# Vacuum sealing jars



## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

This is odd, very odd, I hope someone else has encountered this? I have about 50 half gallon jars of various brands that I use for vac sealing dry goods. Of the lot I have at least a dozen, all Ball brand, jars my foodsaver jar attachment will NOT work on. All are clear rather than blue. All are regular mouth. All the other brands work fine, and probably 25 of my Ball brand work fine, but not these. 

It seems they have a larger than normal ring beneath the screw threads that causes my jar attachment to rock on the little protrusions inside rather than seal.

I've tried using 2 lids and they still won't seal.

Anyone ever encountered this? Anyone have any ideas on how to make this work?


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## MelTX (Aug 25, 2009)

I sometimes have trouble with lids on vac packed jars, if I use new lids. Try using a clean/sterilized lid from a previously canned jar. Might help. Best wishes!


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## OneDayx2 (Dec 11, 2007)

I have a few pint jars like you describe and my sister has some 1/2 gallon jars with the same problem. She never did get it to work. The only thing I can suggest would be using a Food Saver Canister if you have one big enough to fit a 1/2 gallon jar to vacuum seal them. That's what I had to do with the pint jars.


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

I'm glad to know others have this issue! I couldn't quite believe it was operator error and this jar attachment is almost new.


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## wottahuzzee (Jul 7, 2006)

If you have a canister large enough to put the jar in, you can seal it that way. I use that method to seal oddball jars with original lids (like the Del Monte fruit jars, I use those for pet food, put them in an appropriate-sized canister and vac seal, get a seal at least 95% of the time). Of course for the half-gallon jar, you will need a large canister but they do make one big enough. 

The other thing you could try is an O2 absorber and not worry about using the vac sealer.


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## Just Cliff (Nov 27, 2008)

You can make a simple vacuum chamber.Get a peice of heavy walled PVC pipe ( green stuff laying at every construction site) and cut the ends smooth, sand any nicks out of the cut and leave it rough from sanding. use a piece of neoprene, inner tube,weather stripping or whatever to glue(contact cement) on each end

Get some scrap heavy plywood make a base big enough that the pipe does not extend past the edges. Spray it with some paint or whatever to give it a smooth surface.

Take another piece of plywood and drill a couple holes in it. one should be the size of your hose barb that goes to your vacuum sealer. Make the hole a bit smaller so you can screw (force)the barb fitting in. Make the other hole about a 1/2 inch in dia. Spray with paint to make smooth on both sides. take another piece of the neoprene and cut a strip about an inch wide and a few inches long, this will cover the hole that will relaese the vacuum.
Put your jar in,set the top on with the neoprene strip over the hole, pull a vacuum, when its maxed out, pull the strip off the hole and the jar will seal.

Pretty easy and cheap to build. Parts can be gotten any hardware store.


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## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

Stephen, I know what you mean. I have several jars like this - I believe they are the ones that originally came with zinc lids and rubber rings. I also have clear ones like this, not just blue. Just Cliff has an option, I just use dessicant in those jars since I cannot get a vacuum seal.


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## praieri winds (Apr 16, 2010)

Iwas having trouble with my foodsaver reg jar sealer also until I started putting 2 lids on the jar it would seal the bottom lid and sometimes the top one also but at least it was sealed


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## OneDayx2 (Dec 11, 2007)

Praieri winds, I found if you put the top lid (the extra one) on upside down, it doesn't stick to the one on the jar. That way you don't risk denting that lid trying to pry it off or having it to be wasted leaving it on the jar. Have that same problem as you using the regular jar sealer. Instead of trying it with one lid and having to redo it most times, I just go ahead and use two right from the get go.


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

Marilyn, I think you may have hit the nail squarely on the head! That had never occurred to me although I knew these were really old jars from the 30's based on the Ball name design.

I will try two lids opposing each other as two mated didn't even do the job.

Thanks to all for your help.


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