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Broken Jars

4.1K views 41 replies 28 participants last post by  America's Patriot  
#1 ·
We canned some pickles today-cucumbers right out of the garden. We had a jar break on the second load.

I got to thinking about it and over the years, we have had several jars break both in a water bath and in a pressure canner. The thing that sticks out is that most of the jars that have broken have been Golden Harvest. I would say on a 10 to 1 ratio.

I was just wondering I'd anyone else has had a similar experience with Golden Harvest or any other brand.
 
#3 ·
I can honestly say that I have never had a jar break in either water bath or pressure canner. I only have very few Golden Harvest, most Bernardin and a few Ball.

Think I'll stick to those brands after hearing what you've experienced with Golden Harvest and use the few I do have to store dry goods in.

Thanks for letting us know your experience with them.
 
#8 ·
Mainstay is the Walmart brand. Run, don't walk, away from them. Orchard Road, available in some markets, is another one to avoid completely. They are made in China and they are a lot thinner.

Golden Harvest is made by Jarden, the same company that makes Ball, Kerr and Bernardin. However, they are the lower end of the quality scale from what I can tell and Golden Harvest break more often than the other three brands Jarden makes.
 
#11 ·
And the shipping costs are astronomical and the prices are no better than local, without the added shipping. Glass is heavy.
Hell, the shipping costs for 10 or 199 cases of jars are 65% -80% above local cost.

http://prntscr.com/bc4sql

As I guide for quality, I can see that the reason for your post, as long as it does not include ordering. Lol :thumb:

To the OP, like Mel said above. Buy the good stuff, Ball or Kerr for home canning. Don't buy the mega-mart crap. Saving a buck or 2 per case is stupid logic when it comes to "putting up" for the family. Based on personal experience. :)
JMO ;)
 
#14 ·
Always good ideas and so is Amazon if you have free shipping.

But I still think a good organized search for new product sources are in order.
 
#16 ·
I've had the same problems with Golden Harvest jars breaking and now only use them for short term organizing / storage in the pantry.

For good prices on Ball jars keep an eye on Blain's Farm & Fleet. A few times a year they offer free shipping, last year the timing worked out that they had a sale on jars during a free shipping offer. I grabbed about 30 cases shipped to my doorstep, cheaper than anything I could find local or elsewhere online.
 
#17 ·
Jars will not break in a caner just because they're touching each other. I, and everyone I know pack those caners with every jar they'll hold, each one touching several others. With a tall pot you can even stack shorter jars on top of each other, though this is best done with a a flat rack between layers.

I've never had any Golden Harvest jars, but I've had Better Homes and Gardens jars break when the pot water was hot and the jar content was not as hot. Ball and Kerr jars in the same batch did not break.
 
#18 ·
According to comments made online at other places, Jardin swears that Golden Harvest is the exact same material and weight as Ball and Kerr. Supposedly you can weigh them and see for yourself.

And yet you can still see the complaints online.

If Jardin's claim is true then I really don't even see why GH even exists. I understand that Ball and Kerr were different companies for so long that folding the brands together would be difficult and that both brand names have too much good will value to cast one name into the trash, but GH has none of that going for it. It just seems redundant and at this point is getting a bad rep.
 
#19 · (Edited)
We can several hundred jars each year, I have a mixture of jars from any source I can find them, many of them were NOT originally canning jars. In the last year I've had two jars break, one was an old wide mouth mayo jar from the 70's, (on probably it's 12-13th filling) being used for pickles in a boiling water bath. The other was an old Ball jar full of soup during pressure canning, probably it's 12-13th filling also. Old jars break, simple fact of physics, pressure cycles cause micro cracks and eventually they break. Not a big deal.

BTW I agree on the Walmart jars from China....absolute crap.

EDIT: I have a lot of GH jars, as well as all the other brands. Only significate difference I've found is the new GH jars are NOT Quart size, they are now 1 Liter size.
 
#20 ·
I've bought the Golden Harvest brand from Dollar General and have not had any issues with them other than when I froze some soup in them. Broke on me, so I know now not to use them in the freezer. If I have something that needs a long process I usually stick with the Ball jars. If it is a short process <20 minutes I use the GH. Use them a lot for jam, pickles, and green beans. My only negative at this point with them is that they are the regular mouth jars. I have been stocking the wide mouth jars of late cause I can't get the small ones clean very easily. I like to be able to do them by hand using a dish cloth. Seems like the dish washer just can't get that green bean haze off the bottom of the jars. So being able to get my wide hands down in the bottom is not in the cards with a small mouth opening. I have a jar scrubby, but it takes some work with it to get it clean.
 
#21 ·
I've bought the Golden Harvest brand from Dollar General and have not had any issues with them other than when I froze some soup in them. Broke on me, so I know now not to use them in the freezer. If I have something that needs a long process I usually stick with the Ball jars. If it is a short process <20 minutes I use the GH. Use them a lot for jam, pickles, and green beans. My only negative at this point with them is that they are the regular mouth jars. I have been stocking the wide mouth jars of late cause I can't get the small ones clean very easily. I like to be able to do them by hand using a dish cloth. Seems like the dish washer just can't get that green bean haze off the bottom of the jars. So being able to get my wide hands down in the bottom is not in the cards with a small mouth opening. I have a jar scrubby, but it takes some work with it to get it clean.
I had the same problem, now I use a sponge with a scrubby on one side and a long handled wooden spoon, use the handle to shove the sponge down to the bottom and scrub, works REAL well.
 
#23 ·
Jar breakage

IIRC, if the jars, during manufacture, are cooled, after blowing, too quickly, which speeds up manufacturing time and lowers cost, that can cause stress in the glass which will cause cracking. There are all kinds of tricks that can be pulled both in glass and in plastic manufacturing to speed up cycle times to get more pieces per hour. Most to the detriment of the product.
 
#30 ·
The only jars I've struggled with lately are the remake of the Ball pint and halfs. They are the three cup straight side jars. My mother used these exclusively when I was growing up and never had a failure. I purchased 27 of them and I'll bet I've had a third either break in canning or the rims chip. I don't have this issue with my other jars...even the Golden Harvest....shouldn't be user error.
 
#33 ·
I just bought a dozen Ball widemouth quarts and a dozen widemouth pints at Kroger yesterday. The quarts were $10.99 and the pints were $9.99. I had a $4.00 off coupon for each case. I was happy with that deal. It also seems to be a better price than the Fillmore price.
 
#38 ·
Sometimes jars will break, if the "trivet" they sit on is short & to close or flat on the bottom of the pressure cooker.

I prefer to have the jars a minimum of a 1/2 inch off the bottom.

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