The most important thing about hiking is being prepared. You need to know what equipment suits the journey you are going to embark on, and money should be no object when it’s your life on the line.
A means to boil water is a must if you want to eat.
What Does The Jetboil Do?
Having the means to boil water is ultimately what is going to allow you to eat on a longer expedition.
When embarking on a trip that is potentially over a day of hiking you need more than just dry protein bars and candy.
If you have a gas stove you can make a whole host of hot meals and drinks, the perfect reward after a hard day.
Yet, carrying around a full gas stove can seriously affect your pack weight. More so, these gas stoves can often take a long time to cook things as well as boiling water.
That’s not even mentioning the level of cutlery you might have to bring and the amount of washing up to do, this should be the last thing on your mind when hiking.
Jetboil creates gas stoves that are light, can boil water very quickly, and don’t take up much space in your bag.
Jetboil can boil water in under 2 minutes 30 seconds which saves a lot of time when hiking, just one more thing you don’t need to think about. Today we are going to compare the Jetboil Flash and the Jetboil MiniMo, which have slightly different purposes.
Water Capacity
To know which product can suit your purposes best, water capacity is a good place to start. If you are on your own you may prioritize pack weight over water capacity, or vice versa if you are with other people.
So, you may be happy to learn that water capacity isn’t really an issue with these Jetboil products, specifically, as they both have a water capacity of 1 liter or 33.8 fl oz.
Even if you are with more people, considering how quick they both boil water, you can still boil the water capacity twice in around 5 minutes.
Boiling Time
Although, while their capacity stays the same they boil this volume of water with different speeds.
While both will boil water in under 2 minutes 30 seconds, most tests show that the Jetboil Flash will almost always boil water in less time, averaging 2 minutes and even under in most tests.
Yet, the Jetboil MiniMo averages around 2 minutes 15 seconds in the same tests.
If speed is something that is important to you, then this is worth consideration.
Boiling water in a domestic setting can take anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes so being able to boil water in under 3 minutes is still pretty impressive. In cold conditions these times can vary.
All in all, it can be said that the Jetboil Flash has a more efficient gas burner than the MiniMo, yet the MiniMo remains more versatile in application.
Weight
Both products are a similar weight, but if you are embarking on a long journey, your pack weight will always come down to a numbers game.
If weight is seriously important to you, neither of these Jetboil products are technically considered ‘lightweight’ anymore.
- Optimized for efficiency, the Jetboil Flash boils water in a lightning-quick 100 seconds, making it the fastest Jetboil ever.
- Jetboil's 1-liter FluxRing cooking cup with insulating cozy makes boiling water—and keeping it warm—a breeze.
- Start heating instantly with the convenient, reliable pushbutton igniter, and verify that the water's ready with the thermochromatic color-change heat indicator.
- Compatible Jetboil accessories, such as a coffee press, hanging kit, pot support, skillet, FluxRing cooking pot, and utensils make this a necessity for your next backpacking adventure.
- Includes fuel canister stabilizer; bottom cup doubles as measuring cup and a bowl; easy to pack and carry at only 13.1 ounces. One-year limited warranty.
They are certainly much lighter than the full camping stove set up of the past, but Jetboil have been surpassed when it comes to the lightweight cooking stoves.
The Jetboil Flash weighs around 13.1 oz and the Jetboil MiniMo is around an oz and a half heavier at 14.6 oz. If you are set on Jetboil’s products, then the Flash is one of their lighter stoves.
While their weight doesn’t differ that greatly, it can certainly be said that the MiniMo is a lot more compact than the Flash in terms of taking up space in your pack.
However, there are much lighter stoves out there such as the MSR Pocket Rocket, as you can tell by the name this is very compact and lightweight at around 10 oz which is pretty negligible.
Yet, Jetboil will boil your water faster by almost a minute.
Versatility
This is where the two Jetboil products will really go head-to-head in terms of applicable usage and defining features.
While the Jetboil Flash is purely designed to boil water, the Jetboil MiniMo has a dual use for both boiling water but also for small cooking purposes.
This is mainly down to a heat regulator valve that allows you to control the flame quite accurately.
While this is somewhat possible on the Jetboil Flash, it is mainly created for boiling water. The Jetboil MiniMo is quite specifically dual designed for both applications.
- Powered by FluxRing technology, the MiniMo camping and backpacking stove cooking system, in Adventure, reaches a rolling boil in just over two minutes with half the fuel consumption of traditional systems.
- Jetboil's proprietary regulator technology offers incremental heat adjustments from light simmer to full boil, perfect for sautéing greens, simmering sauces, and more.
- Metal handles and a redesigned FluxRing cooking cup—optimized for a low spoon angle—make the MiniMo the perfect vessel for personal cooking and eating right out of the cup.
- Start heating instantly with the convenient, reliable pushbutton igniter; save pack space with the clever sideways burner storage design.
- Includes: MiniMo Camping Cook System (stove, cooking cup, lid, bottom cover, fuel can stabilizer, pot support); Instructions. *JetPower fuel sold separately. One-year limited warranty.
This is noticeable in the vessel that the MiniMo uses. While it still has a capacity of 1 liter, the MiniMo has a shallower and wider vessel that is perfect for eating food from.
With the MiniMo’s dual application you can boil water super quickly but also regulate the heat to simmer vegetables and heat other food items within the vessel.
If you want to expand your mountainside cooking abilities beyond rehydrating meal packs, then this could be worth a look in.
Moreover, the MiniMo includes some other useful additions to the design that accentuate this application.
Namely, there is a cover for the gas which doubles up as a bowl, saving you space in your pack.
The vessel itself also has a helpful cozy to keep your hand comfortable and warm but also a handle to eat directly from the vessel like a mug – super helpful.
Design
We have already discussed that the vessel is slightly different in the MiniMo than it is in the Flash, but how else do their designs differ?
Both interestingly also have Jetboil’s self ignition button. This self ignition button creates a small spark that ignites the flame you need for heating.
Most reports suggest this work in most situations, although there are always some customer reports of it malfunctioning and struggling to work in windy conditions.
Both will struggle to light or stay lit in extremely windy conditions. We always suggest bringing a spare lighter or matches with you just in case it refuses to work, you can still eat.
This is how Jetboils original products such as the Jetboil Zip work.
As you can adjust the flame quite harshly on the Jetboil MiniMo, some customers report that this can cause the plastic parts around the flame, and even the cozy itself, to melt or burn.
This seems to be down to both a bad design as well as user error, but can be a troublesome design flaw. We would rather this part was made from metal.
One thing worth noting on the Flash is that it has a color changing indicator to tell you when the water is boiled.
This is pretty gimmicky, there is almost no use for it. It’s pretty clear when your water has boiled in nearly all Jetboil products so this addition is fun at most.
Our Verdict
Both these camping stoves are pretty good, Jetboil is definitely the leader in the market for creating a gas stove that is reasonably priced and can boil water in under 2 minutes 30 seconds, which both these products can.
If pack weight matters to you, they remain fairly even. The Flash is lighter, while the MiniMo is a little more compact and takes up less space in your pack.
- Optimized for efficiency, the Jetboil Flash boils water in a lightning-quick 100 seconds, making it the fastest Jetboil ever.
- Jetboil's 1-liter FluxRing cooking cup with insulating cozy makes boiling water—and keeping it warm—a breeze.
- Start heating instantly with the convenient, reliable pushbutton igniter, and verify that the water's ready with the thermochromatic color-change heat indicator.
- Compatible Jetboil accessories, such as a coffee press, hanging kit, pot support, skillet, FluxRing cooking pot, and utensils make this a necessity for your next backpacking adventure.
- Includes fuel canister stabilizer; bottom cup doubles as measuring cup and a bowl; easy to pack and carry at only 13.1 ounces. One-year limited warranty.
Yet, neither products are that lightweight in consideration of the market, there are other stoves that are much lighter and compact but don’t boil water as quickly.
At the end of the day, these two products have slightly different, if interchangeable, purposes.
The MiniMo is clearly designed to both boil water and also accommodate some cooking practices. This is inline with the stoves design which includes shallower vessels to eat from.
In comparison the Jetboil Flash has a more singular application for boiling water, although you could cook in the same vessel, in theory.
If you just want a gas stove to boil water and eat dehydrated packs of food, then the Jetboil Flash is a good product to achieve that.
The Flash could boil water in around 100 seconds in the right conditions. The MiniMo takes around 2 minutes to boil water.
Reading some customer reports, you can see there are some design flaws on the MiniMo that can be annoying, whereas the Flash has much fewer reports of melting materials.
- Powered by FluxRing technology, the MiniMo camping and backpacking stove cooking system, in Adventure, reaches a rolling boil in just over two minutes with half the fuel consumption of traditional systems.
- Jetboil's proprietary regulator technology offers incremental heat adjustments from light simmer to full boil, perfect for sautéing greens, simmering sauces, and more.
- Metal handles and a redesigned FluxRing cooking cup—optimized for a low spoon angle—make the MiniMo the perfect vessel for personal cooking and eating right out of the cup.
- Start heating instantly with the convenient, reliable pushbutton igniter; save pack space with the clever sideways burner storage design.
- Includes: MiniMo Camping Cook System (stove, cooking cup, lid, bottom cover, fuel can stabilizer, pot support); Instructions. *JetPower fuel sold separately. One-year limited warranty.
As the MiniMo has a better control of heat through its adjustable valve, you can easily use this to cook food, simmer water instead of boiling, and also eat out of it thanks to nifty design features.
Neither product is necessarily better than the other. In terms of boiling water as its singular purpose, the Jetboil Flash is a great purchase.
If you want to cook more and have a more versatile gas stove, then the Jetboil MiniMo is worth considering.
