Some articles are saying to remove the metal ring
once they are on the shelves. One such article explains why a good reason to remove.
http://www.thekitchn.com/tip-store-canned-jars-without-rings-170421

I have always kept the rings on, but finding alot of rust to remove.

Any comments on storing them with or without the rings ?

Also , I am having a devil of a time getting the rust stains off.

Plus, a couple of my jars seem to have a whitish cast that I have not been able to scrub off,
and I think it comes from hard water and being in the dishwasher . Any ideas how to get
that whitish look off.

Goldie: My mom always said that you could get that whitish stuff off your bottles, or canners, pots etc, by boiling whatever you need done in the leaves of the rhubarb plant. I do not recall her saying how long to boil it. I have not done this myself, but I do remember seeing her pot, before and after a treatment, so I know it works. She also said to wash everything with hot soapy water really well, because rhubarb leaves are poisonous. I hope this helps. Please let us know the outcome.

Boiling rhubarb works very well for inside aluminum pots. Takes about 20minutes . I used todo it
all the time for the camp / hiking cook pots .

So I will try it for the jars.

Add a splash of vinegar to the canning water. No more hard water deposits.

While sealing some dried chicken stock in mason jars, I used the 500mL size container
as after doing a batch using a 1Litre container I think that is just too big as it will last quite awhile once opened.

Anyway, I used the food saver jar sealer, and used saran wrap inside at the top to help prevent the powder
from getting sucked out. It all started out good until the last jar and I would not seal, so I put it in a new jar
with a new seal ( always a good idea to prepare more jars than you need )

Still no luck, and every time I took off the sealer, the inner rubber ring of the food saver jar sealer pulled off.

Has anyone had the rubber ring keep pulling out of the sealer accessory ?

I am wondering what size mason jars people are preferring to use for storing dry goods ?

And when using the food saver jar sealer attachment, has anyone found any long term
issues comparing the use of the wide mouth to the standard mouth lid ? I am just wondering if
the vacuum seal created using the food saver is better on the standard lid with less area at the top?

I have alot of 1Litre size wide mouth with the decorative crap on the outside. I prefer when they
have measurement lines. Sometimes you can only buy what they have. I did not notice they had
that decorative crap on them or I would have looked elsewhere. These came from Canadian tire.

Couple years ago I was able to buy 1.5 Litre wide mouth size and it is quite nice. Storage wise it sort of works
well as it doesn't take up that much more room and have a bit extra height, with the bonus of getting
say 1.5 Litre ( about 6 cups ) in the jar. I don't see this size very often

An annoying thing is that these companies have stopped selling them with a full closed box. Which were
good for storage. I think we should start complaining to them and requesting the full box. I can not find
them on facebook , or I would be complaining there also.

Later on I am hoping to do water bath canning of citrus fruits such as grapefruits and oranges,and then also
clementines , and will use 500mL size for the grapefruits and 250mL size for clementines. I am not liking
how a lot of the canned goods today say MADE in CHINA and are packed in plastic.

I doubt I will be venturing into the pressure canning this year. I have to get back to my roots first this summer
and start doing water bath canning like I did years ago. Luckily I have all my water bath equipment from years ago .
I've never tried pressure canning, so perhaps that is something for 2015.

there is a company called colsolidated bottles in the west end of toronto, they sell everything you can get all the jars you need from them by the case or pallet at a good price. they have a store there as well just call in and get price quotes.

While sealing some dried chicken stock in mason jars, I used the 500mL size container
as after doing a batch using a 1Litre container I think that is just too big as it will last quite awhile once opened.

Anyway, I used the food saver jar sealer, and used saran wrap inside at the top to help prevent the powder
from getting sucked out. It all started out good until the last jar and I would not seal, so I put it in a new jar
with a new seal ( always a good idea to prepare more jars than you need )

Still no luck, and every time I took off the sealer, the inner rubber ring of the food saver jar sealer pulled off.

Has anyone had the rubber ring keep pulling out of the sealer accessory ?

there is a trick with doing the jar sealer use 2 lids on the jar then just pop off the top one and you have no problems. for some reason the sealers do not sit tight enought even pushing down with just one lid. that works for us really well

Thanks, I phoned Food Saver and they told me that trick.

Also they said that if you warmup the lids they work better. Which was interesting
as I had sterilized some lids and they did work better.