How to Choose a Jet Boil for Backpacking & Car Camping: Stash vs Minimo vs Flash

hey guys it's chase and today i'm going to be talking all about stoves if you are new to backpacking or car camping and you start looking at the stove options out there you're going to be quickly overwhelmed by tons of different options and so the goal of this video is just to kind of help you decide what stove might be best for the situation that you're going to be needing it in now i'm not a jetboil purist this video will be pretty much completely about jetboils and the reason for that is i end up using my jetboils about 90 of the time i do have other stoves i've got the msr whisper light and that i'll use that for like snow super cold weather and then i have that brs system and that's just for ultra light situations but 90 of the time i end up running one of these stoves right here and i'm gonna tell you why and when i do that so why jetboil first off i got this stove about i think it's about seven years ago now and when i first got it i was younger and dumber than i am now and i had a little mishap and i actually caught my backpacking pack on fire and it burned pretty much everything inside including my wallet my retainer at the time and my jet well that i had just bought and so it melted the cup the sleeve and the top of it and i was pretty bummed but then i reached out to jetboil they ended up replacing it for me for free and so i was a big fan since day one since then i have probably used this thing a thousand times and it's been wonderful i love a nice hot cup of coffee and a warm meal when i'm out backpacking or hiking and so i've put this thing through the ringer it's pretty much retired now since i picked up these other ones but anyways that's what i love about their company and then i also like their technology so they have the flux ring system down here and it's just basically a extremely efficient heat capturing method to where you are utilizing the most heat you possibly can to heat your food or your water whatever you're using and then the next thing is the locking stove system so on these three the cup and the stove itself they actually lock together and that is just super nice because it keeps them from falling apart or they're less likely to tip over or the cups slip off of the stove and i have had that happen in the past with other stove systems and that is quite a buzz kill when you're just about to have your boiling water for your coffee and it falls over and you've got to start over again so i like that and then the last big reason is the accessories that you can get for them so you can buy pots pans coffee press different things that fit nearly universally with the different options and so i'm a big fan of those i use a lot when i'm car camping specifically so i'll talk about those a little bit later but uh yeah let's dive in first i'm going to talk about the whole lineup just give a quick spec comparison and then i'm gonna go through talk about the pros and cons of each model and then at the end i'll give you recommendations on what i would use each individual one for and then a few tips and tricks on how to best utilize them all right so this is the new stash the stash is about 130 bucks it weighs 7.1 ounces and it is by far the lightest weight option that they have out of their entire lineup and so it's optimal for super light backpacking or alpine climbing trips whatever you're doing and the big benefits of this one are one it all nests extremely well together it's super compact it does not rattle when you are walking with it it's still fast to boil and as far as stove systems that do not lock together this new one with these little slots in the wings that the stove sits on are extremely useful it keeps it solidly placed so that it has a little spot to live and it's not very likely to slip off and fall apart so it's compact really lightweight still very efficient the big downfalls with this one in my opinion are one it does not have a regulator so on the stove itself the heat cannot be controlled very easily and so if you're trying to cook on it it's a little bit more challenging and so boiling water is really this thing's strong suit additionally it does not have a igniter built into it so you have to carry a little lighter or match or something which really isn't a big deal because you should already be carrying one anyways and so the way this is set up this can go upside down into the lid and then the lighter can just live between the lid and the can itself and so it all messes together well and is uh nice and lightweight alrighty next up is the mini mo minimo is a one liter pot it costs about 150 bucks so it's their more expensive option at the moment and it weighs about 14.6 ounces and so it's also one of their heavier options but that cost is for a reason it's the by far the most universally usable one the ground up it comes with the same stabilizer the pot is insulated it has the same lid style as the other two and the stove also locks onto the pot itself which is extremely nice now the thing that really sets this one apart is the regulator itself so the regulator or the fact that this one has a regulator makes it so that you can control the flame and so if you are cooking something inside of your cup you can control the heat so that you aren't burning it and this is extremely useful when you are cooking on a pan or in a pot and if you're going to be doing that all you have to do is take the the pot itself off and then put this little stove set up on there this comes with every one of the stoves and it just sits right on top and then you have the ability to set whatever you need to on top of there and you're still able to control it extremely well and then on top of that this one also has a built-in igniter and so you do not have to carry a lighter along with it so this is the most universally usable in my opinion but it's heavy and expensive all right so this is the flash the flash is 110 right now it weighs about 13 ounces and it is the fastest of all of their lineup at boiling water so like this one i forgot to mention but it comes with a cup on the bottom as well that it nests inside of which is great for drinking or just sharing sharing food with somebody else it has a built-in igniter which is nice because you don't have to carry a lighter it also has a little bit of a wind shroud down here around the regulator stove assembly and so i think that might be part of what makes it so fast to boil and then it also locks to the cup itself and so like the minimo it can lock onto the stove and so then it's one solid piece that's not easy to tip over it's got an insulated one liter cup it does have the pot support as well and so you can slip that onto the stove itself and use it to cook whatever you need to now for the downfalls on this one it does not have a regulator so unlike the mini mill you can't control the heat not great for cooking food it's a little bit bigger it's a little bit heavier and then it's also the least efficient of all the jet boil options for boiling just water on their site they have listed that it can boil 10 liters of water per 100 grams of fuel versus the rest are all 12 liters of water so in the long run on a multi-day trip that can add up already so that's a quick overview of these three different options now for me i look at this one as the best way to boil a lot of water quick so if you're going backpacking and you have a group this is going to be the quickest way to get multiple pots of water ready to go to make your dehydrated meals or your drinks it's not as great for cooking food so boiling water is its strong point this one is the best at cooking food and it's also you know still very good at warming up water but it's just a little bit heavier so i would be using this one primarily for or i do use this one primarily for car camping or backpacking trips where i want to actually cook something while i'm out there but if you had to choose just one this is going to be my choice and then lastly the stash this one because it's so light so compact this is going to be what i use for lightweight backpacking trips day hiking alpine climbing things like that when i want to stay super light and i'm still only looking to be warming up water for drinks and for meals all right so circling back the one other option that i didn't really talk about is the zip and they sell that one for i believe it's 85 so it's a lot less expensive and it's similar to the flash but it has a smaller cup and it does not have a built-in igniter so you'd have to carry a lighter with this one and you still don't get the regulator that the minimo has and so if you're on a budget and you're only looking to boil water this would be a good option otherwise i would go towards one of these three so one of the other reasons why i like the jetboil systems are the accessories that they they sell to go with them when i am car camping i will use this pan quite a bit i'll put it on top of the mini mill and it comes with a built-in spatula it's nice lightweight non-stick stick it right on top can cook up anything you want to in this pan then they also have these different java press options so all of their lids have holes in the top that these little rods fit down through they attach into the java press and then you've got yourself a coffee maker on the trail and so that's a cool option and they also have a couple of different pot sizes this is the one and a half liter big pot i use this for car camping primarily and i'll use it to make pasta or any meal that has large volume and i just need a little bit more space to combine things and stir things around they also sell these collapsible spatula fork and spoon which are super lightweight convenient and again i kind of just pair these up with my my pan and i usually use those when i'm at the car making food so now a few tips and considerations to keep in mind when you're using these one thing that i like to do is bring a small little chunk of sponge just cutting off the end of a like a scotch sponge and i'll keep that with my mess kit if i'm going to be cooking any sort of food and that way i have something to just kind of wipe out the inside of the pot when i'm done keep it clean for the next use the next tip is if you are going with multiple people and you have multiple jet boils i'd recommend just bringing one stove and fuel setup and then the second person just brings their cup and then that way you can just use the same stove save a little weight or if you want to go even lighter you can just split up the different pieces and so that you're sharing the load and then you just share the one stove system next tip is if you're going to be trying to warm things up or cook in windy conditions use your backpack or a log or rock or something to help guard the stove system from the wind you can also use like the dehydrated meal pouch and that just helps to keep the flame going up into your stove and heating your water or your food instead of just blowing off into the wind next tip is if you find yourself running a lot of these things down low and then you don't want to take them on another trip because you're worried you might run out you can buy a valve that you can connect to two different bottles and transfer the fuel across so that you don't have to carry multiple partial bottles the other option for that that i actually do is i just leave these ones at the car and then that way each time i'm making something out my car i just use one of the partial containers until it's completely gone another consideration is if you are going to be running the stove in cold weather these compressed fuel canisters don't perform as well they don't vaporize the fuel as easily and so keeping this thing nice and deep in your pack to where it can stay warm or just actively warming it in your side your sleeping bag or next to your body before you use it can help the efficiency and then if you're going to be using it to melt snow for water it is extremely helpful if you can add a little bit of water to that pile of snow in the pot just because the water is a little bit more conductive than the snow and so it'll help initiate that that melt process a little bit quicker and that's also because you don't want to run these stoves without water in the pots themselves all right guys if you want to learn more to go check out my website road2ridge.com and like always i'm going to throw the links to all these different options down in the description below so check them out and i hope you learned something if you have any other tips or trips throw them in the comments and thanks for watching have a good

Channel: Chase Christopher

Views: 179,850

Keywords: Jet Boil, Stash, Jetboil stash, jetboil minimo, jetboil, jetboil flash, msr, whisperlite, pocketrocket, pocket rocket, brs, brs3000, backpacking, hiking, camping, stove, lightweight stove, backpacking stove, camp stove, hiking stove, car camping, camp kitchen, camp cooking

Id: Ie-OYB4YWNg

Length: 12min 4sec (724 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021