Tired of babysitting your pressure canner? Buy a three-pressure weight!

Traditional dial-gauge canners require you to baby-sit them and continually adjust the heat to maintain the pressure. You’ll think you have it correct and then it’ll start climbing again! Or worse, it’ll drop and you have to start all over, possibly turning your food to mush. All that fluctuating pressure can lead to your liquid syphoning out of your jars. A three-pressure weight set will help! It’s much easier to listen to the weight jiggle while you are cleaning up the kitchen – or sitting on the couch. With a three-pressure weight set, the the exact heat setting under the canner isn’t quite so critical, so it’s much easier to maintain. A more even pressure keeps the syphoning to a minimum. Did I mention you can sit on the couch?

Mirro

Mirro has shipped with its canners for years a weight that is capable of the three different pressures that the USDA requires for the definition of a canner. Presto and All-American haven’t always done this. I do not have any Mirro canners, but it is my understanding that the newest ones are shipping with three separate weights rather than the “hockey-puck” style shown here. This hockey-puck style weight “jiggles” every few seconds to maintain the proper pressure.

All-American

All-American’s older models shipped without a three-pressure weight. You had to constantly adjust the heat of your burner under your canner to maintain the proper pressure according to the dial-gauge.

Their newer canners ship with a weight that is very similar in design to the old Mirro setup. You can buy the parts to retrofit your older model.

This weight also “jiggles” only every few seconds.

Presto

Presto’s traditional weight is a 15 pound regulator. As with the older All-American canners, you had to constantly adjust the heat under your canner to maintain the proper pressure. (Of course, if you need to can at 15 pounds pressure, you can use this weight as-is.) Presto has a a three-piece weight set available for its canners. This weight set allows you to choose a set pressure of five, ten or fifteen pounds. The Presto weights will rock gently when you’ve reached your set pressure.

Presto’s Traditional 15 Pound Pressure Weight

Presto’s Three-piece Weight Set

The three-piece weight set, set up for 10 pounds pressure.

The three-piece weight set, set up for 15 pounds pressure.

This is the Mirro version of the Presto three-piece weight set. All-American’s weight is very similar to this.

A brief video of the Presto three-piece weight set in action: