diff --git a/install_minimal/airtime-install b/install_minimal/airtime-install
index 77a5001f8..b962ec5c6 100755
--- a/install_minimal/airtime-install
+++ b/install_minimal/airtime-install
@@ -44,12 +44,10 @@ set -e
 
 # Need to ensure monit is running before Airtime daemons are run. This is
 # so we can ensure they can register with monit to monitor them when they start.
-/etc/init.d/monit start
+# If monit is already running, this step is still useful as we need monit to
+# reload its config files.
+/etc/init.d/monit restart
 
-# We may have updated the monit config files, and monit was already running.
-# In this case the previous "start" command didn't do anything, and we need
-# to reload the config files instead.
-/etc/init.d/monit force-reload
 
 echo -e "\n*** API Client Installation ***"
 python ${SCRIPTPATH}/../python_apps/api_clients/install/api_client_install.py