Jeanne, that Walmart cooker isn't big enough to use for canning at 6 quarts, and neither is my Fagor....they are cookers, not canners. To qualify as a canner, it must hold 4 quart jars sitting on a rack with lid closed.

The time to come to pressure and to cool down after processing is included in the approved canning recipes you would use - since those times are greatly abbreviated with the electric cookers they would be void and you would have no way of knowing how to adjust processing times, could only guess.

The instructions for 'canning' with the Walmart canner are mostly missing, what little bit is there quite vague. Default setting is 30 minutes (!). At what psi, and for what product. It shows 'steam canning' range as 1-50 minutes, not clear either, what do we do with those things that need 75 min, and tuna at 100 min sure wouldn't work :)

Which glass topped stove do you have, and does the owners manual address pressure canning. It's possible with some, not others. My canners fit the size guideline for the glass topped stove in this kitchen, but no where in the book does it address the weight of my vintage canners fully loaded. The heat on my Jenn Air cycles up and down too, making it difficult to maintain constant pressure...

So again, it may depend on your stove and which brand, model you have.

(I'm pressure canning outdoors over gas, not ideal but what I'm most comfortable with for now at least)

Here is a link that might be useful: Owners manual WalMart elec cooker

Thanks for the tip, I am wondering about buying a campstove type thing to use for canning. an electric one that you plug in to an outlet and put my pressure cooker on there. But I don't have an official Pressure Cooker, just the T Fal and I don't think that will work either with just a jiggler. So also wondering about brands of pressure cookers to buy?

Thanks again, Jeanne

As far as any of us here have been able to find there is no electric pressure canner despite some that claim they can be used as such. Pressure cookers and pressure canners a very different things. None of the cookers meet the minimum requirements and the processing times would be voided.

But as morz said above, some true pressure canners can be used on some glass top stoves depending on the size of the burner, whether they cycle off and on or not, and the shape of the bottom of the PC. The Presto 16 quart model (pic linked below) works for many according to the previous discussions here of this question.

Most who have glass tops stoves and wish to pressure can choose to invest in a separate cooking element for canning.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Presto 16 qt at Walmart

There are only 3 approved brand names of pressure canners - Presto, All American, and Mirro. Mirro is no longer recommended as the company was sold and while the older models are good the newer ones are full of problems.

The most common brand is Presto. Does everything the much more expensive All American does for much less money.

don't think that will work either with just a jiggle

Many pressure canners come with just a "jiggler" and that is no problem as long as it is a weighted one that allows for 3 different weights to be use - 5-10-15 lbs. rather than just a steam valve cap. Weights are preferred over gauges as the weights are far more accurate.

Dave