Square Tins Staying Sealed

[alexnc]

I recently opened a square tin of Solani to find it dry, that it had not sealed the moisture in. Then I remembered that Solani may be noted for that - no tin of Silver I ever bought was sealed.

I have a few square tins of Mac Baren Navy Flake dating back to January 2019, just popped one and it was perfect fortunately. I have 4 or 5 Capstan square tins too.

I trust rounds tins indefinitely, should I not trust these square tins?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I trust square ones also, more so that even jars. But, when I receive my tins, I try to open them. If I cannot just easily pull the top off of a tin, it will last the long haul. Once I have tested the tin, I'd lay good money down wagering that it is not going to just pop open later. A good seal on a tin should be stronger than I can pull apart. I have to use a screw driver to open them.

I have bought tins that did easily pop open. If I am in a pipe shop and am buying a tin, I will ALWAYS test the seal right in front of the guy behind the counter. Sometimes it may be that it was dropped while stocking or some other customer popped it open and returned it to the shelf. My first tin of Bothy Flake easily opened and it only had three flakes left in it. Let the retailer fall all over themself trying to explain that shit, ha ha. But, if you wait till you get to your car, then you could just be trying to pull a fast one on them... if I were the retailer, I'd throw you out also.
If we are talking about something you ordered online and receive in the mail, if it easily opens you're just shit outa luck. Jar it and eat the consequences. But, if it is a good tight seal when you receive it, unless you take your cellar on car rides (or airplane rides) where altitude changes, it should be good for the long haul.

 

[brandaves]

I always seal my square tins in mylar bags. They have a much higher failure rate then round tins and as you've stated, some aren't really sealed to begin with (Solani Silver, Rattray's Passion, etc.). If you vacuum seal be wary that you will crush the tin if you don't stop the vacuum from doing so...that one is from experience ?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Jars are this way too. If you haven't been jarring for over ten years now, you may not be aware that some of your jars are just passing air like a sieve. Might as well have just put it in a shoebox, FWIW.

I always remove the rings on jars. This is the only way you can be sure the jars are sealed. Once the air has been eaten up inside the jar, the seal is set. Remove the outer ring. That ring in no way cranks down hard enough to prevent air from passing on its own. It IS NOT DESIGNED THAT WAY.

I have been finding more jars that never set, because I never heated the jar before canning the tobaccos. Some sealed without, but ALL sealed by heating them. Dry as mummy piss. I took the advice on here when I started and just pout them in jars and closed them. To find that latter on, shitdust.

But, if I heat the jars in a dry oven, to a tad over 200F, then plop the tobacco in it, and then seal it, wait a week, then remove the outer ring... I can better guarantee what is happening. Plus, I can continually try to open the seal with my fingers, which should be tighter than I can just pull off by hand.

I will occasionally go through my cellar of jars and turn them over with a ring on them, and give it a shake to test the seal. Or, with tins, just give them a quick pull to test the seal.

 

[mso489]

I just last week opened a rectangular tin of Petersons Irish Flake that was at least three years old. The flake was moist, fresh, and fragrant. A while back, a Forums member sent me a tin of Lakeland Brown Sugar Flake that was also sealed to perfection. I've had several other blends in those tins. So in my limited experience, rectangular tins have done well.

 

[kcghost]

Common wisdom says square tins have a problem with popping. This will occur with round tins on occasion but its not as common.

 

[mingc]

Jars are this way too. If you haven't been jarring for over ten years now, you may not be aware that some of your jars are just passing air like a sieve. Might as well have just put it in a shoebox, FWIW.

I always remove the rings on jars. This is the only way you can be sure the jars are sealed. Once the air has been eaten up inside the jar, the seal is set. Remove the outer ring. That ring in no way cranks down hard enough to prevent air from passing on its own. It IS NOT DESIGNED THAT WAY.

I have been finding more jars that never set, because I never heated the jar before canning the tobaccos. Some sealed without, but ALL sealed by heating them. Dry as mummy piss. I took the advice on here when I started and just pout them in jars and closed them. To find that latter on, shitdust.

But, if I heat the jars in a dry oven, to a tad over 200F, then plop the tobacco in it, and then seal it, wait a week, then remove the outer ring... I can better guarantee what is happening. Plus, I can continually try to open the seal with my fingers, which should be tighter than I can just pull off by hand.

I will occasionally go through my cellar of jars and turn them over with a ring on them, and give it a shake to test the seal. Or, with tins, just give them a quick pull to test the seal.

Wow, that's a lot of work. I've suspected that the jars leak when I started storing them in closed cabinets and smell the tobacco contents whenever I open the cabinet doors. I've doubled down on tightning the lids but the smells are still there. I don't think I want to handle 200°F glass jars to solve the problem!

Have you tried the one piece plastic lids?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Wow, that's a lot of work. I've suspected that the jars leak when I started storing them in closed cabinets and smell the tobacco contents whenever I open the cabinet doors. I've doubled down on tightning the lids but the smells are still there. I don't think I want to handle 200°F glass jars to solve the problem!

Have you tried the one piece plastic lids?
View attachment 43771

No, I am no longer adding tobaccos, because my current stash will long outlive me. but, I would look into them if I were just starting.

You know, tightening the rings on the jars doesn't pinch that seal down any tighter. This comes up in canning thread on forums on homesteading. Ball/Mason has jumped in also. The rings are designed to merely hold the lid in place during the violent process of pressurizing the jars. If you looked at the engineering of the rings, the tighter you twist it, does not mean that you are tightening that seal down any harder.

Yeh, 200F in the oven doesn't translate to exactly 200F on the jars, unless you just let them soak in there for a while. They are maybe 150F by the time I am holding them. I can easily handle them while I fill them and such. I do have a little less heat sensitivity in my hands from years of metalsmithing, but not like crazy superhuman skills or anything. Maybe a light pair of cloth gloves would help. The heat also kills off any microbes present in the empty jars, especially important if you are reusing jars. But, it is around this 150F-ish temps that the lids will quickly set into that gasket.

I don't check the cellar for leaks every day, just as I am perusing through it looking for my next blends to add to my rotation. It's not like I am in there shaking jars and tins every week. Although, sometimes I do like to dig through boxes, because I sometimes notice blends that I had forgotten that I had.

 

[Magpiety]

Square tins don't seal as well as round tins, but I tend to not worry about it. I lose tins in my office all the time, and then find them a year later perfectly smokeable. It's easy to overstress about this sort of stuff.

 

[mingc]

You know, tightening the rings on the jars doesn't pinch that seal down any tighter. This comes up in canning thread on forums on homesteading. Ball/Mason has jumped in also. The rings are designed to merely hold the lid in place during the violent process of pressurizing the jars. If you looked at the engineering of the rings, the tighter you twist it, does not mean that you are tightening that seal down any harder.

Yup. lesson learned. These days, I reserve jars for stuff on rotation; others in long term storage/aging are going into mylar bags.

 

[tavol]

About twice a year I'll go through my tins and give them a wee tap, poorly sealed tins sound different. In several years I've only had one tin fail, luckily it was Sam G so had merely dried to the perfect smoking moisture.

 

[beezer]

I always seal my square tins in mylar bags.

The other week I was digging around one of my storage containers that I use to keep some of my mylar bags in and discovered a bag with a pair of MacBaren Navy Flake square tins that was blown up like a helium birthday balloon. I had never seen anything like it. I figured one or both of the tins lost its seal at some point over the past five years.

I set it aside to open and jar up, but my local walmart is completely sold out of all canning jars. Maybe I'll take a picture of the mylar bag later and post it here.

 

[Gecko]

Inspired by the great cosmic here I checked my latest batch of SG square tins giving the lids a light tugg. Sure enough one of the tins had lost its seal and the lid came off.

So far it seems like about one in five of the SG and GH&Co tins I've bought came with failed seal.

Speaking of failed seals do not trust the IKEA canning jars in the background of the picture. They are not airtight and tobacco will dry out over time. I'm in the process of replacing them.

Seeing as this tin of Squadron leader came from the factory with hot glue holding the lid I thought what the heck and gave it a good bead all around.

Should be airtight now ?

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

If we are talking about something you ordered online and receive in the mail, if it easily opens you're just shit outa luck.

Not true in my experience. I have been refunded three times for “pops” ” by three different reasonably high profile on line sellers over the last two years without any issue. In two cases they didn’t even ask for the tins back. In the other case they gave me credit for the amount of my postage.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Not true in my experience. I have been refunded three times for “pops” ” by three different reasonably high profile on line sellers over the last two years without any issue. In two cases they didn’t even ask for the tins back. In the other case they gave me credit for the amount of my postage.

I probably mispoke. My one experience with asking for assistance on what to do was P&C, and they wanted the tobacco that fell out of the unsealed box back, that I had swept up along with cathair, garbage, and dirt. I just told them nevermind. What a f'n headache.

The few times I have received moldy or popped tins, I just jar them or toss them, and took my losses. I didn't want to have to argue. I hate that kinda stuff. Sykes probably woulda helped me, but like I said, I am not going to be a Karen and wanna speak to the manager. And, with little proof, I wasn't going to bitch. I didn't even make a post about it, ha ha.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have never had a square or rectangular or any tin fail on me even when over 20 years old. My theory is that if you keep your temp and humidity at a constant, you wont have issues. Once I put a tin away it never gets touched unless I plan on smoking it.

 

[Gecko]

I have never had a square or rectangular or any tin fail on me even when over 20 years old. My theory is that if you keep your temp and humidity at a constant, you wont have issues. Once I put a tin away it never gets touched unless I plan on smoking it.

That is interesting. Have you had any that had failed seal when you bought them?

I did a numbers check and out of the total of 17 (SG and GH&Co) square tins I bought over the last year 3 came with seals allredy failed and two of them had hot glue blobs keeping the lids from falling off. Meaning the seal must have failed at the factory and hot glueing the lid back on is their modus operandi.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I recently opened a square tin of Solani to find it dry, that it had not sealed the moisture in.

50g or 100g?

 

[hawky454]

I always remove the rings on jars.

I’m not quite sure I know what you mean by removing the outer ring? The screw on ring? You just let the vacuum hold the lid down?

Damn it guys! I can’t fucking win. First it’s tins, then it’s jars! Jars never fail! Go with jars! Then it’s Mylar, then it’s full circle back to keeping them in their tins (which I do, if the tin seal is tight) but this entire time I thought my jars were absolutely the safest bet for bulk. Sure I want to protect my stash but damn it... I am not resorting to the hot glue gun! I sometimes heat my jars in the microwave before filling them up and screwing the lid on but I always heard the best way was to just screw the lid on, the seal will take care of itself. Oi vey! Owning a tobacco cellar can drive a man to go mad!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Owning a tobacco cellar can drive a man to go mad!

In thirty years I've only ever used jars. Tins stay in tins until opened and then jarred once opened.