I have a 23-quart pressure canner that I've used as a BWB on a glasstop stove. A few years ago I used my very old graniteware canner on there as well, although it did take forever to boil and is really too wide for the burners.

Your best bet might be a tall stock pot for BWB. I bought one at Homegoods that has a flat bottom and took it to my DD to use for jams and it worked fine on her glasstop stove. I paid less than 30 dollars for it. It has a nonstick coating that has flecked off in a few small places, though. I haven't use it to cook in...just can. I think it just isn't heavy enough. The WS multipots should work fine because they are heavy. I have the small size which is only deep enough for half pints or the smaller 4 oz. jelly jars.

jude

It sounds like your best bet would be to get a tall stock pot. You could then get a round cooling rack to go in the bottom, or you could lay down extra rings. Or you could buy the Ball Canning Discovery kit, which comes with a handy lifting basket. It's about $10 at Walmart.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/new_products/2.php?pid=292&product=326

I have a glass top stove, but have no problem getting my granite wear BWB coming to boil. When the pot is full, it takes about 15 minutes for it to come to a full boil on my stove. But then again, my tap water comes out at 130-140 degrees or so. (Note to self - call plumber to have that fixed. We're burning ourselves too often.)

Somewhere else on this forum we discussed buying a stand alone "single burner hot plate". I bought one with 1100 watts that is used on the counter (with a 12" piece of ceramic tile under it because it was heating my Formica). It was about $30 and worth it because we have family pot-lucks where someone needs to heat up what they brought and my burners were full of other stuff. You'll need one with a coil element as opposed to a smooth top one or you'll be back to the same non-heating issue because of the indentations in the bottom of your pots.

pixie_lou - you can turn down the water heater yourself with a screwdriver. There is a little door you take off and you can clearly see the place to put the screw driver to decrease the temperature and save the plumber's fee.

Nancy

I've been successful using a canning pot that fits 7 pints. I was concerned about the weight of the larger pot, so have been using the smaller one. I've ruined a cake rack, metal grid cooling tray, as I put the canning pot on top of it which keeps it above the burner, so the burner doesn't cycle on and off. So now the cake rack is part of my canning supplies :-) I have a "bridge burner" which enlongates the burner to about 10" x 8" I have no problem getting the water to boil.

Thanks for your responses. I will try Homegoods for a taller pot; I already know Macys, Walmart, etc don't have anything. Maybe old Granitware has flat bottoms; the new doesn't and has printed warning on the labels.

I'm thinking rather than pans, I should just consider replacing this one year old junk with a coil stove.

I too have a glass top and I've used it for BWB canning. I use a large stock pot purchased at a dollar store for $5. Inside I lay a round cake cooling rack to keep the jars off the bottom or I found they break! It's a slow process this way, but it gets the job done.

As an alternative (and less expensive than buying a new stove), I now use a propane camping stove right outside my back door. I fill my traditional canner with water and start it boiling. Then I return to the much cooler kitchen to prepare whatever it is I'm canning. Usually, by the time I have everything cooked and in jars, the water is boiling at a good roll outside and I just go out in whatever intervals I'm processing and swap out processed jars for the next ones. The camping stove was $40 and one small cylinder of propane lasts for hours & hours.

I don't think you need to replace your stovetop either!

I have the glass top stove as well, and bought a Presto 16 Qt. pressure canner at Walmart, and think I paid around $40, though I'm not certain about the price. Anyway, it said right on the box, safe for glass stovetops. It will pressure can 10 pints, or 7 quarts at a time, but it says NOT to use as a BWB for quarts, only pints and 1/2 pints, due to not being tall enough.

They also had a Presto 23 quart canner, but because of the weight when full, it said not to use on a glass cooktop.

I've had no problems canning on my stove, and I think the glass cooktop is much easier to keep clean than the old coil type.

Just my 2 cents : )
Bonnie

Same issue here and similar solutions as well. We have an inexpensive glass cooktop stove that doesn't work with enamelware canners. Instead I use a flat-bottomed Calphalon stock pot that will take 5 pints at a time. They rest on an 8" cookie rack and I even used an old terry cloth towel before that. It worked beautifully. We've also purchased a Bayou Classic single burner outdoor propane burner (that I believe was recommended by Dave or Ken on this forum) that is easy to regulate and we do our quart-sized pressure canning in a protected area outside. That works beautifully both for pressure and water bath canning.

I've had glass topped stoves for over 20 years. I have found the biggest issue is getting a FLAT heavy bottomed pan. Walmart has some real nice ones, and the Presto canner is great too (AA is simply too big).

When I use the Presto, I can have the water boiling in less than 10 minutes (put the lid on but remove the plug). I good fitting lid helps a lot in holding in the heat and getting a fast boil. Most BWB canners have inadequate lids - about the same as not having one on.

My hotplate will bring 4 qts of cold tap water to a boil in 12 minutes - but the winner in boiling all time is my induction cooktop - it does the same in less than half the time.

BTW- one time I bought a 1000 watt hotplate, after 45 minutes my big BWB enamal canner was still not up to a boil. That is when I decided I needed a different solution to my canning delema.

I have a glass top stove and just purchased and used a 23 quart Presto pressure canner for the first time last weekend. I didn't see anywhere on the box that it said not to use it, but I didn't really look (I read the directions and no where in the book did it say not to use it on a glass top stove). It worked fine. It is very heavy, and when I took it off the heat and dragged it to the other side of the stove, I think it scratched the top a little. So, if you don't mind a little scratching, I think it's fine. I'm replacing my stove with a gas one soon, so I don't care.

I canned for 12 years on a glass top stove, only problem was getting the BWB to boil. During our construction we set up a temporary kitchen in the basement, I had to use a hotplate for canning which actually boiled water faster then my glass top range.

I stopped using my big canner and now just use my stock pot because the water boils faster. Darn canner takes forever to boil even on my gas Wolf Range!

Michelle

I just ordered myself a stainless steel canner that can be used on and induction or glass top stove. I was teaching a canning workshop where I had an induction burner for the canner. It worked great and now, no more rust spots!

-Robin

Here is a link that might be useful: Flat bottom stainless canner

I ordered the Ball canner above also. It still takes me about 45 minutes to get the water to boil, but it does eventually work. I have learned to start early!

Looks a lot like the 22 qt stainless, induction compatible stock pot I just bought at Wallmart - except I paid just under $50 and it does not have any markings on the front.

I'd like to know what kind of rack it comes with, the pictures didn't show that. I do all my indoor canning with a portable range (heavy duty hot plate) so I'm not worried about that.

With induction, I wonder if there would be an issue with the times as you can get the water to boil very quickly, but it's obvious it would take the stuff inside the jars a bit longer to heat up than it take the water to come to a boil (if you use boost, that is).

I did have the large stockpot filled with 15 qts sauce and a smaller one filled with 9 qts sauce boiling away on the induction cooktop for several hours, and everything worked just fine.

BTW- I bought a trivet that fits inside a smaller stockpot and I can water bath 5 pints or 7 1/2 pints with that. It's nice to have something on the smaller side - usually I use that along with the bigger canner to process the "extras" I end up with.

Cathy

The rack is like the one in the enamelware canners but with a slight upgrade. More rings of wire for supporting the jars etc. I used it once and the jars were far more stable then on the rack in my old enamelware one. However I still switched to the rack that came with my pressure canner.

-Robin

robinkateb and lisa1517 - how well does that Ball canner work with quarts?

The average quart jar is 7" tall. You need 2" of water on top of the jars for proper processing. Since the canner is only 9.7" tall - that means you have .7" for the height of the rack and for space above the boiling water. Or am I reading the dimensions wrong?

I use my All American on my glass top stove.

Note: They say do not do this because you could drop the canner on the stove and break it. After checking with the maker of my stove (Kitchenaid) they told me that a pot could be no more than 50 pounds. I calculated that I was within range.

Here is what I do:
Put the canner on the stove.
Put water in it with another pot.
Bring to boil
put jars in

Pressure or BW bath process as needed. Obviously your amount of water will vary.

When done processing, switch the heat off.

I do NOT move the canner until lit is completely cool. Yes, this means that for pressure canned stuff it gets 'over done.' But I'm not willing to pick up a HOT heavy canner and risk dropping it on my glass top stove.

Nate

Pixie Lou, I have had no problems with quarts, or no more then with my old enamel canner (sometimes you just have to clean your stove because of the water boiling over).

-Robin

I bought an electric hotplate and use that for my canning...takes too long on my glass top stove

I have a turkey fryer system that I have used for canning for many years on my back porch. I have used it with my old pressure cooker (not using the turkey frying pot) by using the fryer stand with the propane gas. It worked very well. I also have a side burner on my grill that I have also used very successfully. I would not want to attempt to use my glass cooktop for canning due to the weight/high temps.
I do think a hot plate is a great idea; I remember those as a child. Sadly I am attempting to clean my cooktop from having made sweet iceberg pickles.....I've done everything everyone has suggested from my web searches. I've made some progress but the only remaining thing to try is the razor. Thus, I will not be making any jams/jellies, etc on my glass top range; I've learned my lesson (and my arm is sore from scrubbing with 3M green scrubber, Comet non-scratch & even oven cleaner...tried lemon juice/baking soda & also vinegar/baking soda...solo baking soda too). Happy canning!

Magnoliantn, I am not sure if your glass top is different than mine, but the first thing I made on my glass top when I got it was a marmalade.... which not being used to the setting I promptly boiled all over my nice new cooktop.

From my reading you should clean your stove top with glass stove top cleaner. I use Weiman, a sample came with my stove. You spread it on, let it dry, if you have something really stuck on (like my marmalade the following day) you SHOULD be scraping it with a razor. You are wasting your energy and time trying to clean it with a scrubber. Glass tops are meant to be cleaned with a scraper. The marmalade came right off. That was over a year ago. I boil over more jam and jelly than anyone probably should. I made a cake today and used the stove top as my frosting area because my kids were using the counter for something else. If you are not using your stove top to cook because you can't clean it, you are doing something wrong, glass tops are smooth to be easy to clean, not to be difficult.

And to stay on topic with the OP. I do can on it also. I use my 23qt pressure canner. I haven't cracked it or had an issue yet. I have found that on my full power burner I set it to 3.5 to get to 12 lbs of pressure and walk away. I had issues in the beginning because I fiddled with the temp too much. I had to run test batches to find the right setting on my stove, just like I had to with my old dial electric range.

Good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: Stove cleaner