# Regular vs. Wide Mouth Jars



## CarolynRenee

Any time I have to buy canning jars, I always buy the wide mouth jars because they are soooooo much easier to clean. I've been given plenty of regular mouth jars & of course, can't bear to part with them even though I can't stand cleaning them.

Is there a specific reason / function for the regular mouth jars?


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## judylou

> Is there a specific reason / function for the regular mouth jars?


Surprising to you perhaps but many would ask that question in reverse - is there any use for the wide-mouth jars?  

Based on annual sales figures, many much prefer the regular mouth jars to the wide mouth. Myself included. I will only use any wide-mouths I have inherited - never bought any - when I run out of regular mouth jars. 

The wide mouth jars were a much later addition to the jar line so there are far, far more regular mouth jars in circulation than wide-mouth ones. Wide-mouth are more expensive as are the lids and the regular lids are much easier to find too. And more problems are reported annually on the wide-mouth than on the regular mouth jars. WM are well-known for more seal failures and as easier to damage because of the weaker shoulders, and depending on the type of canner, less WM jars will fit in a load vs. regulars. 

The regular mouth jars will hold anything a wide-mouth jar will and are easily cleaned with a handled scrub brush. Many report they have less problems with floating fruit and vegetables using regular mouth jars, again because of the narrower shoulder, and they are easier to store if you stack jars on storage shelves.

But it all boils down to a personal preference and if your preference is wide-mouth, that's fine.


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## Riverdale

We use regular for pickles and veggies.

Wide mouth for meat and chicken.


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## suitcase_sally

I agree with everything judylou has said. The _only_ advantage of the wide mouth jars is when you want to can meat, especially whole pieces as with pork loin - it's easier to get the pieces out of a wide-mouth jar.

I have run out of regular jars and have gone to the store to get more rather than use the wide mouths.

As a side note, I have found that you may get a better seal if you decrease the headspace in the wide mouth jar, say down from 1" to about 5/8".


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## Falls-Acre

I haven't canned meat yet, however I prefer regular mouth quart jars and wide mouth pint. I like the WM pint because I use pint sizes for jams. It's easier to get the jam out of the jar with a WM.


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## Texasdirtdigger

I tend to use my regular mouth jars for fresh peas, beans, sauces. Wide mouth for stuff I need to be more percise in packing.


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## Callieslamb

I love the WM...the only thing I don't like is that if you tap them together - you can pop a flat off if you removed the ring. The flats are at exactly the same level. RM can't tap each other's flats....LOL!!

I find that the stores run out of WM first around here and there are only RM left. I use both equally. I Like my green beans, pickles, beets, jelly/jam, potatoes, and pears in WM. Anything runny can go in regular.


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## olivehill

This: 



judylou said:


> Based on annual sales figures, many much prefer the regular mouth jars to the wide mouth.


I suspect has much to do with this: 



> The wide mouth jars were a much later addition to the jar line so there are far, far more regular mouth jars in circulation than wide-mouth ones.


And this: 



> Wide-mouth are more expensive


more than anything rooted in actual usability. 

First of all, people are creatures of habit. Since many, perhaps most, of those who can today are older their canning habits were largely rooted in the use of regular mouth jars, probably before wide mouth came out with any real popularity. By that same token many already also have a good stock of regular mouth jars established and wouldn't want to switch and/or have the hassle of dealing with two different types/sizes of jars. 

People who can, as a general rule of thumb, also tend to be frugal, the added expense of the wide mouth jars -- $2 per flat last time I looked -- is a deterrent for sure. And because, as you noted, regular mouth are in greater circulation getting yard sale and second hand deals on jars is much easier if you're using regular mouth jars. Another added bonus for the frugal at heart.



> And more problems are reported annually on the wide-mouth than on the regular mouth jars. WM are well-known for more seal failures


By extension of the above we might assume wide mouth jars are being used by those new to canning more regularly than those with a lot of canning experience. With this in mind I wouldn't be too quick to jump on blaming errors on the jars. Newbies make mistakes and are more likely to have failures than those who have been canning for many years. 

I agree with you that whatever one prefers they should use, I'm just not so sure the usability of the regular mouth over the wide mouth has anything to do with the current popularity of one over the other.


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## bluebird2o2

The wide mouth lids are expensive and hard too find here.I rarely use them.


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## Gladrags

I love wide mouth jars for things I spoon out -- pickles, etc. I also like the way they look; can't put my finger on it, but they just look cool. 

Then again, most of my regular mouth jars are antiques handed down from my mom, and I _really _like the way they look!


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## CarolynRenee

I just knew I would get a "your the weird one" for liking Wide Mouth jars! 

Truthfully, it's been SO long since I purchased canning jars that I don't remember the price differences. If I were to go shopping today for bunches of jars & saw a $2 per flat difference, I would probably buy the RM jars & just use the handled scrubby & deal with the cleaning "issue" I have.

I did kind of wonder if the fact that there was more surface area on the WM vs. the RM jars if the sealing would be more likely to fail. I've only had one jar in a batch of apple pie filling fail, and it was the RM jars, but I'm sure it was operator error and not lid error!


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## SueMc

I like the wide mouths just because I'm used to using them. I have accumulated quite a few regulars that I use too.
DH just picked up 58 ($30) boxes of unopened regular flats at an auction the other day so I'll be using regular jars for a while!


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## Solarmom

Wow, I actually prefer WM jars- I like the uniformity and the straight sided "look" when they are stacked. I haven't had any noticeable differences other than I just don't like to clean the RM jars, eh, call me lazy. I still have a few dozen RM that I got from my Mom, I remember making pickles with these when I was a kid. so I don't give them away. When I make canned goods to give away, I always give away the RM ones! I don't mind using the RM one too much especially when I'm making juice. I guess we all have our preferences. Very interesting topic. I look forward to hearing some more on this....



Kris


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## CarolynRenee

Solarmom said:


> When I make canned goods to give away, I always give away the RM ones! Kris


Me too! 

It's like the fruitcake syndrome.....there are really only about two dozen Regular Mouth jars in the world, but they just keep being passed on as gifts!!


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## Ann-NWIowa

I prefer RM jars because the lids cost so much less. I do have some WM jars which I use when I run out of RM so I buy a couple of boxes of WM flats each year. The extra costs always makes me happy I'm using RM 99% of the time. Until my arthritis got bad my small hands would fit in a RM jar so I had no trouble washing them. Now days I use a brush. I do like WM for pork loin as its almost impossible to get it out of RM jars.


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## majik

Ann, that's interesting. Just last night my husband said "how come all the canning jar mouths are so narrow? I can't get my hand in there." He has arthritis too. And I assured him that we did have some wide mouth jars...but they are expensive here too, so I use the RM mostly. Although if I want a dish washing helper, I may need to switch over!


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## mistymomom

I like the WM ones too. Especially for big stuff like whole beets and peach halves. I've never had them fail yet. I use what ever I have though. I guess I never paid attention to the fact that the lids are more expensive on the WM, just bought what I needed. In fact I better go get some more lids for the pears.


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## julieq

The wide mouth jars are SO much easier to clean, and easier to stuff with pears, peaches, etc. But we purchase as many used jars as we can find reasonably priced and most of them are regular mouth sized. And of course the regular sized lids are cheaper... If we were wealthy we'd probably change over to all wide mouth for quart sizes, but for now we'll go with the cheaper alternatives!


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## Pouncer

I use both, it depends on what I am canning. For things that tend to float (green beans, for example) I prefer a RM. For the salmon, salsa, and etc, I prefer the WM. 

You guys wouldn't believe how much a case of quarts costs here now, wow!


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## daisybell

I completely agree about the cleaning of RM jars. They are a pain. But a friend of mine found a solution, especially if cleaning a lot of jars at a time. Buy a "new" round toilet brush, file down the handle to fit your drill, insert in jar and turn on the drill. Make sure you turn off the drill before you pull the brush out of the jar. This works wonders for cleaning.


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## suitcase_sally

And don't plug in the drill with your hand in water. :hysterical:


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## judylou

> Buy a "new" round toilet brush, file down the handle to fit your drill, insert in jar and turn on the drill. Make sure you turn off the drill before you pull the brush out of the jar. This works wonders for cleaning.


WOW! Talk about over-kill cleaning!!! :hobbyhors


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## mnn2501

bluebird2o2 said:


> The wide mouth lids are expensive and hard too find here.I rarely use them.


 Same exact price here
I only use wide mouths - they're just easier.


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## Paquebot

For as long as I can remember, widemouth pint jars have only been used for pickles and then only for spears. One can easily pack them full and then just as easily get them out later. Quarts were usually for kraut and that's the only thing that we presently have in such jars. Again, easier to pack and empty. Other than those, a friend gave me 2 dozen WM quarts this summer and they'll probably never be used. Excess about 10 years ago was given to another who wanted them for canning venison. Otherwise everything here is canned in 70s or 63s.

Martin


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## Just Cliff

I use a mix of both but like the WM for meatloaf, meatballs and cakes. Nothing more frustrating than trying to get cake out of a RM jar in one piece. I have also had a couple catastrophic self initiated openings right out of the pressure canner. The RM tend to blow chunks all the way to the ceiling where the WM dump on the table.


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## Spinner

I like the straight side jars. I'd trade all my regular jars for straight sided ones in a heartbeat.


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## mekasmom

I have about two dozen wide and dozens of dozens of regular mouth jars. I like the RM, but it is probably just personal preference. Plus RM can fit more in canner at once.


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## sewserious

I prefer the wide-mouth jars for most things but use the regular if that is what I have on hand.


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## carogator

Even though the cost is higher for lids on the WM jars, you can get more in these jars and use less jars and lids. True , you only realize the difference if you do a lot of canning, but it does matter.


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## beaglebiz

Paquebot said:


> For as long as I can remember, widemouth pint jars have only been used for pickles and then only for spears. One can easily pack them full and then just as easily get them out later. Quarts were usually for kraut and that's the only thing that we presently have in such jars. Again, easier to pack and empty. Other than those, a friend gave me 2 dozen WM quarts this summer and they'll probably never be used. Excess about 10 years ago was given to another who wanted them for canning venison. Otherwise everything here is canned in 70s or 63s.
> 
> Martin


Widemouth jars make a fine lemonade glass 
I have some, but rarely use them because of the price difference in the lids.


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## Paquebot

carogator said:


> Even though the cost is higher for lids on the WM jars, you can get more in these jars and use less jars and lids. True , you only realize the difference if you do a lot of canning, but it does matter.


Eh? A regular pint holds just as much as a widemouth pint. Regular quart holds just as much as a widemouth quart. The only advantage with widemouth jars is ease in packing certain products.

Martin


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## judylou

Agree with Martin. A pint is a pint and a quart is a quart. A liter is still a liter regardless of the shape of the jar. And yes, I do A LOT of canning.


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## GrannyG

I love the wide mouth jars as well....really love the new squatty looking elite jars that just came out with the silver rings....totally beautiful filled with applebutter for Christmas gifts this year...LOL...I love to run beautiful pictures through the printer (circular), laminate them, and put them on the tops of the jars, fancy them up, tie them with jute cords. JUst a little extra touch for gift giving......beauty is in the eye of the beholder..and she has a wide mouth...LOL


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## jwal10

I like the wide mouth jars for serving at the table, they look nicer and easier to dig into. Bread and butter pickles, peach and pear halves, whole tomatoes, big fat dill pickles. Most of my wide mouth are pints though....James


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