GEAR REVIEW: Jetboil Sol Ti Premium Cooking System

Disclaimer- I will never review an item I have not personally used on a trip.

JETBOIL SOL TI PREMIUM COOKING SYSTEM

Being one of the first pieces of gear recommended to me, I felt it deserved my first review.

Design: The design is very interesting. The system includes the cup section and the stove section. The cup section is a titanium cup wrapped in an insulated stove and spot welded onto a thermal heatsink. Smart design, but overpriced for what it is. I had seen a video where they had flipped the insulation around, leaving a much more appealing matte black look. There is an aluminum version available, but for the added price you can drop a solid three ounces. Also included: optional stabilizer platform, measuring cup, lid, and pot support.

Specifications: Here are the specs the website provided:

(http://shop.jetboil.com/index.php/sol-cooking-ti.html)

Weight	8.5 oz (240 g) * system weight does not include pot support, fuel stabilizer and measuring cup
Volume	27 oz (0.8 Liter)
Boil Time	16 oz (0.5 Liter) = 2 minutes, 15 seconds (avg over life of Jetpower canister)
Water Boiled	12 Liters per 100g Jetpower canister
Dimensions	4.1” x 6.5” (104 mm x 165 mm)

Now, I can’t confirm these stats for one simple reason: I’ve already sold mine.

“Wait…why?” you may be asking.

More on that in a bit.

Experience: I packed the jetboil into my pack and used it on my most recent trip to Yosemite (documented HERE).

I ditched the stabilizer and pot support, but kept the measuring cup for the trip. Now, people may prefer the stabilizer, but I really don’t have an issue knocking my cooking setup over. I find a nice flat spot and avoid being careless. If I’m reckless enough to knock it over, that flimsy plastic tripod will not stop it from hitting ground. The pot support I didn’t need, since I did not bring a pot to support, and my plastic bowl wouldn’t hold up very well to thermal radiation.

My counterpart for that trip, Andrew, had the same Jetboil system. For all the time he had had it, it had never occurred to him that the plastic cover on the bottom was, in fact, a measuring cup. I had brought mine, but had never actually used it. I mainly had it to protect the bottom of the Jetboil. Thinking back, I could have ditched it and saved an ounce. The first night, I had filled it halfway with water, and lit it up. I cut up bits of the dehydrated steak I had brought- I prefer to take as much protein as possible on my trips. By the time I had them cut into little pieces, the water was already at a boil. I turned off the stove, put the meat in, put the lid back on, and let them slowly warm and rehydrate.

That is when the first of several issues arrived. The handle is worthless dead weight. The insulation is great, except when I want to wash it. The steak, while tasty, left a residue of grease on the inside of the Jetboil that refused to wash out. The insulation just soaks up water and leaves the Jetboil a soggy mess. If you get any grease on it, forget trying to wash it out.

Now for the heatsink- A smart design, using a heatsink to help radiate heat inwards rather than expel heat outwards. Unfortunately, on day 3, Andrew’s heatsink melted. The metal had peeled away, warped until unrecognizable, with a giant hole formed into it. The end result was burnt oatmeal- the same oatmeal Andrew had declared a splurge that morning as he had added most of his luxuries into it. For the rest of the trip, he used the pot support and his aluminum pot.

While the cup section had proved unreliable, the stove section worked brilliantly. As I had described before, it makes a wonderfully inefficient torch to light campfires with. Despite the waste of fuel, it was worth it to build a quick fire so we would no longer freeze.

When I returned from the trip, I instantly sold my Jetboil on eBay and bought a MSR Micro Rocket and an Evernew Medium Pasta Pot. While the Jetboil looks and works amazing, seeing one melted before my eyes was enough reason for me to try something new.