Cleaning Old Canning Jars

[schmije]

I have a bunch of old canning jars that have been in my barn for several years. Many of them have a brown or white film inside, and I'm having a difficult time getting it off. I've run them through the dishwasher, I've scrubbed them, and it's still there. What is it, and how do I remove it?

 

[vfem]

I suggest Comet... Comet cleans EVERYTHING!!!!!

 

[dickiebird]

Sounds like deposits from hard water. I'd wash in some bleach water and use them.

THANX RICH

 

[VVolfpack]

Does CLR do good on glass? I know it made my Bathroom fixtures spotless

 

[beavis]

you have hard water deposits.

Please do not use poisons like CLR or Comet if you intend to eat out of these jars in the future.

Use vinegar, soak it a bit and rinse in hot water.

It may take a few applications, but it will work, and no toxins.

 

[schmije]

I thought I had heard vinegar, so I soaked one of them today. It didn't seem to make a difference. I guess I can fill up my sink with some vinegar water and soak them for a while. That'll make the kitchen smell nice.

Maybe I'll try some bleach first.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Try a combination of vinegar & bicarbonate of soda. That removes most deposits of that sort. If you have several containers I would fill the first up to the top line of the deposit with cheap strong vinegar then stir in a spoonful of bicarb. : it will fizz up a lot . Let it stand for an hour or two. It needs time to work. Then scrub the deposit off. You can then use the same vinegar with a little more bicarb. for the next jar.

This mixture will also clean dirty toilet bowls as well......!

Good luck!


Hattie

 

[ducks4you]

WalMart carries a product for the dishwasher to get rid of the calcium film, called "Lemi-Shine." IF the above doesn't work, I guarantee this will. I should be the poster child for CLR, because we have all of that in our water!!
When I wash my dishes with this stuff, they come out crystal clear. When I don't, they look cloudy.

 

[sparkles2307]

I have old canning jars that are a different issue. They are in grandma's basement and have 20year old food in them.... do I dare risk inhaling some toxin to open them and toss the sludge? there are about 100 old blue Ball jars down there.

 

[schmije]

WalMart carries a product for the dishwasher to get rid of the calcium film, called "Lemi-Shine." IF the above doesn't work, I guarantee this will. I should be the poster child for CLR, because we have all of that in our water!!
When I wash my dishes with this stuff, they come out crystal clear. When I don't, they look cloudy.

Thanks for the info. I am also in Illinois, and we recently started having a cloudy film on many of our dishes after running through the dishwasher. It didn't happen until we had our dishwasher fixed because of a recall. I don't know what they did to it, but it hasn't cleaned our dishes well ever since. We have city water, but we run what we drink through a filter, because we get little white 'sinkies' in our glass if we use it straight from the tap.