Canning Lid Failure Test

In the past two years, learning the art and craft of home canning has really gained interest across the globe. With this surge of new interest, many suppliers could not keep up with demand. Couple this with a downturn in the economy, logistical issues and the cost of raw materials skyrocketing causing an increase in the cost of goods and consumer products, and you have the perfect storm for supply shortages! And home canners have definitely felt this pain!

Our biggest issue continues to be finding Ball brand canning lids in stores. And when we can find this brand available online, the pricing was exorbitant, leaving the buyer to suffer severe price-gouging. We also started to see new canning lid manufacturers surface, many of whom were from China. Sadly, most of these unknowns created inferior non-sealing canning lids. This left canners with the task of making some very hard decisions.

Many canners were forced to save and reuse their one-time-use canning lids, thankfully, many did so with great success. Others, felt the pain of being bamboozled by unethical marketing schemes believing they were purchasing Ball brand canning lids, only to receive a cheap knock-off product. Others transitioned to Tattler Reusable Canning lids, but for some, the price was too high when they tallied up the amount of jars they process each year, so it was a short-term solution.

Thankfully, there were some wonderful canning lid manufacturers who emerged while Newell Rubbermaid Corp, owner of the Ball brand, worked to restock their lid supplies. Many of us know this is an ongoing effort to supply stores because you will see us celebrating when we actually find Ball lids on a store shelf! But what about the others?

While we have grown accustomed to using Ball products, this experience has shown us it is not smart for canners and food preservers to put all our eggs in one basket.

But which brand do we trust to keep our precious home canned
goods safe during long-term storage?

As canners, we cannot afford to purchase lids that do not seal!

Believe it or not, there are several canning lid manufacturers who have made an exceptional product over the years, we simply did not hear much about them until this crisis!  Before I share with you the results of my canning lid failure test, here is a list of manufacturers with links to their websites:

List of Canning Lid Manufacturers

Updated: February 11, 2022 with newly learned information

1. Pur Health Group (Made Internationally, located in USA) Sold only in Ace Hardware Stores. They make jars as well as lids/rings.
2. North Mountain Supply (Made in USA) Sold on Amazon and their website. They manufacture supplies for beer, wine and kumbucha as well as canning lids and jars. These lids are all in one, and do not require you to purchase separate lids or rings. I am still testing their ability to be reused. Sold in bulk (72 lids) and available in silver or gold.
3. Newell Rubbermaid (Made Internationally, located in USA and Internationally) In 2015, Newell Rubbermaid purchased Jarden Corporation, who owned the Ball and Kerr brand. Newell Rubbermaid also owns the Golden Harvest brand, who we see for sale on Amazon and in discount stores like Dollar General. (Update: The Ball/Kerr brand purchase by Newell Rubbermaid refers to jars. The lids manufacture, owned by joint venture Ball Metalpack, was recently purchased by Sonoco on January 27, 2022. Sonoco is an international packaging company, and it is unclear if operations for Ball brand canning lids will remain in the USA.)
4. Tattler Reusable Canning Lids (Made in USA) I am proud to say this patented technology is manufactured right here in my home State of Michigan. And, I am a new wholesaler, so expect to see these lids for sale on my website Spring 2022! These lids are namely available on their website for purchase and at Walmart.
5. Denali Canning (Made Internationally, located in the USA) A family owned business based in NJ, who is presently manufacturing in China but has plans to move manufacturing to USA in late 2022/early 2023. I presently sell these lids at a discount on my website.
6. Orchard Road (Made in USA) Only sold on Amazon and eBay. I have used these lids in the past (2017) with great success and no failures (I still have jars of food sealed with this lid in my pantry) to date but did not include this lid in my recent test because I am out of stock. Also, they do not have a company website.

Canning Lid Failure Test

For this test, I chose to use my Presto digital pressure canner to preserve Pineapple Chunks. While you may easily water bath pineapple, you may also pressure can it, which works wonderfully if you have a tall 23-Quart canner with a second flat rack, permitting you to preserve upwards of 18 pints at a time. Purposefully, I wanted to pressure can the lids to test their durability using a higher temperature than boiling water.

Canning Lid Brands Used

1. Ball
2. Denali
3. North Mountain Supply
4. Golden Harvest

Processing Time: 10 minutes at 15 psi

Jar and Lid Description: 20 pints; Regular and Wide mouth; 5 jars of each lid brand

Batches: 3 separate

Results:

EVERY LID SEALED!

I was shocked, happy and thankful when each batch I preserved produced a positive result. What I found was the Norther Mountain Supply brand sealed the quickest, while all of the others sealed within minutes of removing from the canner. Not a single lid gave me the “three hour scare” – which is when a lid or two seem to wait until the 3-hour threshold to finally seal, giving us cause to worry we may need to pop an unsealed jar in the refrigerator.

Now, while I fully understand this was a small sampling of brands, and I only tested five lids of each brand, I made sure to randomly fill each canner batch with a mix of the four brands. I did this because it resembles what happens in real-life while canning in our home kitchens. We will get down to one lid of a particular brand, then have to open a box of another brand, because that is what we could get our hands on to continue canning. No longer do we have the luxury of having just one brand to fill our canning supply needs.

My goal is to keep using a mixture of lids and tracking my results. My next canning recipes will include the use of a water bather and a traditional stove-top canner because I do find by using my digital pressure canner, my lid failures are less as are my siphoning issues. I believe this is due to the digital canner’s ability to maintain an even temperature (PSI) throughout the entire processing time whereas it is much more difficult to do with a stove-top canner.

So, could all of these lids have sealed because I used a digital pressure canner versus a traditional canner? Possibly. It is for this reason I will perform another canning lid failure test using a full, double-stacked traditional 23-Quart canner using a mixture of the above four brands. Until then, please feel confident using the brands listed above.

Will we completely eradicate canning lid failures? Sadly, no. But we will make it our goal to greatly lessen them – and these four brands will help you do so!

Happy Canning!
xo
Diane, The Canning Diva®
www.canningdiva.com