Sunday, August 15, 2010

Pressure Canning Gauge Check

I drove to another county yesterday in 100 degree heat to get my gauges and some of my friends gauges checked.  I was surprised to find that my newest All American had a bad gauge and needs replacement.  The store that sponsored the gauge check did not have any more All American gauges to sell so I will either have to hunt one up some place else or do it online.
It was hard to get the gauge off the All American.  We had to enlist the help of a strong guy who worked at the store.  Seems the machine is really made to check Presto gauges and has to be modified with rubber stoppers to do other brands.  I saw some ancient canners come in.  One was that green from the 50's and was from Sears.  One canner did not have a make name and they were unable to determine the type.  Darn thing was really old but was right on the money when checked.
To check the gauges they hooked them up to a hand cranked pressure gauge machine and pumped them up to 10-11 pounds.  Your gauge had to begin on zero (two of mine did not ) and go to within 2 marks of 10-11.  So if it went to 13.5 it needed to be replaced.
I signed up to take the Master Canning Class so I will be learning more about canning and can really be more helpful.  Stay tuned for more canning information.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

bummer they ran out of your gauge. did you see any farm stands or yakma stands out there. oly had so many last year and ths year none. i haven't been to downtown Oly market in a long time i know there are peaches but the prices are for people downtown.

The Frugal Fraulein said...

no farm stands other than the one on Pacific Ave at the old firestation this year that I know of.

Chicken Wrangler said...

I had no idea those gauges needed to be checked! I feel safer using the water bath canning method - I'm afraid of explosions!!!