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.
We have a super old school canner and could definitely use a up-grade!
I only freeze since getting a glass top stove. Have missed not being able to can. Suckered moving into a all electric house.
I use my Mama’s stockpot for my water bath canning on a glass top stove. Unfortunately, I canned so much last summer that I blew out the sensor on themain eye. Now I have a hard time maintaining a steady temperature on the main eye. This type of pot would be so useful!
Just a stainless sfock pot + basket from intro to canning kit. Basic but works!
I’m currently using a stainless steel stock pot with a canning rack. An electric canner would be great for working away from the stove since my apartment’s stove/oven configuration is a cramped setup.
My grandmother’s canner is still used here in peach country. Jams, jellies and pepper sauces are my favirites. Could always use an upgrade:)
I have a water bath canner that I have used for jams but i would love to have something electric so I can make more to share with friends and family.
Just started canning last year and have little or no experience. I would love this tool to help me on the next step!
Your question above “Are you using your grandmother’s canning pot?” made me laugh because that is exactly it. She is the one that taught me to can in-between bailing hay and milking cows next to my grandfather.
I use a stock pot on my glass top stove for my water bath. Haven’t had any problems. I use a pressure canner for all my other canning needs (broth, spaghetti sauce, etc.)
Using hand-me-downs…would sure love to try this high tech machine 🙂
I’m new to canning so I’m still gathering supplies, including a pot rack.
i just use a big stockpot I have that’s really thin I have been wanting to get one if these for a good while.
I have an old speckled canning pot from my mom that has seen it’s share
of salsas, jams, tomatoes & chutneys over the years, & would love
the new ball canner to add some exciting
Modern convenience in our mid-century kitchen!
And it would be fantastic to cook the holiday tamales to boot!
I haven’t had a setup yet. I canned growing up, and am just starting my own.
I use a stainless steel pot with wire rack on a gas cooktop. I just started canning last summer and put up 75 pounds of tomatoes, 15 pounds of cucumbers, four pints of tomatillo salsa, and four pints of eggplant tomato relish. I’m hooked!
I have my Mom’s old enamel pot set… Putting in the garden & would like to try another way of canning 🙂 Want to have homegrown organic additive free food for the family!!!
My sister helped me can last year. It was a large canner with the seal around the top. I think it would
hold 7 qts. Would love to have a canner of my own.
I use an old fashioned pot for my canning but would switch to something like this in a second 🙂 I like that it can be used for things other then canning as well.
Stock pot, gas stove and the green basket from the Ball discover canning kit. I found that I just don’t have the food needs to have to make huge batches, so the small batches & size work fine for me. If I do get this monster, I’d definitely hunt down a box of tomatoes from the farmer’s market!
I have one of those flat top stoves (which I do not like..it came with the house!) but one burner does a bridge from the front to the back and then I have a large burner so because I can so much at a time I get them both going!!! I just have the basic walmart black speckled canner so this would be great! I would have all three going! 🙂 Would cut my canning time down a ton!! Thank you for the chance to win!
I use a couple large pots but have always wanted an electric one. 🙂
Enamel canner on a gas stove. Pretty classic. I’ve never found a silicon trivet that works– even the one you use. Jars don’t sit flat because trivet is too small and stretched. Stuck w/the metal basket for my big jobs. This would be cool! Thx!
I have the basic ball hot water canner with the rack inside. Have managed to collect some cool funnels and tools over the four years I have been canning. Moved to a place with limited kitchen area, so this new electric thing would be awesome!
I use my moms canning pot. It’s started to rust in spots and parts of the enamel are flaking off. But I love this pot! It’s also perfect for cooking turkey stock and my kids use it to wash their 4h chickens for the fair.
I have the basic water canner from Walmart. We have a gas stove and above it there is a built in microwave. So it’s difficult to put in and take the jars out of the bath because of little space. This would be perfect to have on my counter.
my set up is kind of old. Older water bath canner. Mostly I can outside on an outdoor cooker since this helps get the water boiling faster and keeps the heat out of the house. My indoor stove takes forever. This new canner would be awesome! Also curious to see what else it can do.
I have been so eager to hear about how this contraption works! I have a tiny kitchen and my stove is stuck in a small nook where a I can’t fit the standard sized canning pot. Instead I have to run smaller batches in a stockpot with a silicone trivet.
I have a mismatch of pots and pans acquired by various means including “Hey, so are you still canning? If not I’d be happy to help you de-clutter by getting all that canning stuff out of your garage…”
Hello! I don’t currently have a setup, mostly because canning is intimidating! I would love to learn canning but I’m not really sure where to start!
I moved three years ago and the kitchen has the worst set up and stove configuration for canning. There just isn’t room to do the large scale canning that I was used to. I just spent a sad couple of hours packing up canning equipment this afternoon knowing it would be another season that all that gets made is freezer jam.
I haven’t had a canner in several years, so do need a new one. Canning off of the stove and even outside would be wonderful!
I was excited to see this post. I ordered this canner when it first hit the Ball website. I haven’t used it yet but I am glad to see you give it a good review. Can’t wait to use it to can my tomatoes.
i have a stove top pressure canner.
I have a $20 canning kit from Walmart… it takes up way too much space on my stove, and it would be really handy to be able to do the actually water bath elsewhere.
I have a big old stock pot I picked up at a going out of business sale about 30 years ago. I think I paid 7 bucks for it. I have been looking for a pressure cooker to do small jars but jeepers this is nice.
We recently moved into a home with a glass top stove so that has stopped all of my canning for now. I would love one of these because I do miss caning.
I have a big pot and do the hot water bath method. Nothing fancy!
Speckled pot on a gas stove.
We grow much of our own food, but we have had to cut back on canning since getting one of those ceramic topped stoves. What we do can is often done outside with propane burners. This looks like it would be perfect for us, being able to bring our canning back in the house. Our usual set up includes stuff we’ve bought as well as canning equipment passed down from our parents. This would really be bringing our canning process to the next generation.
My canning set-up is kaput. I was using an enameled pot on our electric coil stove until the last of our large burners died. Now I have a glass top stove and have read that I shouldn’t boil large pots of water on it because bad things could happen. I need a new canning set-up that doesn’t involve the stove and this would be perfect! The Meyer lemon tree is full of fruit that’s itching to be marmalade. 🙂
I use a pressure canner. Would love to have this. Thanks for the chance to win!
totally new to me and would be a great place to start
!
I have a setup that requires a bit of work: My stove takes ages to heat up a large pot of water, so I use our propane burner (which we bought for crab) outside, and end up doing quite a few laps from kitchen to deck, checking on boiling, and transferring jars & equipment on a tray. Good for a bit of a workout, but rather a major pain. This electric canner looks like a beautiful dream!
I use either a regular old school canning pot or the small pot with the red handle I saw on your site for small batch canning =)
I use a stock pot right now. I have a tiny kitchen so this would be so handy to free up stove area during canning.
I use a standard stock pot and a pressure canner… really wish I had this, I have a glass top stove. .. this would help me do more…
What a fabulous looking appliance! I use a large stockpot with a trivet set up. Nothing fancy but it works for the small batches I make. I really want to look into that Ball Canner though.
I use an extra large water bath pot, and do most of our processing outside on our outdoor burner. Our family cans a lot of tomato items. Mostly salsas, and sauces. One of these would be so helpful when the weather isn’t nice enough to process outside, or when I want to make a small batch.
A stockpot and a silicone trivet from IKEA.
I bet this would be useful for people who do handspun yarn and hand dyed yarn too!