Big Green Egg
Big Green Egg MiniMax
The Big Green Egg MiniMax packs the full ceramic kamado experience into a 19.5-inch-tall tabletop cooker that ships with its own carrier. It's the Egg for balconies, tailgates, and campsites - same 750°F ceiling, a quarter of the footprint.
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Specifications
Features
Pros
- ✓Full kamado performance in a tabletop body - it sears steaks at 700°F+ and holds 250°F for ribs just like the big Eggs
- ✓The only Egg that includes its stand: the wraparound carrier with side handles is part of the package, not a $235 nest add-on
- ✓Unlike the smaller Mini, the dome has room for a convEGGtor, so true indirect smoking and baking are on the menu
- ✓133 sq in genuinely feeds one to three people - a spatchcocked chicken, six burgers, or two thick ribeyes fit fine
- ✓Tiny fire bowl means tiny fuel bills - a few handfuls of lump runs a full cook with charcoal left over
- ✓At 19.5 inches tall it rides upright in an SUV trunk, and tailgaters call it the most-used cooker they own
- ✓Same thick ceramic and lifetime warranty as the four-figure sizes - this isn't a cheapened entry model
- ✓Perfect 5.0 owner rating, and like every Egg it holds resale value unusually well
Cons
- ✗$850 is real money for 133 sq in - the worst price-per-square-inch in the Egg family; you're paying for portability
- ✗Kamado Joe's Joe Jr. offers a similar tabletop kamado with a bit more grate for roughly half the price
- ✗'Portable' is relative: 76 lbs of ceramic is a firm two-person carry, not a picnic tote
- ✗One Boston butt or one chicken is the ceiling - hosting anything beyond a small dinner means cooking in shifts
- ✗The squat dome puts food close to the fire, so tall roasts are out and pizza edges need watching
- ✗Accessories add up fast - convEGGtor, a nest to get it off the table, and a cover are all extra
- ✗The small fire bowl holds less lump than a Large, so very long unattended smokes need a careful, full load
- ✗All the usual kamado homework applies: lump charcoal, vent-control learning curve, and zero built-in tech
Owner Insightssummarized from owner discussions
The MiniMax is a full ceramic kamado shrunk to a tabletop, and the owners who like it most are usually the ones who already have a bigger Egg. The pattern in the long-term threads is consistent: someone buys a Large or a 2XL, adds a MiniMax, and then finds they use the small one as much as the big one, because most cooking is a weeknight dinner for two rather than a party. Households of one describe it as simply the right size. It is not a limited cooker either; owners run burgers, chicken and steaks on it, use it as a smoker and a baking oven, and put pork butts of seven and eight pounds in without trouble. One detail that says a lot about the hardware: owners of Primo and Kamado Joe kamados buy the MiniMax vent cap to replace their own, because it actually holds a setting.
The portability claim deserves scrutiny. It is the only Egg you can realistically move, and owners have taken theirs camping and lived with one in a camper, but it is not light. Assembled it runs around 80 lbs, owners call moving it alone cumbersome rather than easy, and one points out that it stops being portable the moment you add a convEGGtor and accessories. That convEGGtor is close to mandatory, not optional, and it is an extra cost people either pay or improvise around with a pizza stone. The size ceiling is where owners actually run into trouble. A whole brisket does not fit, and people are restricted to about a four pound piece before the lid stops closing. The advice that comes back is to stop treating it as a brisket cooker, smoke for around three hours at 250°F and finish wrapped in the oven, because the alternative is the dry thick end that shows up in thread after thread.
It suits one or two people who want ceramic cooking without a ceramic-sized patio, and it suits existing Egg owners as a second cooker for quick meals and side searing. The honest caveat is the value proposition: owners note it costs about the same as a Medium Egg, so you are paying for the compact body and the carrier rather than for capacity. Buy new rather than used if you can, because the warranty that makes those prices tolerable does not transfer between owners, and several owners have leaned on it. If portability is genuinely the only reason you are looking, owners suggest weighing a lighter portable grill alongside it rather than assuming the MiniMax solves that problem.
What owners like
- +It does everything the big Eggs do at a quarter of the size: owners run burgers, chicken, hot dogs and steaks on it, then use it as a smoker and a baking oven, and a 7 to 8 lb pork butt fits without drama
- +Owners who also have a Large or a 2XL keep reaching for it. Several report using the MiniMax as often as the big Egg, with the small one handling weeknight dinners and both coming out for Thanksgiving
- +For one or two people it is the right size rather than a compromise. Single-person households describe it as perfect, and couples call it gold for quick cooks
- +Its vent cap is good enough that owners of other kamados buy it: Primo and Kamado Joe Jr owners report replacing their own loose daisy wheels with a MiniMax rEGGulator and finally getting a setting that holds
- +The warranty is used and it works. One owner is on his second MiniMax base and third base for his Large across five years, all replaced quickly without argument, which takes some of the sting out of the new price
- +It is the only genuinely transportable Egg, and owners have taken theirs camping and lived with one in a camper while working on the road
Common complaints
- −The portability is oversold. It runs around 76 to 85 lbs assembled, owners describe it as cumbersome to shift alone, and one points out bluntly that it stops being light the moment you add a convEGGtor and a couple of accessories
- −A whole brisket will not fit. Owners are limited to roughly a four pound piece before the lid will not close, and the standard advice is to smoke it for about three hours at 250°F, then wrap and finish it in the oven
- −Dry brisket is the recurring failure on it. Owners report good bark and a moist thin end with the thick end dried out, largely because a small cut spends too long in the chamber to reach texture
- −The convEGGtor is effectively mandatory rather than optional, and it is a real additional cost. Owners say they would not be without it, and some resort to improvising with a pizza stone
- −The dome thermometer's gauge intrudes into a chamber that does not have room to spare, and owners cooking large cuts ask about removing it entirely and running a wireless probe instead
- −Accessories are hard to get outside the US. Owners in Australia and the UK report that the specialist suppliers will not ship overseas and that Big Green Egg's own MiniMax range is thin, which limits what you can add to it
Common Questions
Is it really portable?
Can you cook a brisket on it?
Is the MiniMax a good first or only Egg?
Do I need the convEGGtor?
Should I buy one used?
What actually fits on it?
Compare the Big Green Egg MiniMax
The Big Green Egg MiniMax is one of 7 sizes in this line.
See every size, to scale →Related grills
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A 13-inch grid and 133 sq in in a tall, narrow 80 lb body. It shares its cooking area with the MiniMax but not its shape: the Small is a conventional standing Egg meant to live on a nest or in a table, where the MiniMax is a squat carry-handle model built to travel. At $699.99 it is the cheapest full-shape Egg.
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