I was not familiar with the tattler lids so I went online. This is one of the reviews I found.
Some of the things I like about the Tattler lids are that they are free of BPA, are indefinitely reusable, dishwasher safe, can be used for hot water bath or pressure canning, and made in the good ol’ USA (bonus!). I’ve canned jams, fruits, carrots, beans, chicken, broth, beef stew, potatoes, salsa, tomatoes, and water (yes, water) with these lids. The best advice I can give you about these Tattler lids is…you need a lot of practice to get it right. The first few batches I canned did not seal well. I had about a 50% failure rate, which is totally unacceptable in my book. I tried re-processing the jars and very few of them sealed the second time around.
At first I was pretty ticked off about the failure rate. I’ve been canning food since I was a kid, and I’m no spring chicken. So the idea that half of my jars didn’t seal was a real slap in the face. I chalked it up to learning experience went back to square one. I read the instructions again and decided that my mistake may have been in how tight to screw on the lids. The instructions say to tighten the lids, then turn back ¼ inch. I followed the instructions to a T and began again. My next attempt went much better, but I still had a jar or two from each batch that didn’t seal properly. More practice and quite a few foul words ensued.
What I don’t like about these canning lids is that, to this day, I still don’t have as good a success rate with the Tattler canning lids as I do with the disposable metal lids. You can’t tell if your jars seal by listening for the pinging sound that the metal lids make as they cool. You also can’t tell by looking at the lids for the depressed center and lack of ‘bounce back’ you’ll get from the metal lids when the seal is tight. You have to wait until the jars of food have cooled, take the metal screw band off, and then gently pull up on the lid to see if comes off. If it feels like it’s stuck tight, then the seal is good.
In addition to the learning curve necessary for using the Tattler lids, you also need to be prepared to replace the rubber rings every so often. They are not indestructible, so care needs to be taken when opening your canned goods. Don’t use a sharp knife to pry the plastic lid off the jar, or you may damage the rubber rings. I have a few that were dumped in the sink with other dishes and now they are all wonky and messed up. So I need to order a new supply of rubber rings.
And a link to the review.
http://theprepperproject.com/tattler-reusable-canning-lids-review/
Tattler apparently is quite proud that their lids are made in the USA. All Kerr and Ball lids are made in Muncie, Indiana. I guess Muncie is not in the USA. I don’t know, I’ve never been there. So yeah, it’s a bonus that Tattler are made in the USA. (It just rubs me the wrong way when someone implies they are doing something that their competitor is not when it is not true. Even though they didn’t lie, it just seems dishonest.)
Then there is the BPA. BPA is bad stuff. You can get it from practically anything. I don’t go out of my way to consume it because it is bad stuff. There is some in Kerr and Ball lids. It’s all cumulative but supposedly a normal 150 pound healthy adult would have to eat between 2400 to 4300 cans of home canned food every day to reach the maximum daily safety limit of BPA if the only source of BPA is home canned goods. So yeah, BPA free is another big advantage of the Tattler lids.
It appears the big claim with Tattler is that the metal lids are reusable but the bands have a limited life. And there appears to be a big learning curve in how to use them. A high failure rate to start with may be common, especially if you don’t follow the instructions exactly. But as Seed said, as long as the lid is on tight it worked.
Personally I’ll stick with the Kerr and Ball lids, even if they are manufactured in Muncie and are loaded with BPA. At least my jars seal.
