Tattler canning lids claim to be ‘indefinitely reusable.’ I bought a supply of these lids to be more self sufficient.
Trying Out Tattler Lids
Several years ago I purchased a good sized supply of reusable canning lids from Tattler. I was intrigued by their claim of indefinitely reusable lids for preserving your food. Always on the look out for more sustainable tools, products, and methods of growing and preserving my food…I had to give them a try. One of my many concerns is how will I preserve food for my family without electricity or grocery stores in a bug in situation. The metal canning lids are only made for a singe use. This leaves you with two choices if the SHTF, stock up a gazillion metal lids and/or start reusing them and hope you don’t kill yourself with botulism. The Tattler lids sounded like a great supply to have on hand and I ordered 12 boxes of small mouth lids and 10 boxes of wide mouth lids.
Reviewing The Pros and Cons
Some of the things I like about the Tattler lids are that they are free of BPA, are indefinitely reusable, dishwasher safe, can be used for hot water bath or pressure canning, and made in the good ol’ USA (bonus!). I’ve canned jams, fruits, carrots, beans, chicken, broth, beef stew, potatoes, salsa, tomatoes, and water (yes, water) with these lids. The best advice I can give you about these Tattler lids is…you need a lot of practice to get it right. The first few batches I canned did not seal well. I had about a 50% failure rate, which is totally unacceptable in my book. I tried re-processing the jars and very few of them sealed the second time around.
At first I was pretty ticked off about the failure rate. I’ve been canning food since I was a kid, and I’m no spring chicken. So the idea that half of my jars didn’t seal was a real slap in the face. I chalked it up to learning experience went back to square one. I read the instructions again and decided that my mistake may have been in how tight to screw on the lids. The instructions say to tighten the lids, then turn back ¼ inch. I followed the instructions to a T and began again. My next attempt went much better, but I still had a jar or two from each batch that didn’t seal properly. More practice and quite a few foul words ensued.
What I don’t like about these canning lids is that, to this day, I still don’t have as good a success rate with the Tattler canning lids as I do with the disposable metal lids. You can’t tell if your jars seal by listening for the pinging sound that the metal lids make as they cool. You also can’t tell by looking at the lids for the depressed center and lack of ‘bounce back’ you’ll get from the metal lids when the seal is tight. You have to wait until the jars of food have cooled, take the metal screw band off, and then gently pull up on the lid to see if comes off. If it feels like it’s stuck tight, then the seal is good.
In addition to the learning curve necessary for using the Tattler lids, you also need to be prepared to replace the rubber rings every so often. They are not indestructible, so care needs to be taken when opening your canned goods. Don’t use a sharp knife to pry the plastic lid off the jar, or you may damage the rubber rings. I have a few that were dumped in the sink with other dishes and now they are all wonky and messed up. So I need to order a new supply of rubber rings.
Buy, Try, Diversify!
If you’ve read about the Tattler canning lids and want to give them a try, I highly recommend that you follow the instructions exactly, and practice, practice, practice. I don’t regret purchasing my Tattler lids. I know that if the SHTF and I can’t buy more metal canning lids, I will still have a way to can food because I have several hundred Tattler lids on hand. I keep working on increasing my success rate each year. And I definitely want to buy more lids and a big stash of the rubber rings to have on hand for replacements. For long term food preservation, I know that there may come a day when even my Tattler lids are no longer a viable solution. So I also practice alternative methods of preservation so I’m not dependent on just canning food.
My favorite methods for preserving food:
- Canning
- Dehydrating
- Root cellaring or clamping
- Pickling
- Fermenting
- Freezing (while we have electricity available)
The moral of this story is to diversify. Don’t rely entirely on one method of preservation or one tool. If the method you rely on fails, you’ll be up crap creek without a paddle.
Have you tried canning with Tattler lids? What did you like or dislike about them?
If you haven’t tried them yet, you can get some here.
May 9, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Thanks for the honest review. I have been intrigued by the tattler lids, but I have been scared to try them. I have three children and a husband that would have all the reusable seals lost or broken in no time. I am of the same opinion that we need to practice all our skills. I have been freezing and dehyrdating (Some of it has been more sucessful than others). It is a fun experince for the whole family. I have not written about it lately. Last summer we wrote many a posts about our preserving. YOu can read about our adventures in self sufficancy and real food at http://www.lifelesshurried.com
It is important for us and our children to have some real life skills. Having the high score on Angry birds or whatever game you are playing is all good and fun, but those skills are not useful in real life. I am proud to be teaching my little ones skills that they can use for a lifetime.
May 11, 2013 at 8:29 pm
Hey Happy Momma,
It’s great that you are practicing other food preservation techniques. I think that dehydrating foods is a great way of keeping them if we have no power. I freeze a lot of food each year, but always worry about the power going out for long periods. If you decide to try the Tattler lids, you will definitely need to keep track of the rubber seals and take good care of them.
Way to go! I’m so glad you are teaching your children these important skills! Keep up the great work.
May 11, 2013 at 3:00 pm
I had about 75% success on my test batch, with all but one sealing when I reprocessed them. It is definitely harder to tell if they seal, but I agree about the piece of mind they offer for future use.
May 11, 2013 at 8:30 pm
Hi Homestead,
I’m glad you had better results than I did. You definitely need to pay close attention to how tight the lids are. And yes, I like having them on hand in case we are in a situation where I really need them!
May 17, 2013 at 6:48 am
I still use glass lids and rubber rings on my 1950’s Gem jars. Same technique as the tattler lids.
Here is the secret. There always is one, ya know.
You have to test each set before canning. Fill with hot water, dry off, turn upside down. Air bubbles and leaking water means it will not seal in the canner. Change around lid parts and jars to get non-leaking sets. You do have to keep them sorted out while filling, so I leave the hot water inside and leave the whole works in a pan of hot water until I empty the water and fill them with food one at a time. Less handling.
Had very few failures this way.
November 24, 2013 at 11:03 pm
My husband bought a large supply it tattler lids. We used some to can green beans with decent success. About a month ago, we canned stew. Of the 14 qts. two did not seal. After sitting a few weeks, I saw that 2 more had come unsealed. Today, I saw that three more were unsealed, so we are down to a success rate of 50%. I do not know that I will use these again.
November 25, 2013 at 4:37 pm
And that’s why we test, right Disillusioned? Good on you for at least putting the stuff to the test, instead of on the shelf to only pull out in an emergency.
November 26, 2013 at 1:55 am
Ditto on that. Glad you posted, Disillusioned… I’ve wondered about these myself.
I’ve found that the regular “one-use” lids can in actuality be used many times. If the seal stays tight, I don’t worry about contamination.
January 1, 2014 at 5:37 pm
So far I’ve used the tattler lids only for jams and jellies, with 100% success. I have not used them for pressure canning and wondered how well they would work, and both the review and the comments are very helpful. Like David Goodman, I have reused the metal lids, but I also make sure there are no scratches or abrasions on the metal lid and the seal in seal intact. I’m doing more and more growing and home preserving of foods, including meats, and I plan to pay with the tattle lids some more. The one thing I do not like about the tattler lids is the lack of the seal indicator. Womanofthewoods, thank you for the tip on testing.
January 26, 2014 at 8:04 pm
I have worked with the Tattler lids and seal before and had about the same success rate as many of you . I found that when you just put them on DRY the manufacturing powder that is on them causes them NOT do absorb any moisture to seal well. So I soak them in HOT water in a bowl as I am covering the cans before putting them in the bath . This seemed to take care of ALL the problems of sealing them. Try it and see. i
September 16, 2014 at 4:51 pm
Thank you for the information. With the manufacturing changes made with the metal lids and the increase in failure to seal rates with the metal lids increasing I am considering going to the Tattler lids. Soaking the rings in hot water makes sense and is such a simple fix.
October 7, 2014 at 9:14 am
I spent many times helping my grandma can Figs and all she used was Tattler lids and seals. I was always in charge of seals. She had be soak them in warm/hot water and then apply the lid and seal. She always tightened them, and I remember watching her screw them down and then back them off a little. She and all on my mom’s side are Cajan and all poor but VERY frugal people. Later when I was in the LA National Guard I would spend a few days a month with her, as Ft Polk was not far from her house. She had told me that she rarely ever had to replace one of those red rubber seals. They seem to last a long time.
October 7, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Appreciate the real life feedback Johnny. Thanks for sharing. Anything that will help people get more value of these helps.
November 10, 2014 at 6:39 pm
I have canned for over 30 years and have always used the metal lids and bands and never had one fail. This year I became aware of the Tattler system and decided to try a box. I was raised by my father so I never learned to read directions…lol unless of course I absolutely had to..so consequently when I broke out the new Tattler lids, I used them just like the metal ones..put the rubbers on, then lids and cranked them down..all but one sealed and that jar had a tiny chip in the top…now..whether I just got lucky or not I’m not sure…thinking about purchasing more..
March 4, 2015 at 6:26 pm
I purchased a large set of the tattler lids and have been disappointed. I always have 1 or 2 out of 12 that do not seal. 100% of mine seal with the Ball/Kerr lids. I felt it was a learning curve and practiced but would have good seals with water and then back to two not sealing. I really wanted these to work and I really tried but at some point I just gave up.
I was also told that the seals would last years and mine are not. They have faded and cracked after two uses and I am concerned with reusing them.
Once sealed they have kept the seal for me. I did not have trouble checking to see if they are sealed – just lifted the jar by the lid. If it held I considered it sealed. I did miss the ping.
I wish that I had found these reviews before I purchased mine. All the reviews I read said they were great.
April 26, 2015 at 8:36 am
I decided to start trying to can with the tattler lids,I have been canning for years and always had no troubles with the regular lids. I recently got a little scared about using the new ball and Kerr lids with a recent discovery that according to the directions on the box they are now saying that the lids are only safe for if I remember correctly 1 year.I know that most of us who can want it to last longer than 1 year.This is one of my reasons for switching to the tattler lids. I am a follower on you tube of bexar prepper and she has a few videos on discovering this info. They even tried to contact the company to find out if in fact this was correct. Hope you can take a look at it.
July 20, 2015 at 3:40 pm
I am interested in trying these lids,are they also good for vacuum sealing(store dehydrated foods/spices),small batch fermenting and UV stable(solar water purification,sun tea) please let me know if anyone has tried these applications.