The Jetboil MiniMo debuted on the market in 2014, and is still a popular backpacking, hiking, and camping cooking system to this day. And like all well received, outdoor gear, the internet has a ton of questions about this lightweight stove. I’ll step in and answer some of the more frequent of these, that I’ve seen out there. In part 1 of this series – Basic Operations – I go through what comes with the package when you buy it, assembly for use, instructions on use, use with other pots and pans, and disassembly and repacking to fit back in your pack.
Related: Check out my review of the Jetboil MiniMo after having used it for a couple hiking/camping seasons!
What Comes With the Jetboil MiniMo
The Jetboil MiniMo cooking system comes with the following items: 1L cooking pot with cozy and rubber insulated handles, soft plastic, heat resistant lid for sipping and pouring, hard plastic bowl for mixing and eating, stove assembly with onboard igniter and flame adjusting knob, stove attachment to make it compatible with other pots and skillets, soft bag to hold stove and stove attachment inside the pot when storing, which may also be able to double as a small cooking mitt, and a foldout plastic stand to attach a small or medium sized fuel canister to, which stores inside the lid.
How To Use a Jetboil MiniMo
How To Set Up and Light a Jetboil MiniMo
- Remove the lid from the pot. Simply pull it off the top.
- Remove the stove and stove adapter from the inside of the pot. They are in the pull-string bag when you first get your stove.
- Decouple the hard plastic cup from the pot. You will have to twist the cup until the notches in the pot line up with the recess notches in cup; then you can pull the two apart.
- Remove the fuel canister stabilizing stand from the inside of the lid. It’s just held in place by some snap-together notches.
- Unfold the stabilizing stand.
- Determine the appropriate notches on the stabilizing stand that works with your size fuel canister. The 100g canisters (or 110g from other companies) will use the inner notches.
- Insert the rim of the canister into one of the appropriate stand notches. It’s best to hold the canister bottom flat against the stand to facilitate it sliding and clicking into place. Once this is accomplished, inserting the canister’s rim into the other notches is easier. Do not try to insert the rim into all three notches at once, or the canister will seem like it doesn’t fit the stand.
- Fold the flame and fuel rate control handle on the stove assembly outward, away from the inner portion of it. Do not skip this step, and couple the gas canister with the stove, otherwise you will have to undo your work to accomplish this necessary step. This handle is the thin gauge wire attached to the knob, that you use to determine how much heat your pot should be receiving, during cooking.
- Make sure the o-ring on the stove’s screw mechanism is in place, then screw the stove onto the canister, past the point where you hear momentary fuel leakage, and until you encounter some mild to moderate resistance from the o-ring’s friction against the canister’s port. Do not over-tighten.
- If you are planning on using the MiniMo pot, go ahead and fold out the pot handles away from its body, and couple it with the stove. Find the notches on the side of the lower part of the outside of the pot, and insert them into the notch holes on the top of the stove assembly. The pot should slide down into the stove assembly with some mild friction. Once fully inserted, you can grab the lower section of the stove assembly (the black plastic area) with your left hand, and twist the pot clockwise with your right hand on the pot’s handle to lock it onto the stove. Do not twist it all the way down the notch run or it will be difficult to uncouple later. Just twist it enough to get some mild resistance. Note: the manufacture’s instructions call for you to light the stove before accomplishing this step, but doing so just wastes fuel while you fumble with twisting the pot on. Just make sure there is water or food in the pot before lighting it.
- Add water or food to your pot.
- Light the stove. To do this twist the fuel control handle counterclockwise a significant ways – maybe a good half to full turn – then press the igniter button until it clicks. Make sure the stove lights after this. If it does not, and you’re quick enough, press the igniter button a second time. However the longer you wait, the more fuel pours out of the stove; igniting the stove after waiting too long – just a matter of several second’s time – risks creating a fireball that will burn your hand you are using to press the igniter button, or worse. If you waited too long, or smell fuel, twist the fuel control handle clockwise back to the off position and give the air time to clear the excessive fuel. Blow air towards the burner to encourage the excess fuel to leave and dilute itself. When in doubt, do not double tap the igniter; just clear the fuel in the air and repeat the process.
- When the stove is lit, you can toggle the heat up or down using the fuel control handle. Generally you waste less fuel letting the pot slowly heat up, versus blasting it with a high flame for a quicker heating time.
- If you are not watching the pot and the food or water boils over, sometimes this douses the flame and you have to turn the fuel flow off and repeat the lighting process. Do not attempt to turn the stove down while the contents are boiling over, or you risk getting burned. Just let it happen then deal with the clean up afterwards. It’s easier to clean with a unburned hand, than a burnt one.
- Do not use the heat resistant lid while cooking; you can however put it on afterwards.
- Once you’ve boiled your water or cooked your food, turn the stove off.
- To unhook the pot from the stove, test to make sure the lower section of the stove assembly is not hot. If it is not, then grab it with your left hand, and twist the pot counterclockwise with your right hand on the pot handle, until you feel than the pot can come away from the stove. Sometimes you can forego holding onto the stove while twisting the pot, as long as the stove doesn’t twist alongside it as you apply your twisting force.
- Once your pot is loose, do not attempt to place it back into the hard plastic bowl, the way you do when stowing it. The bottom is still hot and it will melt it.
How To Use a Jetboil MiniMo With Other Pots
Your Jetboil MiniMo comes with a stove attachment that must be coupled with the stove in order to use it with other pots. Do not place pots directly on the stove when cooking; you must use the attachment.
In order to couple the attachment to the stove, you must first twist the pot feet outward, until they are sitting perpendicular with the perimeter of it (from an overhead profile perspective), and look like they could naturally receive a pot. Only then can you lower the attachment down onto the stove assembly and twist it to lock in place.
These pot feet, on their lower sides, have thin slits that sit on the rim of the stove assembly. Lower the attachment down onto the stove in such manner, then twist it clockwise until the small tabs next to these slits slide under the vertically placed bubble tabs on the inside of the stove’s rim, so that the attachment is locked into place.
Once in place, proceed with the normal lighting and cooking process as explained above. Other pots and pans naturally won’t lock onto the stove like the dedicated MiniMo pot does.
How To Take the Jetboil MiniMo Pot Off the Stove
To decouple the MiniMo pot from the stove assembly, start by feeling that the lower part of the assembly (black plastic area) is not hot. If not, hold that area while gripping the pot handles and twisting the pot counterclockwise. Once you’ve twisted it as far as it can go (usually just a 1/4th inch, but if you’ve accidentally over tightened it, it could be as much as 3/4ths of an inch), pull vertically upward and the pot should lift away from the stove.
You can try to twist the pot off without touching the lower black area of the stove assembly, in an attempt to not touch anything hot, but doing so might risk unscrewing the stove from the gas can as you twist. You’re more likely to get away with this method if you initially didn’t over tighten the pot onto the stove.
How To Take the Jetboil MiniMo Stove Off the Gas Canister
As far as removing the stove assembly from the gas can, first make sure the stove is not hot, and make sure you’ve removed either the pot or stove attachment (used for cooking with other pots and pans). Then just twist the stove counterclockwise with one hand, while holding the gas canister with the other, past where you hear the momentary gas release, and further until the two pieces are no longer screwed together.
How To Pack the Jetboil MiniMo
Once you’ve unmarried the MiniMo pot from the stove assembly, and the stove assembly from the gas canister, per the instructions directly above, and further have everything clean, you’re ready to pack up your stove to put back in your pack. This is how to do so:
- Refold the wired, fuel rate control handle back under the stove assembly, making sure it is in the ‘off’ position before doing so. The off position is when it will not twist anymore clockwise. It should fold neatly around the screw mechanism on the bottom of the stove with just one flip.
- If you were using the stove accessory piece, to accommodate pots other than the MiniMo pot, you would twist it counterclockwise to unlock its tabs from the bubble tabs on the rim of the stove, and pull it away from the stove. Then twist the pot holding feet back in, towards the rim of the unit, to make it ready to stow.
- Place the stove accessory piece on top of the stove assembly, loosely, and put these back in the soft cloth, draw string baggie. Pull the strings on the baggie, such that no part of the stove is exposed, to protect the inside of the pot from metal on metal wear. Put the baggie inside the stove.
- Divorce the gas canister from it’s plastic stand, by unclipping the three holding tabs on the stand from the rim of the canister, one at a time. Fold the stand back into its triangle position and clip inside the triangle recess in the lid with the flat side down such that the lid’s clips hold it properly.
- Place the lit on the pot.
- Line up the tab entry recesses on the bottom of the pot with the plastic tabs along the rim of the hard plastic bowl and press the pot into this. Twist either the pot or bowl to move the bowl’s tabs away from the tab entry recesses, so that the bowl is married with the bottom of the pot.
- Fold the pot handles back towards the body of the pot if you haven’t already done so. You are now ready to stow your Jetboil MiniMo cook system in your pack.
- The current Jetboil MiniMo cook system pot cannot hold both a gas canister, and the stove, so stow your canister separately.
Further Reading
Thanks for reading my article on how to use the Jetboil MiniMo!
Check out part 2 of this series – Field Operation – and part 3 – Accessories – for more answered questions from around the internet! I also ran some experimental physics type experiments on my MiniMo to figure out its fuel efficiency in a standardized manner. And if you need to know just about anything about the Jetboil Fuel needed to run your stove, check out that article here.
Or visit my camping gear and hiking gear pages for gear hauls and reviews.