Over the last decade, the Ball Canning folks have brought a handful of canning appliances to market. The first was the FreshTECH Jam and Jelly Maker in the summer of 2012. The FreshTECH Automatic Home Canning System was the thing during the 2014 canning season. And now, we have the Ball FreshTECH Electric Water Bath Canner and Multi-Cooker.
This electric canner is exactly what I know a number of you have been hoping for. It’s a giant pot that has an independent element so that you can move your processing pot off your stove top and over to the counter.
It holds 8 quarts, nine pints, or a dozen regular mouth half pints (that means that if you stack them, you can process 24 quarter pint jars at once). It’s particularly great if your stove is slow to boil water or if you’ve been warned off canning on a glass top cooktop. It works like any other boiling water bath canner, so if you live at higher altitudes, you will still need to adjust your processing time upwards.
It has a spout on the left side of the canner, so if your kitchen is arranged in a way where you can set the canner to the right of your stove, you can drain the water directly into the sink. The canner comes with a steaming rack as well as a canning rack, so that you can use it for all your high capacity steaming needs (I could see it being perfect for tamale parties).
It can also be used as a portable cooker, so can work for large amounts of soup, chili, or even something like mulled cider. Nice if you help with community potlucks or church suppers.
I’ve now run a number batches of jars through the canner and I am really happy with it. It’s not going to become my primary boiling water bath because I make a lot of small batches and it doesn’t make sense to heat up this much water for two or three pints, but for larger batches, it’s a boon.
It’s also incredibly useful during tomato season and I’ve started bringing it with me to my classes and workshops where I know we’re making multiple batches and so we’ll need more canner space.
This canner does cost $149.99, which is a pretty penny if you already have a canning set-up you like. If you like the idea of moving your canning pot off your stove top but can’t swing that price point, there is a more affordable way to create something similar.
Get yourself an induction capable stock pot (a classic speckled canner with a flat bottom will work) and the induction burner I have (it’s just $60) and you have a canner you can run anywhere (I highly recommend outdoor canning on really hot days).
My bottom line on the Ball FreshTECH Electric Water Bath Canner is that it’s a great tool for people who do lots of large batch canning. If you have the budget and storage space for it, I highly recommend it.
Disclosure: The folks at Ball Canning sent me a FreshTECH Electric Canner for review and photography purposes at no cost to me. They are also provided a giveaway unit. No additional compensation was provided for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.
I wish I’d been into canning so I would have thought to get my grandma’s set up. I desperately need a real set up. I just use the biggest pot I got for my wedding with nothing on the bottom. I know bad but haven’t had any problems yet. I would love to win this pot!!!
I use my mom’s old speckled canner. Which lives at her house, so I haul my produce there to use it. I do get to visit with her, too, so that’s nice. 🙂
I use this large stock pot (it’s half my size) for larger canning projects (like the quart and pint jars), and the smaller ones I use an old pasta pot that we’ve had for a while. I line up the insides so it doesn’t get into contact with the bottom of the pot. 🙂
I use a lobster pot and a pasta pot at the moment. The lobster pot is a pain because the walls are so high, but it fits more jars in it. The pasta pot works in a pinch. Both are stainless steel.
I use a big blue Ball canning pot for large batches, and my stockpot and blossom trivets for the small batches.
This looks like so much fun! I use an old beat up black speckled canner for waterbath canning -to afraid to try the pressure canner I got as a wedding gift.
My 35 year old Presto pressure canner does double duty as a pressure canner and water bath.
Blue speckle pot to can. Ball jars and Ball utensils. New equipment would be great. Thanks for the chance…….
I use a flat-bottom stock pot on my glass stove. Scoured the user manual to make sure it was okay! Would be nice to have it off the stove, though. Would love to can in the basement in the hot summer months.
I bought an enamel canning pot but it use an smaller old pot that was a hand-me-down from someone long ago because I make small batches of jams and pickles and less water to heat up.
I have an old boil on the stove top canner. It makes my house hot as hades, as I have no air conditioning. Of course, I would love one of these!
My mom is the grandma who taught me to can and is now teaching my young kids. She has a testy glass top stove, so I would love to gift this canner to her!
I use the traditional canning pot on the stove. Many an hour has been spent hovering nearby!
I think its great idea. I use my fathers old blue kettle after all these years. would luv to retire it to shelf. so I can pass it down to my GrandDaughter some day.
I use an enamel pot- with a full rack for putting up pears and peaches- and a small one for jams using a rack of old lid rings. I have a 4th burner pot,for that one last frozen bag of tiny wild plums- but I’m usually too exhausted by January to jam. Our house is surrounded by old orchard, so last year I made about 80 jars of jam. Then there was the whole fruit, pear chutney, grape juice, Italian soda syrup, and various pie fillings to put up. It was quite a year. It snowed yesterday though so I’m not sure which fruit will survive so quickly after pollination finished (in which case… there are always raspberries!).
So as long as I’m commenting, I might as well tell you I have really LOVED your book, in fact the pear Ginger Jam is one of my favorites. Of course it helps that 40 of my trees are Bartletts! I also made up a similar recipe that I think you would enjoy: pear raspberry jam using raspberry juice. I only juiced the raspberries so I could make a traditional jelly for my grandmother, but I had a little left and decided to use it in a pear jam instead of making one glass of soda. It was lovely, very delicate flavors that could probably be enhanced by some spice or seasoning that you would’ve come up with. I wonder if just the tiniest bit of rose water would be good? Or maybe just some almond oil?
I have an old granite enamel pot with a rack and can on a propane stove.
I have been canning with a smaller enamel pot that fits the burner on my glass top stove. My house is small and heats up fast in the summer. Plus no air conditioning. It would be great to can more jars at a time and outside !!
I have been using my Uncle’s big blue canner for the last 4 yrs. He gave me it along with untensils, jars, rings, lids. He’s now in his 80’s & stopped canning years ago. And I only started canning 4 years ago! I then got 8 Ball quart jars & 3 blue canner pots from my 90 yr old friend also! These were she had left in home from when her Mom made quarts of tomato sauce. I of course added new tools to my canning but the pots & jars ALL still work fine. Amazing considering the age of all. I do like your suggestion of canning outside in hot weather. Maybe I’ll have to buy a burner since no “old” ones around to inherit!
I have a big stock pot that I use with a round cooling rack for cakes. Not very high tech. Sometimes I lace a towel through the jars to prevent them from clinking together.
I have my aunts pressure cooker and my mom’s water bath they are all very old I am getting a new pressure cooker this year
This sounds amazing. Right now I am using an old canning pot and metal trivet. The trivet is beginning to rust… though that is my fault because I let the water cool in the pot so I can water my garden and planters with the water and I am too lazy to take the trivet out. I often wonder if I ought to invest in a higher quality canning pot. Perhaps this is the solution?
I have two canners one water bath and one pressure, I would love to have a canner I could use on the back porch on hot summer days.
I use my grandmother’s old water bath and pressure canners.
I use a stainless steel stock pot, but it really doesn’t work very well! I would LOVE to try a water bath canner.
I use a canner on my glass top stove. This year on Christmas morning the largest burner quit working, so I’m not sure what I will do this summer as I haven’t had if fixed yet.
I’ve honestly only done freezer jam so this would be really fun to get me started!
I use my Mother’s water bath canner but would love to have a Ball canner to free up stove space!I have several Ball canning books, including a couple that belonged to my Grandmother! Thanks for all the recipes!
For waterbath canning I use a stainless still canner with a wire rack. My stove is electric with coil burners rather than a glass stove top. I have reinforced burners that I use when canning.
With my current set up it is difficult to adjust the temperature of the back burner, while canning as the pot butts up against the control knob. This stand alone canner looks like it would really help with this issue and would save wear and tear on my stove.
Depending on how many jars I’m processing, I use different size pans. But I recently bought a 10-quart stainless steel pan that I think will be my go-to, since it fits nicely on my electric burner.
I have a water bath canner I got at a garage sale for 50 cents! Lol! It even had the rack for the inside!
I use an aluminum stock pot with a drop in steamer/strainer basket to keep the jars off the bottom for canning pint jars. For quart jars, I use a very deep stainless pot that I used for brewing beer in the past with a round metal cooling rack in bottom.
I’ve been working my way through your jam recipes this past month – blackberry sage (my favorite so far), orange tomato jam (I added bacon – keeping this one in the fridge), peach and I made the lemon curd which everyone just adores!!!
I would LOVE to have a Ball canner!!! Thanks for all the wonderful recipes!
I use a good old enamel canner on either my flat top stove (boo, but it does work – takes longer for it all to heat up properly) or my new induction burner. The latter works well, but makes interesting noises. How I long for a gas stove! Sadly, it’s just not an option where we live.
I use my mother’s speckled pot, but with my glass stovetop this would definitely be worth switching.
I use a 21qt enamel canner on my gas stove. My kitchen is very limited on counter and cupboard space, so we use a high-top table for prep work. I heat my jars in the same canner, fill them, and put them back in. For a large batch, I have to do a little at a time because my counters are so small!
I use a stainless steel stock pot but I LOVE this idea…
Wow….,again a new product I wasn’t aware of!…..I have health issues that make me limited to only canning when someone is going to be able to lift the pot for me….I could go back to canning by myself with this!. I sure would love to win this!
This sounds amazing! I currently have a very traditional set up with the standard graniteware canning pot. I do have the special canning element instead of the regular burner. I’m always running out of room on the stove though–especially when cooking down giant vats of tomato sauce and trying to get the canner boiling.
I use a large pot, but I have to be careful because I have a glass top range. I would LOVE one of these Ball Canner/Cookers!!!!!!!! It would be awesome!
im still using the old fashion canner, but have moved. The stove is an old downdraft, but everything gets steamed up. I love this new idea.
I still use my grandma’s stove top canner. My mom used it as well (although not much). It’s hard to believe that a trusty Ball pot could last through 3 generations!
I use the basic speckled pot, but sometimes I have a hard time with water boiling over the stovetop! I like the look of this appliance, and that’s cool that this is multi-purpose!
I use a trusty old canning pot from the hardware store. Very old school, but it has served me well for years.
My canning pot has a crumpled lid….best way to describe it. I was looking at canning pots yesterday in fact at Bed Bath and beyond…..those lovely coupons.
I use old-school – canner, stovetop – this excites me so much, I’m worried about myself
I use a hand me down canner from my aunt, I would LOVE to have the opportunity to have one of these as it would give me so much more space to use my stovetop at same time!
I use traditional blue speckled canning rig. I have considered upgrading to a stainless rig, but haven’t been able to justify the cost. This would be a wonderful addition to my kitchen! I could run all four stove burners to cook down tomato sauce AND process jars at the same time!
Let’s see. My canning setup is evolving. I have a glass top stove which I am catious with and also seems slow to boil. I have a canning pot but it’s not totally flat so it worries me somewaht (especially when water gets underneath and it makes those terrible little explosion noises). Anyway I have a portable burner my husband needs to finish fixing that runs off propane. It looks like it would be a good size for a crab pot or something like that. I’m hoping I can move that to my garage our outside, one, to be quicker and higher capacity, two, to not ruin my stove, and three so maybe it will be a little cleaner and I won’t take over the whole kitchen. If I had a more efficient setup I might do more canning … So this tool would be awesome to try out!
i use a stockpot with a round rack in the bottom. If it’s a small batch, I have used the 4th burner pot (I learned that trick from this site.) I wouldn’t spring for the fresh tech just now, but I’d love to try it!
I have an old pressure cooker and I borrow a water bath canner from my in-laws. This would be wonderful!!! **fingers crossed***
I was taught how to preserve food using the water canning method by my grandmother when I was child, and have been using it ever since. I use a stock pot which was my first major kitchen purchase for making brine. I would love this new caner as it would free up a large amount of stove top space and highly increase my productivity level.