I have mixed feelings about the stash. One the one hand they created an attractive package and rolled out a very targeted marketing campaign. I can’t remember another product in this category that got so many YouTube and web reviews in such a short period of time. Very impressive.

On the other hand the stove is apparently underpowered for anything other than an HX pot in calm conditions with a mostly full canister. Very disappointing. Was the power limited to prevent damage to the HX pot? Thinner fins? Some jetboils are listed as 9k btu yet this is 4.5k Kinda defeats the purpose of using it with regular pots yet I’m sure they’ll still sell many.

The lower BTU is likely to ensure people get good fuel burn numbers, because apparently no one knows how to adjust the throttle.

The comparison photos @jonfong posted are very telling.  The distance between the top of the burner and the top of the support arms, e.g. the distance from the head to the bottom of the pot appears to tell the story. Why didn’t JetBoil tuck the head up into the fins?

I’m sticking with the Soto Windmaster and wide pot for a canister setup…no windscreen required, just tuck it into/behind a natural windbreak. The PR Deluxe does look like it might perform similarly to the Soto WM.

Interesting results, certainly…but not especially surprising, except on the part of the 28-minute boil time.  That’s impressively long.

Apparently, Ryan’s descriptor: “Lipstick on a Pig” is apt.

I spent a few minutes with a sharpie, scissors, and some Ti foil from an old stove pipe to make a wind screen that grabs the bottom of the HX shroud. It fits between 2 of the pot support arms, so it wraps about 1/3 the way around the pot. I gave it a low-hanging tab to grab easily. It actually holds onto the pot pretty snugly. It weighs 3 grams. Probably less if I brushed the old creosote off. ;^)

So how much does the Stash pot (with lid) by itself weigh?

144 g

That titanium foil windscreen is very clever!

Excellent review Ryan, thanks for calling a spade a spade (with lipstick)!  There are too many crap products out there these days. Quilts with overstated ratings, tents with unworkable designs, and stoves that can’t boil water. I refuse to buy pigs. Bacon on the other hand …

That was a very helpful review. Thanks so much for testing more thoroughly than others did.

yeah, nice windscreen, about the minimalist possible

What is not clear to me in the review is can the jetboil pot (more precisely the fins and their attachment to the pot) withstand the higher MSD BTU and resulting higher temperature over a moderate number of uses (let’s say 3 to 4 dozen)?

I have seen 2 titanium Sumo pots were the fins have detached and show damage when used with the JetBoil stove they were designed for.   I suspect the fins will not survive prolonged use with a higher temperature stove output.

Daniel, I’m concerned about the durability of that heat exchanger as well. Honestly, I’d happily take a slightly more durable HE in exchange for inclement conditions performance. It’s been shown here numerous times that titanium fins may not be the most durable.

Kinda reminds me of my first cooking system: the Optimus Crux lite cookset. With the heat exchanger and the dedicated windscreen that would grip the top of the canister and that would fold around the pot when carried it’s a clever design. The top would even double as a coffee cup or a small frying pan (try frying some thinly sliced salami, onions and garlic and adding that to a pot of cooked pasta with a small bag of tomato soup powder and you eat like a king after a 20 kilometer hike). If only they would make that thing in titanium.. I still had my Kovea Ti-burner then, which was next to useless in the cold. Switched to a MSR PR2 and never looked back. Which proves Ryans point that the burner is key to the system.

In the long run, a lot of Stash sets may be returned to REI. For those that live near a REI store, returned Stashes will be in the Garage Sale section. Which means we can buy the pot at a decent price and toss the stove! Much prefer my Soto stove, but that is a cool pot, great for weeklong trip’s fuel efficiency or more.

Very nice, Phillip!  Should be doable for the Sterno HX pot, too.

This little strip spring-clips around the burner head. I thought about making a full ring/cylinder, but left it open on one side. It does not register on my scale which does not go to tenths.

I’ve come to love the MSR Reactor we recently purchased.  Buy once, cry once…  No more futzing around with wind screens.  Water boils in seemingly only a minute or two at most, even under windy conditions.

The caveat is it’s not being used by myself in the summer (for which it’s too heavy), but rather shared with my wife, and sometimes also some other friends/family.  Or used in winter.  And sometimes we still use our old MSR MicroRocket when it’s just the two of us.

Yes, the Reactor is an excellent stove. That’s what we bring when we have a larger group and more demanding (higher volume) hot water needs, like during elk season. But as you point out, it’s basically in a different category.

I’ve used a JB Sol Ti for many years now. The HX fins are still in good shape. I picked up the aluminum cup just in case since I like the system for solo travel. I will try the Stash but it will have to impress in order to displace the Sol.

I guess I understand Ryan’s reporting of the 28-minute boil for completeness’s sake and intervening would have violated the experimental conditions, but it’s a silly and gratuitous value. Any normal human would have pulled a glove off and placed a warm hand on the cooling canister to restore the volatilization of the liquid fuels after a couple of minutes. I mean, who would sit there helplessly for a half hour?

I mean, who would sit there helplessly for a half hour?

The vast majority of beginners and others who don’t understand how stoves work.