Customer Reviews

Norpro canning lid Rack

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After too many times of having my hot lids stick to each other and have to handled, struggled with, or just give up until later, I bought this gadget. There are some things we don't need when canning. We can live without the funnel. We can probably live without the lifter tool. I'm not sure I want to live without this item. You can slide your rings down the handle while you are getting organized. you can even put the whole thing, with rings, down into your hot water. You pick up the lids by the edges, never have to touch the inside of the lid. A great and useful tool.

Have been making jelly for 40 years. Used to use one of those magnetic sticks to get the lids out of the hot water. Bought this exact model a couple of years ago. Love it. Will never go back. Don't have to stand over the steaming pot to locate the lids, and the wooden handle never gets hot.

Let's face it, we can sterilize our canning lids without this. But using tongs is slow, and can be a pain when you have a dozen lids to pick up. This sturdy, well-made little device makes sterilizing lids quicker and frustration-free, at a very fair price. Highly recommended.

I have plenty of useless gadgets and hesitate before adding to my collection. That said, for a canner, this gadget is helpful and well worth the space it takes to store it. I have always struggled to retrieve the canning lids from the pot of simmering water but no more. The wooden handle remains cool so lifting it in and out of the water is safe and easy -- and the lids are now perfectly accessible.

Please note that the hang tag attached to the rack states the lids should be kept in boiling water. This is incorrect. According to the makers of the two piece canning lids, they should never be boiled before being placed on the jar to begin processing. Their instructions are to bring the water to a 180 degree simmer and to maintain that temperature. A candy thermometer works great to track the temperature.

I see no discoloring of the rack after a marathon pickle canning session. The rack was submerged in 180 degree water from 9 AM to 10 PM and it suffered no damage and worked as efficiently as I'd hoped. If in the future I experience any problems, I will update the review.

This rack would make a terrific gift for any person who cans.

Update 11/18/2011
After a full year of use the rack still looks great -- no discoloration or hard water residue. I don't know how I got along without this handy tool.

I love my magnet stick better in comparison. Also we have hard water and it seems to coat this metal rack a bit too much. We've often mentioned how we'd like one of these but after getting it...it's larger than we thought and hard to stash or store in cupboard or drawer. Overall we decided we prefer the magnet more. I do...my husband still hasn't made up his mind yet. Concept is good and some people might really like it if they have a spot for it when put away but we have a powerful chem lab style magnetic stick which works so nice and takes up so little space in our drawer of canning gadgets. I gave it 3 stars because if you do have the right size pan and it does separate the lids nicely...but it's overkill at the same time. And I had to use a bigger pan than I do otherwise to heat my lids in...the old way wins this round for me.

I canned without one of these last year, and while it can be done, this thing was worth the money. I no longer have to mess with the tongs and the lids sticking together in the pan. I used to boil a kettle of water seperately on the stove to use in my pressure cooker while I was sterilizing my lids in a shallow saucepan. Then I'd basically waste the water out of the "lid" pan and dump the boiling water from the kettle into the canner. This took two of my burners and valuable canning space. Now I use a larger pan for my lids (especially for wide mouth) since you need about 2-1/2 quarts of water to cover this thing with lids in. Now I save myself a step by simmering the lids, capping the jars, and then dump the water from the "lid" pan into the canner. Water saved as well. The color of the metal does darken with use, and I wish this was stainless steel. I think it will last awhile anyway since all you do is dip it in water, but stainless would have been nice. It holds more than enough lids for a full load. Everyone who cans with me wants one. Great item. Not a necessity, but it gets the job done faster and easier with less burnt fingers!

I didn't know this product existed until I got on Amazon. What a great tool to use for heating the lids. I saw the wand first but changed my mind when I saw the rack. Whoever thought of this did a fine job. I have used it and I love it. Can't think of any negatives, it's all good.

You really don't need this tool. You might be glad that you have it. It is sturdy and I guess cut back some of the work but it is also something else to store.

This does what it says it does, quite well. I wish it had a different handle, so I could put it in the dishwasher. I know they used wood to keep it cool, but I don't think the trouble of using a potholder if I ever needed to grab it while it was hot makes up for the trouble of washing it by hand, haha! Not that either is a big deal, of course. Of course, I have to heat a much larger pot of water for my lids using this than I did before, so that the water level will cover the lids, but I like having them separated like that for the hot water to flow around. I still use my magnetic lid lifter to get a lid out, so the rest of the lids stay submerged until I'm ready for them.

I found this useful for holding jar lids. It's easier to pull them out with a magnet wand when they're already upright.