I had the opportunity to visit a new manufacturer of canning jar flats yesterday.  They are based in Ohio, and are using 100% USA made components in the lids they are manufacturing in Ohio.  They sent me home with a bunch of sample packs.  I will send up to six boxes to the first 6 people that will pm me an address if you will agree to call the manufacturer and give them your thoughts of the flats after use.  All paperwork is in the box you will get, and I will pay postage.

Both I and the manufacturer would like your comments as soon as possible.

What is in this for me?
I have used these flats a few weeks ago and was impressed with them.  I  plan to stock and sell this product from my retail store, and as a store who wants to have excellent customer service, I want to sell a high quality product.  These are thicker lids than Ball, the seal is more flexible and larger.  There are more coatings to resist rust, and I think they are a better product in every respect.

In the initial sample pack I got the paperwork claimed they were tested for reuse up to 10 times.  During the tour yesterday I asked why that had been removed from he current advertising brochure.  The answer the the USDA refused to allow that as they believe canning lid flats should be a one time use item.  The brochures I got with my first sample pack a few weeks ago had not been reviewed by the USDA yet, and that is why it was still on there.  Our family will usually reuse lids if they are still in good condition, so this was a real selling point for us.

I would also ask you to post your reviews in this thread good or bad.

There are 30 regular size canning flats in each sample pack.

Thanks.

I started typing you an IM, but decided to delete it since it will probably be a few months before I could provide you any feedback.  I would imagine quicker feedback from some of our southern members whose gardens are way ahead of mine, or a member that has some other good that is ready to can right now would be more helpful to you.  In any case, it sounds like a great product, I hope it delivers what they have advertised to you.

Thanks for offering.  That's very kind of you to share something like this.

I'm not sending an IM.  I've never canned a thing and will be some time before I will try.

IM sent

FYI, just canned half dozen pints of pepper relish....

what's the name of the brand and when will they be out on the market?

Message sent, let me know if you got it.

Where can we buy them and who makes them? It will be a few months before we start canning or I’d hit you up for some samples

Im sent
Thanks

IM sent. We are currently canning asparagus, so we can test immediately.

Thanks everyone, they are all spoken for, there were more than 6 IM's the first 6 will get there's for sure, I will try to send at least a partial sample to everyone that responded by IM up to now.

The manufacturer is Superb Sealing Solutions, LLC

They are being distributed by Walnut Creek Foods, out of Ohio.

Edited to add, we expect rationed delivery to start Mid June of this year.

Current high volume customers with a history of purchasing canning supplies will receive first allocation.

I will try to start shipping the lids tomorrow.

Thank you for being one of the decent guys!

Have people received their samples?  Any comments or thoughts?  Is there anyone why has used them yet?

We have had very good results with the water bath method of canning, and pressure canning.  However, we have had some issues when using them to vacuum pack dry goods in a chamber vac machine.  In their defense, this is not a recommended method of using them, or a method they were designed for.

I have been having some issues with dry goods sealing vacuum packing in a chamber vac, when a proper seal is made, the lid is sealed extremely firmly.  However, there is very little wiggle room with the amount of tension used to set the lid before sealing.  Several of the lids were apparently too tight and caused the lid to pop off the top, ripping the ring off with it.  This was unexpected and exciting the first time it happened.  I have not had this issue with the ball brand, although I usually use the one piece commercial lids when vacuum sealing.  I like them since they can be installed a little looser, they will seal and draw down, and when being removed from the chamber they can easily be given a final slight turn me out of the chamber vac.


I believe the vacuum sealing issue with the new lids are as follows:

The seal is larger and more flexible.  This allows for a better seal.  However during the process of vacuum sealing in a chamber vac, the air is sucked from the chamber the jars are in.  For the seal to work on a canning jar in this process, the air must also slip our from under the canning lid flat seal.  Since the lid is not being heated, the seal material is perhaps not as flexible as it would be if it was heated.  If the air does not leak out under vacuum, that is when the lid rips the ring from off of the jar.

Secondly, the process of vacuum sealing in a chamber vac takes only a minute.  I do not believe this is constantly long enough to allow the air to be extracted from under the larger more flexible seal.

All that being said, this is not sealing jars in a recommended method, or as the lids were designed for.

We have used the lids for both water bath and pressure canning, as they were designed for and have been extremely pleased with the results.

I got mine, thank you very much!!

When my blueberries mature I will can up some jam with them and report back.

Got them, thanks.
She said she was going to can some asparagus, will let you know how it works.
Thanks again.
I am looking forward to telling my walnut creek salesman that I got lids from arfcom.

I got mine a few days ago and meant to comment but got busy.

I haven't used any but will report back when I do. This year I'm teaching some close friends how to can. They are already getting tomatoes on their plants but not enough to can.

The factory is only manufacturing the lids, not the rings or the jars.  They work fine on all the jars I have tried them on, from ball, kerr, harvest, old blue jars, and old glass mayo jars.  I remember the supervisor of the factory claiming that they had ordered jars from countries worldwide so they could run sample batches on every manufacturer of jars they could find.

Thanks again op.
Mrs Gillig gave the lids a try and sent off a report to the nice folks at superb, they are sending her more lids and some samples for our customers.
Still nothing from walnut creek

I am also waiting on Walnut Creek regarding the superior flats.  It is now several weeks later than we expected for our first delivery.  We did at least get a bulk case of Ball small mouth last week, and an additional case of both Ball small and large mouth flats this Thursday.  We didn't get the large mouth packed out until Friday, we repacked them in bags of 24.  They sold out earlier today.  We still have some of the small mouth flats left as of now.  Surprisingly for us, Our hardware supplier has preformed better than I expected in supplying a few cases of 12 count lids in boxes over the last year.

I am skipping on ordering any of the available Chinese lids.  Our competition down the road has been selling them, and customers are unsatisfied with the quality.  I would rather be out of lids than sell junk that fails and results in spoiled product.

Bump for answers on how the lids are performing for those who got them.

We are happy with the quality of the lids, but disappointed on the limited availability of the lids.  Production is not anywhere near the hoped for production levels.  We have only received two cases of regular size flats so far.  2,200 or so total.  This is about 2 days of sales worth.

Thanks for any responses.

The only ones not holding a seal were because I popped the lid off to eat the strawberry rhubarb jam.  

Good stuff, too bad they aren’t getting them to you.

I would buy them.  The lady on the phone at their qc study said that it would be soon.  That was just a couple weeks after you sent me the lids.

Never reuse canning lids!

They are a one time use for water bath canning!

All of our customers have been happy with the new lids.
We are sold out of any kind of lids again also.
Mrs Gillig has been reusing canning lids for many years, l am not dead yet.
Thanks again Lumper.

I canned a bunch of blueberry jam in the ones I received.  I did the water bath method since it was jam.  I did not have a problem with any of the lids.  They all sealed just fine, and after sitting to cool overnight they all stayed sealed.  Thank you for your generosity OP!

Bad year for the garden. We had a really wet spring which made fungal issues such as blight horrible in tomatoes and all my peppers caught some sort of fatal fungal leaf curl. I still have hopes of putting some tomatoes up yet but it's taking longer than anticipated for them to produce usable amounts.

This rule applies to the standard lids, such as the lids Ball has been providing for decades.  

It doesn't necessarily apply to lids using seals of different types and materials that are designed to be used multiple times.

It is almost certainly the same company.  Walnut Creek got it's start distributing to Mennonite and Amish stores - the founder was raised Amish.

Walnut Creek would have (and still does) for years sold Ball lids, both in cases of 12 count boxes and cases of bulk rolls.  As everyone knows by now, availability is an ongoing issue.  They partnered with superb to design and produce the new lids.  Unfortunately, availability is still an issue.  We were told there was a lack log of 75,000,000 lids before production even started.  Our store being a smaller one was only responsible for 100,000 of them.

My family has been reusing lids for many years.  I understand that it is not recommended - of course, we some times can applesauce and apple butter using dry heat in an oven also.  Also not a recommended method.

However, on the original paperwork for the newly designed lids from Superb, they claimed lids were tested for reuse up to 10 times.  Later documentation had this claim removed from the paper.  During a tour of the company, I asked why this was removed.  They stated that the USDA would not permit this to be stated as they considered lids a disposable one time use item.

Our family practice is to use virgin lids for meat and expensive or labor intensive products.  We reuse lids for items such as tomato juice / sauce, applesauce, etc.  Things that are not as much of a problem if a lid fails.  Our lid failure ratio is not much different from 1st use to 2nd use.

One trick for reuse, if the edge of the lid is slightly buckled or out of round from prying up, it can be made round again by simply rolling over a smooth countertop with a little pressure.

In times of shortage, it is always good to have options, even if the option is not ideal or recommended.

I sell lids, I buy them at wholesale in bulk (when available).  We as a family reuse lids not out of necessity, but because it teaches the children (who do most of our canning along with mom) the principal of being frugal and reusing what we are able to.