![]() ![]() Fold-out handles on the pot are also convenient and make pouring easy (now if only the spout on the lid really worked). As a nice two-for-one, the plastic bottom cover that protects the pot’s flux ring serves as a handy bowl, although it cracked after a month in the pack. Once you’ve carried the MiniMo to your backcountry campsite, you’ll find several convenience features. A 4-ounce canister nests inside with the burner when placed sideways, but the MiniMo’s pot lid still doesn’t lock tight. Put a standard 8-ounce fuel canister in the pot with the burner and you can’t secure the lid. Since at least one fuel canister is needed on any trip, many stove pots are designed to conveniently nest a canister, but not the MiniMo. The MiniMo’s svelte 5″ x 6″ figure sounds attractive, but packability is more complex than simply considering size. Packability is the other important factor when considering an alpine stove. On long trips, the amount of additional fuel could be significant.Ī 4oz canister and the burner fit nicely in the MiniMo’s pot (but not so with an 8oz canister). I believe that considerable heat is lost between burner and pot even in light winds, which translates into more fuel being needed, which means more weight to carry. Lacking a laboratory to test those claims, but having field experience with the MiniMo in Alaska and the North Cascades this summer, I can say this about it: It doesn’t perform as well as the MSR Reactor’s nested burner and pot design in even moderate winds–it frequently blows out. Read each company’s touts about its stoves and they’ll give figures that show how their stoves are superior. But system weight only tells a partial story on any trip long enough for more than one fuel canister, as system efficiency determines how many canisters you’ll need to bring, which translates into extra weight. ![]() The MiniMo appears ahead of its chief rival, the 14.7-ounce 1.0L MSR Reactor, by an ounce. But the question remains: Is the MiniMo the best choice among fuel canister heat-exchange stoves? Unless you are planning an expedition or big group trip where you need lots of fuel, a stove like the MiniMo is the better weight and volume choice. Compare the MiniMo’s 14.6 ounces to the workhorse liquid-fuel MSR Whisperlite International’s 15.2 ounces, which doesn’t include fuel bottle weight. These stoves are meant for boiling water.īeyond boiling efficiency, heat-exchanger stoves find savings in weight and size. While one of the sales points of the MiniMo is that it provides effective temperature regulation, having used it to boil a variety of pastas and grains, if you want to simmer, look for a different style of stove than the high-efficiency heat-exchange varieties. ![]() That efficiency is great when you’re looking for the quick, just-add-water kinds of meals eaten in the alpine, but if you do anything more sophisticated–even boiling pasta–you better watch for burning. Even with hands cupped around the burner, you won’t be burned. Put your hand next to one of these stoves while they’re burning, and you’ll instantly note that efficiency. Like its chief competitor, the MSR Reactor, the Jetboil MiniMo utilizes an efficient heat transfer system between the burner and pot. Although the MiniMo offers some nice features–such as enhanced simmer control–it is as if Powerbar put its Oatmeal Raisin brick in a new bag and tried to pass it off as an innovation. The MiniMo, slimmed down to 14.6 ounces and 5″ x 6″ dimensions, is likely an effort to appeal to alpine climbers. The Jetboil MiniMo is another version of Jetboil’s original innovative–but now outdated–stove design. They are also similar since each has failed to continue to innovate and over time has seen its market share dwindle as competitors entered the market with new and better products. Aside from the fact that they are all related to food, they are also similar since each was, in its day, an innovator. Jetboil reminds me a lot of Powerbars and Red Bull. ![]()
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