The Happy Camper: Jetboil MiniMo Review
If you liked Jetboil’s Flash, you’ll love this season’s new MiniMo.
It’s a canister stove that can simmer. This means you can slow-cook an elaborate meal or do a full-on boil for a quick cup of java or to prepare of those pre-packaged meals. It’s a perfect fusion, especially if you’re trying to go on a multi-day lightweight backpacking trip. The stove and cooking pot weigh only 442 grams.
A regulator and valve, similar to what you’d find on one of those old suitcase-sized Coleman camp stoves, is what gives the MiniMo the ability to simmer. You’ll have to turn the fuel valve open one or two turns to ignite the burner, something that you’ll have to get used to in the first couple days of using the stove. It’s definitely not a negative characteristic of the stove, however. It’s a huge bonus.
The MiniMo comes complete with the normal heat retention fins, lid with strainer and drinking spout, cup and/or bowl and a push-button piezo ignition. The stove and a small fuel canister are stored inside the cook stove—but this time the fuel canister stand fits into the lid rather than the bottom of the pot. The collapsible metal handles are a welcome addition. So is the MiniMo’s shorter and wider diameter. There is lots of room for spooning out your food and gone are the days of trying to scrape out charred remains of food stuck to the bottom of the pot. I found the stove a lot more stable as well.
(This may be a moot point to some, but I really like the choice of wrap colours and patterns. The tartan is my favourite.)
Boil time is a mere two minutes 15 seconds per half-litre of water (I found it to be faster than that). The fuel consumption is rated at 12 litres of water boiled per 100-gram/four-ounce (small size) fuel canister. I’ve used the stove on three backpacking trips this fall. A couple of them were three nights and one was seven. For each of the short trips, I used up one small fuel canister and for the longer trip I went through a small and most of a large canister. It was cold on all three trips, increasing fuel consumption.
I have little doubt you’d enjoy either upgrading your Jetboil cook stove or trying this system for the first time by purchasing ($120) the Jetboil MiniMo. It’s already packed for my next backpacking trip scheduled for the beginning of November.
