I thought you couldn't boil lids, at least that how I learned it.
unless its during the actual canning process, boiling lids could affect the seal material and compromise the integrity of the final product? i.e. bad seals? If lids could be sterilized, I'd just reuse old lids as long as they were clean...

I've often let the water temp get a little too high when simmering the lids prior to canning. I've never had seals fail during storage and I can remember only 2 or 3 seal failures after removal from the canner in several years of canning and in hundreds (maybe thousands) of jars.

I'm always happy to learn new things and correct my own misconceptions, but I don't see why they couldn't be thoroughly washed, run through the dishwasher, then simmered and safely used. That seems just as safe as how the jars are prepared. Of course, the time spent doing all of this may not be worth it in terms of time spent versus the money saved. Also, if there is an "ick" factor that bothers you to the point you aren't comfortable with the food in the jars, then it isn't worth it to salvage them.

From the technical side, I just know that I have accidentally boiled my lids a number of times and i probably simmer them a little too hot all the time and don't have seal failures.

To the original poster: This was a huge mess and I am truly sorry you had to deal with the muck and clean up. I'm sure your time is more valuable than the cost of the lids. Buying all new is just one less thing you had to deal with. Good luck, and I hope you're all cleaned up now.

Jill

Altrista is the corporate name for Ball and Kerr, so if the Walmart lids are made by that company, they're essentially the same as Ball, just re-branded.

Carol

We used to have to boil the old rubber compound lids to soften them. But since the advent of the silicone seal lids even the manufacturers say don't boil them prior to use. If the silicone gets over-heated you can actually smush it with just your fingers.

Dave

Ok, I just tried some of the Walmart lids, marked Mainstay on the box and nothing actually on the lids.

They seem to look ok, and I used them for some green beans. Everything seemed fine, processed at 10# pressure 30 minutes. When we took the jars out, the jars with the walmart lids are bent versus the 1 that was a Ball lid. the WM lid looks like someone had taken a hammer to it.

anyone else have this problem?

I really don't want to eat 6 qts of green beans immediately.

The lids are popping, but NOT going down. I'm not sure if they are sealed or not. How mushy will the beans be if I re=process?

we bought some wumart canning lids with bands. They are made in china, do NOT say BPA free which is a big red flag.

Could not get Kerr lids that day and needed some lids for pickels and green beans so we used some of the kerr brand we had and some wumart ones too.

made the pickels and canned them with a water bath, the wumart lids DID NOT SEAL the rest did.

so after this bad result, only tried 2 out of the 8 pints of green beans we had to can, those did seal under the pressure canner as did the Kerrs.

I returned the unopened ones after thinking about this. There were small 'dents' in the tops of several of them also.

I would never ever skimp on these again, we had to buy jars with lids because here in the start of canning season our junkmart is getting christmas crap in instead of keeping canning supplies in stock.

I've been buying lids, this last weekend at our local lumber/hardware big box store. Still had a good stock, might not next week after I get more money. I've bought about 30 dozen this year so far and don't have many left, hopefully enough for this week of tomatoes and peaches.

I agree I will not buy WM lids unless to just store in frig. Mine did seal tho.

We have had a lot of complaints about the Walmart lids. I see the new Ball lids say BPA free on them.
I order plain bulk lids from Lehmans. I am sure they must be Ball or Kerr, as they are made in USA.

Just because a company who makes a name brand lid also makes one for a big box store, does not necessarily mean they are comparable in quality and are the 'same lid'. When major retailers have such purchasing clout, they'll also come up with their own specifications and quality criteria and a manufacturer may tool up to run them special. If that particular company wanted the lowest dollar outlay, there may or may not be the same quality. That being said, I get my bulk lids at Lehmans like Linda lou. I am thrilled with them and have used them for at least three years and have no quality issues with them whatsoever. They seem to be a higher quality in fact than the name brands. They are heavier and the sealing compound ring is very consistant, wide and heavy. No writing on the lid either which makes marking easier.

I appreciate the responses regarding Lehman's blank lids. I was afraid they might be the same as those 'want to be' lids at WM.

Just looked at the price Lehman's are charging for their lids. I can buy Ball lids cheaper than their prices even without any shipping charges. I'll just stock up locally.

I tried them and they seem to be acceptable for water bath canning but with my first batch pressure canning one lid bulged to an abnormal proportion but the jar did eventually seal.

However, I do have a concern that the seal on that jar likely will eventually fail in long term storage. .

My conclusion so far is to use them for water bath canning exclusively.

I think trying to source Golden Harvest lids which are the other bargain brand probably will be your better alternative during the height of the canning season.

I thought that at first, but the 2nd batch of WB bulged also.

Golden Harvest are also by Ball. Ball, Kerr, and Golden Harvest owned by same company.

Never had a problem with Golden harvest. Fred's (if you have one) currently has them for $1.25 for 12 reg.

Dave

I have to check Big Lots again - forget how much the GH lids were but I think more than the Ball at WM. I know the GH jars were more there. I'm running low on "used" jelly jars, had to break open a new case anyway so don't need lids for jelly and I'm just sticking some B&B pickles and some half sours in the ridge but once I start processing pickles (may be all we get out of the garden this year - 3 plum tomatoes ripening and one has a large rotten spot - not anthracnose but???) I'll either have to do them in widemouth jars or buy some lids. Lids ought to be going on sale soon in TSC and grocery stores.

"I would never ever skimp on these again, we had to buy jars with lids because here in the start of canning season our junkmart is getting christmas crap in instead of keeping canning supplies in stock."

And we thought it was bad last week when we saw candy corn in ours!

Wow, candy corn and Christmas stuff already? Can't be :-(

I love my local hardware store. Must be just this rural area where a lot of people can, but they have a good supply of canning supplies out all year. It's great to be able to pick up jars in January :-)

Oh, our local HW store has them year-round, but I don't buy there unless they have a special. Way more expensive than Wally's. Well, then again, Wally's has been going up 50 cents - $1 every year for a case of jars, so it's worth checking, but I believe Ace is still over $2/dozen.

Lots of store warehouse the canning supplies instead of clearance. I bought another 8 dozen of regular lids/rings, WM was 25 cents HIGHER than Menards per box.

The GH lids that are marked $1.25 are last years lids, this years lids are pre-marked $1.50 and can be got at F$ $G and Big Lots. I buy Ball cheaper than the $1.50 regularly.

Only thing that I've bought at Ace are things that cannot be got anywhere else except online. I save the shipping, but they are more expensive for most everything else they carry. How they stay in business surprises me.

You got lids for $1.50/doz at Menards? Last year WM was that price, this year it's $1.78. No Menards around here. I lucked into brand-new boxes of lids with bands at Goodwill last year for $1/doz but I've run through those, except the widemouth. Only had a couple boxes of each.

I don't shop the dollar stores or Big Lots, I find too many things I think I need. I got my lids I think for $1.38 when I was buying just the lids. Now I'm running out of good rings, so I need to buy rings/lids and I got the combination for $2.45 at Menards and WM had them for $2.78.

I was seriously thinking about buying bulk, but didn't want to take the chance of getting the cheaper quality lids, and buying bulk wasn't cheaper on the Ball lids than what I'm buying now. I've bought over 30 dozen lids this year and am not done, just got started with tomatoes and peaches. Still have lots more tomatoes and apples to do, along with other stuff I'm sure. I know I have several varieties of jelly/jams yet to do.

I haven't had any problems with the WM lids sealing, but I have noticed when I used Ball and WM in the same batch the WM brand seems to take longer to "ping".. My issue is with the WM bands, they seem to bend out of shape every easily when handled. My kids are not kind to rings! I really like the WM 1/2 pint jar shapes. They are shorter and squatter than the Ball 1/2 pint jelly jars, which fits my personal canning pantry space better.

i have ball lids i picked up from tag sales and don't know how old they are. they have different designs on top. can anyone say how long the lids can be kept and still used safely ? i have lids with fruit and dotted lines to write on, and lids with just 'ball' on them. i also have lids i bought in 2010 that sealed just fine this year.

I have some that are probably 8-10 years old and are still fine (yes, I have the ones with the fruit on them, too).

Unless you notice the red sealing compound on the bottom of the lid looks dried out, brittle or not "normal", they last forever. I had one box from a yard sale that must have been stored in really high heat. The compound got soft enough to glue all the lids together - those I tossed.

I've used some really OLD lids, I know my mother had hoarded them for years plus her getting them from garage sales. All kinds of designs, some really pretty, others just plain plain.

Several had the old 'red' sealing compound, and those will tend to stick the lids together. They're not bad unless the compound isn't evenly coating when you pry them about. Of course, you pry gently, not with a crow bar.

this year I've used several hundred of the old lids with good success, sealing almost every time. With the red sealing compound, you need to almost boil the lids. The grayish newer compound, just heat thoroughly.

last year i noticed some lids with seals that looked red, not orangy like the newer ones. they sealed just fine, but months later i found they had all failed. they were on relish- it looked fine but i wasn't going to smell or inspect the food, i just tossed it and washed and boiled the jars. maybe they failed because i didn't heat them enough- who knew ? that's why i asked about old lids..... thanks ! now i know not to worry, and will be on the lookout for any more red seals. i don't think i've seen a gray seal on a lid....

I spoke wrong, the older ones were gray colored, and the newer ones are reddish. Sorry. I've used up all the old ones now, unless mother 'finds' some more. The gray ones are quite a bit older, probably 5-10 years ago.

sometimes if you don't heat them enough, the seal will fail, or at least it's happened to me.

Well this is interesting. I didn't know abut the switchover from rubber to silicone seals. I was wondering why, when I was a kid and did a lot of canning, we boiled the lids but now it is not recommended.

I wonder if y'all can tell me something else:

The last time I used to can a lot, which was maybe the late 80s, I tried some Kerr lids. They had light grey seals, and just in hot tap water the seal would be so soft I could 'slime' it around with my finger. This seemed icky and like it could leach into food, so I did not use them for canning. Were those early silicone or something?

I have avoided the Kerr brand ever since, thinking that I did not like their type of seals, but now I wonder if what I encountered was a just a temporary manufacturing glitch. Have any of you run into this?

I know what you mean by the gray Kerr sealant. I used the last of mine this year without problems. I never wanted to use them since they didn't have the 'white' center (I was taught that those were for low-acid only and since I didn't pressure can that much, I always had more of them).

I don't see Kerr lids alone much, just with the jars. Main ones here are Ball, with Golden Harvest being at the discount dollar stores. And of course WalMart has their own "Mainstays".

I will say of the several dozen Mainstay jars I've used this year, only 1 jar was bad (the rings didn't tighten up).

I recently had a big problem with Mainstays lids. I was using a boiling water bath canner to can pickled asparagus. The jars had been in the canner for just a couple of minutes when I heard 3 quick, loud pops. I didn't know what it was at first so I turned to look at the canner and there was another pop and the lid to the canner raised up. So I turned the heat off, peaked in the canner and the lids had totally blown off the four jars with the rings still intact! I let the canner cool for 10-15 minutes and started to unload it so I could start over. Took the 4 with the blown lids out first, then started with the others. As I was lifting the last jar out, the lid blew off, flew up and hit the right lens of my glasses.

i am so thankful that I had my glasses on and that it was just the lens that was scratched and not my eye. I have been canning for over 50 years and never had a problem like this before, and I continued canning the pickled asparagus using Ball lids and did not have any further problems. Navex Home Products is the supplier of the Mainstays lids and rings and I am still waiting to hear from them on the disposition of my insurance claim.

Walmart corporate office and our local store personnel were pleasant and handled the return of my remaining lids/rings and were very helpful with the insurance claim form.

As an added note, it appears the lids and rings have been removed from the Walmart website. I will check the store shelves on my next visit.

Jannajlh, that is atrocious!

I have heard and read so much awful stuff about both the Walmart Mainstay lids and jars that I will never buy them. And now that Mainstay jars are out there in circulation I will never buy a plain, unembossed second-hand jar, just in case it is a Mainstay. Normally I am happy to buy a used jar.

Does it seem that Walmart is pretty close to needing to issue a product recall?

I'll confess that I bought a dozen of their pint jars. But they felt so thin that I weighed one and then weighed two others of different brands and ages. The Mainstay jar weighed less, indicating that there is less glass in it, of course. I wish I could remember how much less; I think it was about 100 grams less....I returned the jars and told the clerk that they were too flimsy, that I was not satisfied with the quality.

jannajlh - were you just using Mainstay lids, lids and bands (I don't know if they sell them together), or Mainstay jars too? Could be either a problem with the bands or the jar threads. If using with the Ball jars, maybe it's just not a good fit but Ball bands and Mainstay lids would work?

Though after reading some posts on this thread, I decided last year not to buy Mainstay products. I did buy a bunch of lids at $store this summer though. I have to check, I think they're GH. Surprised they were on clearance so early (early-mid July).

These lids are junk. I lost most of my canned goods last year, and I forgot and used them again this year and most of the stuff I have canned is slowing unsealing one and two jars at a time. All the hard work to can going down the drain. These are made in China not cool.

I noticed that tonight when I went to pick up lids that Walmart has their own now. BUT what I DID notice was theirs didn't say BPA free but the Ball lids did. So I chose the Ball lids.

The Mainstay Canning Lids are USA made. I just cold packed 40 qt. of tomato sauce and used the small mouth lids and loved them. They had more of the rubber seal going around the inside of the lid then my Ball canning lids. If you put them in the hot water bath before you put them on the jar to seal then the ring tight and cold pack them they seal really nice and don't pop back up. The jars I used the ball lids on I had to process twice. Going to cold pack my sauerkraut in a few weeks and I'm going to get the Mainstay wide mouth lids to use.

elliemae, hopefully those lids have improved since 2013/2014 when this thread was active, good luck.

I just bought a couple dozen Ball quart jars and even they seem thinner, although they have safely made their trips through the pressure canner and every lid sealed, plus the jars and lids both say "Made in USA".

Annie

I am curious if Empire brand of lids are same as the Wal-Mart brand. I bought a bunch Sept 2016 and in use this summer 2017 am finding more lid failures than usual. Both with water bath canning salsa or jams, and pressure canning beans, beets, potatoes and chicken broth.

Empire is a different company an per the company website, their lids are made in China. Mainstays were made in China originally but are now marked as made in USA.

Dave

Cherie, I bought a boat load of the Empire lids and rings last fall when Menards had them on close out. So far I have probably use about 30 of the lids and have had no failures.

The Mainstay are bad...I put up a whole years worth of canned goods 2 years ago and everyone unsealed, was not happy! The cheaper price wasn't worth the loss of all the food and the work!

I personally have not had any issues with the mainstay lids. Not sure I want to keep using them after reading some of these responses though!

Whatever you do, don't but Empire lids. They rust on the inside of the jar. Black fuzz.

An update -The mainstay lids were disappointing so far. I had quite a few seal failures immediately after processing. I am not sure if the failures were related to the very poor crop of tomatoes that really didn't ripen very well and produced less liquid. Normally, I use citric acid but had to use bottled lemon or lime juice and the resultant product still was thicker than normal.

I have been using the mainstay lids for 3 seasons, and have had no issues. They are half the price of Ball lids here. I have been reading many horror stories , in my fb canning groups, of the new Ball lids not sealing, or failing a short time later.

the Mainstays Metal lids and rings that Walmart say are made in the USA are made in China Walmart are such Liars I don't know how they get away with this crap but I don't buy crap made in China everything you buy at Walmart is made in China that's the reason why I do not buy at Walmart everything is made in China they're always trying to say made in the USA so stupid people will buy it also they are not bpa-free

I've used mainstay lids for a few years . No more problems than with Ball or Kerr lids.

I just ordered Mason Jar lids from "Official Mason Made inUSA site." I just looked at the traking info,. and its coming from China! WHAT GIVES!? The stores are void of most canning supplies certainly there are no Ball libds, not on line either.

Why would you throw them after getting wet? That does not impair them whatsoever.