Jetboil Flash
I originally saw the new Jetboil Flash at the KORS trade show last summer, and it caught my eye, so here’s a fetching Violet version in for test.
No, not just because of the colours, but because it was lighter than the regular version.
I always pack my cook kit in a modular fashion, I take a pot and inside it goes the gas, the stove, firesteel, spoon and maybe some drinks sachets all wrapped up in a Buff.
The Jetboil does all that on it’s own, and I have to admit a bit neater too, but usually with a little extra weight against most combinations I can make.
But it’s selling some extra stuff against what I usually pack.
The pot is insulated which is good from an efficiency point if view, but it’ll keep what ever water’s left warmer too, giving quicker re-heat and make it more use for mug and spoon washing.
The stove section looks very robust, it’s neatly put together, the plastic feels strong and the piezo ignition looks to be sensibly mounted, but as with such things will still need care when packing and unpacking. The burner head and valve body are familiar-looking, most likely outsourced parts, and rather than a cop-out, that lends an air of reliability for me.
The heat exchanger on the pot will add efficiency and increase the speed at which I can access a hot cuppa, always a good thing.
The dark flashes you can see on the side will turn orange when the contents reach 60°C, I have no idea if this will be useful or just a bit of fun. We shall see.
The kit also comes with the orange canister feet which I like as it is quite a tall arrangement, and that cup should be both useful (I like the handy deep lids on my Optimus pots) and it’ll protect the heat exchanger when the Jetboil is in my rucksack.
It’s all new to me this style of stove, I know it’ll work, and it looks cool, but the big test for me will be to see if the little increases in packed size and weight are outweighed by the performance and usability gains that the Jetboil is offering.
More soon.
This is a production version, so I think they must be in the shops or are on their way.
i have to admit to being a big fan of the jet boil, we use ours (the one i got free from trail credit card before they introduced the spending limits)
its had a fair battering over the years and is still in perfect working order (shame as i really want an orange one now)
its fab for heating up water for dehydrated meals and cuppas but not so great for cooking food …tried it once but wont be doing it again.
i bought some feet a bit like the ones there and they do add a fair bit of stability. I also got the coffee filter for it so I can have proper coffee when out and about ;op
interested to know how much lighter the new one is over the old one and how it fares when you have it out on the hill..
Only thing I agree with is that the ’stabilizer’ comes with this 1 as the old ’separate’ cost £20!!!
HAZZA! for the JetBoil!
That’s interesting though, Vorlich says bthat thye burner is different, and you’re saying three minutes for a boil. The spec is two minutes for a boil on this one, so maybe there is some proper work been done under the hood on the Flash?
Field testing will reveal all!
It was just after this that I was reading that the cup is not designed to be a cooking pot which means I have to either pay through the nose for boilies or dehydrated meals or I fork out extra for the pot support and take my mess tin for cooking my noodles which means my kitchen is suddenly not as convenient as I hoped it would be.
On top of that throw in the problems gas has at altitude and in the winter, suddenly a multi fuel stove looks like it would have been the better option for me. I still think the burner is a fantastic wee bit of kit though, if I do get myself another stove I can see my old man getting this for his fishing trips, that’s if I don’t keep it myself as a backup.
I wonder why they don’t advise cooking in the pot? Could be they think cleaning is difficult and forsee lawsuits from hikers with food poisoning, I hope it’s not that the pot coating is so fragile that they’re expecting a spoon to knock it off into thye food?
I shall enquire.
It’s been a few years since I actually “cooked” outdoors, and in some ways I miss it. I’m bored of most food-in-a-bag, so I can see me looking at other options, be it a dehydrator or home-made boil-in-the-bag stuff. Cooking and high camping might be difficult with the lack of water, but you know me and food, so anything is possible.
You might be interested in Tinny’s youtube channel if you’re thinking of getting into home made dehydrated meals.
I was thinking about trying out some other method of cooking my noodles/beans/grub, something along the lines of putting the scran into a bag/tinfoil recepticle. Filling that with boiling water then dropping it into the jetboil to create a pan within a pan. Just haven’t got of my lazy backside to play about with it yet. COuld be completely inefficient.
For the sake of variety, anything is worth a try, and your foil idea would be easier to keep clean than dropping it all into the pot.
Boil times are based on 500ml of water, so the times look fine at that, and my usual 600/700ml for dinner and a cuppa should be fast enough.
The cooking thing I’m interpreting as complaint deflection. The base of the pot heats so fast that anything without enough moisture content to absord and disapate the heat will burn pretty fast. But cooking is fine if you cook the right stuff, watch it and regulate the burner, just like at home.
Pasta, noodles, stew, soup, all good.
Altitude/temperature, there’s going to be no difference over the modular systems that I use now. They will suffer a bit from cold gas (there’s ways around it), but the heat exchanger and insulated pot will get more from the flame than what I’m using now.
Aye, now to go and get it dirty…
[...] most important bit of kit I carry as it supplies my cuppa, was my stove. On this trip it was the Jetboil Flash. I got my usual flat rock (which went back next day) for cooking on, and the Jetboil sat on it [...]
[...] had the Jetboil, wore discontinued Haglöfs Iguana pants (bring them back) and Chocolate Fish Taranaki base layers, [...]