Loose Lids Sink Blends

[tschiraldi]

Just a reminder to check your stash, boys and girls. I needed to refill one of my tobacco pouches I keep in the truck, so I pulled a half pint jar of Brown Flake A for that purpose. Something told me I’d better check all the lids on all the jars in my cellar while I was there as sometimes they can work themselves loose at times. Good thing I did! As I was going through, cranking on lids, I did find a fee that needed slight tightening, but two half pint Ball jar lids completely failed. The lids popped and spun right off! One was an Esoterica Woodbridge from 2017. The other was a Fribourg & Treyer Special Brown Flake from 2019. Glad I caught it in time! I re-jarred both into fresh jars. I had just checked everything a month or so ago when reorganizing the jars.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I've never had a jar fail me, but I'll be checking them more often now.

 

[tschiraldi]

I've never had a jar fail me, but I'll be checking them more often now.

First for me, too. Must have been a defect, but they are both several years old and have done fine until now. I can’t figure it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

As the lids seal, the rings loosen and periodically need to be retightened.

 

[Servant King]

 

[tschiraldi]

As the lids seal, the rings loosen and periodically need to be retightened.

Absolutely, but I’ve never had one completely fail before. They would not twist tight again. It’s like what sometimes happens with a travel mug when you tighten it, sometimes the lid will pop off and you have to screw it in again, except these wouldn’t. They popped off every time I tried to screw them back down.

 

[Auxsender]

View attachment 383677

100%

 

[BingBong]

100%

Yeah. I mean, F&T SBF, who would care?

 

[pappymac]

Absolutely, but I’ve never had one completely fail before. They would not twist tight again. It’s like what sometimes happens with a travel mug when you tighten it, sometimes the lid will pop off and you have to screw it in again, except these wouldn’t. They popped off every time I tried to screw them back down.

Was it just the ring that failed or did the lid lose it's seal. I have had jars where the rings got loose but the lid still had to be pried off to open.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

Just a reminder to check your stash, boys and girls. I needed to refill one of my tobacco pouches I keep in the truck, so I pulled a half pint jar of Brown Flake A for that purpose. Something told me I’d better check all the lids on all the jars in my cellar while I was there as sometimes they can work themselves loose at times. Good thing I did! As I was going through, cranking on lids, I did find a fee that needed slight tightening, but two half pint Ball jar lids completely failed. The lids popped and spun right off! One was an Esoterica Woodbridge from 2017. The other was a Fribourg & Treyer Special Brown Flake from 2019. Glad I caught it in time! I re-jarred both into fresh jars. I had just checked everything a month or so ago when reorganizing the jars. View attachment 383663

1) I've never heard of mason jars "working themselves loose" and 2) why would you need to put them in new jars? Surely just properly closing the lid would be enough?

 

[Choatecav]

This is news to me, too. I have not had any leakage or problems that I am aware of.

Although, I can remember, about six months ago, finding a jar that when I really cranked down on it, the groves in the ring actually "jumped" off of the ridges on the jar and then re-connected. I took that as an anomaly and not a continued problem.

However, this is a good reason to go through and check. No harm with that.

 

[sardonicus87]

Just remember, over-tightening does more harm than good. Over-tightening ruins the gasket and its ability to seal, and it stretches and deforms the rings causing them to have the tendency to want to jump threads.

Once they're finger-tight (like, it won't spin just with pinky finger action), you only need to barely twist it a little bit more after that. If you spin it on until it goes down all the way and then you're cranking an extra 1/4 turn on top of that, you're ruining the ring without getting a better seal.

 

[tschiraldi]

1) I've never heard of mason jars "working themselves loose" and 2) why would you need to put them in new jars? Surely just properly closing the lid would be enough?

As stated, the lids would not screw back down. Every time I tried to, they would just pop back off before getting tight. This wasn’t a matter of lids being loose, it’s about them refusing to tighten back on at all. Lids loosening a bit after sealing is fairly common. That’s why it’s good to check them once in a while. This wasn’t that.

 

[tschiraldi]

Was it just the ring that failed or did the lid lose it's seal. I have had jars where the rings got loose but the lid still had to be pried off to open.

The rings failed. The jars were still sealed.

 

[NookersTheCat]

Just remember, over-tightening does more harm than good. Over-tightening ruins the gasket and its ability to seal, and it stretches and deforms the rings causing them to have the tendency to want to jump threads.

Once they're finger-tight (like, it won't spin just with pinky finger action), you only need to barely twist it a little bit more after that. If you spin it on until it goes down all the way and then you're cranking an extra 1/4 turn on top of that, you're ruining the ring without getting a better seal.

Yeah let the gasket do the work.. Many people who can food, store their jars without the bands even on them... because of the vacuum.

I've noticed that most of my blends end up developing a slight vacuum of their own (probably as the aging process consumes some oxygen)
While not tight enough that I store mine without the bands, I'd say that if I did, probably 90% would still be sealed anyway as long as I'd let them set with the bands on for the first few months.

 

[Choatecav]

Just remember, over-tightening does more harm than good. Over-tightening ruins the gasket and its ability to seal, and it stretches and deforms the rings causing them to have the tendency to want to jump threads.

Once they're finger-tight (like, it won't spin just with pinky finger action), you only need to barely twist it a little bit more after that. If you spin it on until it goes down all the way and then you're cranking an extra 1/4 turn on top of that, you're ruining the ring without getting a better seal.

I believe you are right on this. I remember, as a boy, that mom would be canning and the seals were so complete, but that was from the heat and the pressure cooker sealing the lid and not from just ring pressure. Good advice.

 

[KingPiper]

Over-tightening ruins the gasket and its ability to seal, and it stretches and deforms the rings causing them to have the tendency to want to jump threads.

I needed to read this and now I should probably buy new lids for all my jars and check my tobacco. I have tightened the shit out of lids on my jars. I have had a few dry out and didn’t think about this being the cause.

For someone that is a mechanic and maintenance person you would think I wouldn’t have to learn this the hard way. Thats how I learn best though I guess

Thanks for the heads up. You may have just saved a lot of tobacco from drying out.

 

[tschiraldi]

Just remember, over-tightening does more harm than good. Over-tightening ruins the gasket and its ability to seal, and it stretches and deforms the rings causing them to have the tendency to want to jump threads.

Once they're finger-tight (like, it won't spin just with pinky finger action), you only need to barely twist it a little bit more after that. If you spin it on until it goes down all the way and then you're cranking an extra 1/4 turn on top of that, you're ruining the ring without getting a better seal.

Yeah, that probably did contribute to the issue. I can be a bit heavy handed. Good reminder. Thanks.

 

[andrew]

The rings failed. The jars were still sealed.

Then everything was fine. If the jar is sealed, it's sealed. .

 

[tschiraldi]

Then everything was fine. If the jar is sealed, it's sealed. .

Yep. I still re-jarred them, though.