Backpacking stoves solve a basic problem: You’ve just hiked several miles into the woods, you’re tired and hungry, and if you don’t have a hot meal you’ll throw a tantrum like a toddler who doesn’t get ice cream at the fair. Jetboil and MSR have a long history of addressing this predicament and both companies make iconic backpacking stoves. MSR’s Whisperlite set the standard for quiet, lightweight stoves in the ’80s, while Jetboil reinvented the “personal cooking system” with an emphasis on efficiency when they introduced their first stove in the early 2000s.
Both iconic brands recently introduced new stoves designed for the backcountry—the Jetboil Zip and the MSR Switch—so I decided to pit them against each other in a head-to-head test.
Jetboil Zip vs. MSR Switch: What You Need to Know
Both stoves are designed to be lightweight, compact cooktops for the backcountry, but they take slightly different approaches to accomplish the job. While they have similar aesthetics, the specs and features vary enough that you need to think about your priorities and how you like to cook while you’re backpacking before you make a purchase.
Neither the Zip or Switch would be considered ultralight by purists standards, but they’re plenty light and compact for backpackers who aren’t shaving the handles off of their toothbrushes. And both stoves are very packable, with a design that allows you to stack all of the parts, even the gas canisters, inside the main cooking pot. It’s a convenient approach that keeps everything you need for dinner in one spot. They’re also both easy to use thanks to intuitive systems that even beginner backpackers would have no problem understanding. Although, I did have a friend ruin a Jetboil once because he didn’t take the plastic protector off the bottom of the pot before trying to boil water. So make sure you do that.
Jetboil Zip: Straightforward, Efficient, But Not Versatile
The Jetboil Zip is basically the little brother to the popular Jetboil Flash cooking system. Instead of the Flash’s 1-liter volume, the Zip gives you a slightly more demure .8-liter volume, so it’s designed for a single backpacker cooking for themself. Like all Jetboils, the Zip is a water-boiling device, with a stove that’s designed specifically to be used with the pot.
The post MSR Switch vs. Jetboil Zip: Which Backpacking Stove Is Best? appeared first on Outside Online.
