In article >
Wilson > writes:
>
>The benefit of the weight, holding 5, 10 or 15 psi, is that you choose your
>weight and then set your temperature according to instructions. It will rock
>and make a racket, but you don't have to sit right on it. You could be
>across the room.

Mine has the gauge as well as the weight. My sauce canning is at
something like 12 psi, so I use the weight at 15 psi and keep
rechecking the gauge. If I hear rattling, I know I need to turn
the stove down. I sit across the room, but it is a small kitchen.

> Pressure canners IMHO, should never be left unattended.

Agree. Once it is up to temperature, I don't even like to take a
pee break.

>If you check the vent stack to make sure it isn't plugged to begin with (I
>poke it with an un-bent paperclip) and you follow directions, it should
>never wear out.

I would think if the vent is plugged you would never get past the
venting stage. But I do make sure I can see light through the stem
when I'm setting up the canner.

>Bulging bottoms sounds like a BS story or somebody darn near blew themselves up.

I wouldn't feel comfortable using a pressure canner that didn't
have a rubber (or whatever it is made of) safety release plug.
I do enough stupid things without blowing myself up as well.

--
In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the
last resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened
but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
-- Ambrose Bierce