Back to Basics 286 5-Piece Home Canning Kit

 (88 customer reviews)

I am brand new at canning, and did my first batch prior to ordering these tools. It went okay, but I was immediately sold on the idea of a jar lifter. I looked and looked locally but couldn't find one, and this set was available for immediate shipment.

The jar lifter is fantastic, and ultimately I think it alone is worth the price of admission -- not because it's worth it in and of itself, but because it's a total necessity, so I would have purchased it at any price that wouldn't break the bank.

The other pieces are either already part of a moderately well-equipped kitchen, are nice but not necessary, and/or are not all that well constructed.

I'd opted to return a relatively expensive set of plastic funnels when I purchased this set, but the included funnel here melted a bit under the heat of the boiling brine I poured over the pickles-to-be. Same for the plastic surrounding the magnet when I used it (quite effectively) to grab the jar lids out of a...Read more

We have used this several times since we recieved it a couple weeks ago. The one piece I have been a little disappointed with is the lid magnet. It did not pick up the lids very well, (it is a little dangerous to fingers to have lids drop and splash boiling water) I finally just gave up and used the tongs to get the lids out. That being said the other products have worked well.

This canning kit has everything you need to do home canning. The only improvement is that the magnet on the end of the lid tool was bigger; sometimes when I am working fast the jar lid repeatedly falls back into the boiling water.