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Soak the mason lid in warm water, place on jar with a ring screwed on lightly, place in the canister, vacuum, release vacuum, the mason lid usually seals nicely, and STAYS that way. Good concept, lousey product. I have good luck with the smoked units. Works for mason type jars also. See the reviews on the regular size mason jar sealing attachment for some interesting ideas on sealing jars.UPDATE: 6/29 About the cracks; the clear canisters seem to develope radial hairline cracks on the bottom. They seem to be a heavier duty design.
But they work great for sealing jars. The clear canisters lose vacuum, crack, are mostly not reliable. I have some large "Rival" brand canisters that would hold a seal for a day or two, junk. I have been placing condiment, pickle, jam, most any bottle with a vacuum dimple on the cover, in a large canister and doing a vacuum seal; open the canister, and the bottle is re-sealed. You can hear it "pop" when the canister vacuum is released. I save my empty "dimple" top jars for saving left overs, gravy, mustard, honey, olives, use your imagination.
I have had good results using a hot glue gun to run a bead over the crack (exterior), they hold a vacuum with this fix.
I have spent much money on Tilia accessories, and am now considering looking for another brand. I am honestly sorry I did not heed the warnings I read by Amazon consumers before I purchased.
Many of us have urged Tilia to upgrade the plastic canisters, and so far they have refused. I do not put the canisters in the dishwasher, or even use harsh chemicals.
Basically, the FOODSAVER system is sound and well designed EXCEPT for the canisters which often crack. Tilia blames their customers for the cracks.
One canister cracked, pressurized, on the shelf after a few weeks without being moved. When you call Tilia they will let you know that there is NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND on their canisters, which tells volumes about how they view their own product.
I usually depend on Amazon customer recommendations for all my purchases. Hope this helps, Ron
I guess softer plastic allow it to flex and withstand the force of vacuum better. You have to buy both the lid and container together.
It allow me to save left over much longer. But all the hard plastic containers are badly design.
The vacuum seal concept is great. The bad thing about it, Food Saver does not sell the container by itself.
All of my containers (various shape and size) failed within four months of usage. All of them develop cracks.
The only container that can withstand the usage are those soft plastic lunch containers. Food Saver should design better containers.
I use glass jars now to store salsa. I was busy for almost an hour cleaning it all up.
Making home made salsa is something we love to do. I decided to store some in a medium canister and vacuum seal it.
It was bound to happen; it was only a matter of time. But one morning I forgot and picked up the salsa by the top of the container and the resulting spill of bright red immediately decorated my kitchen from inside the refrigerator to halfway across the kitchen floor.
Well, we knew the top was not the place to hold in picking up the canister when it was full. The top comes off.
The containers will do ok for chips and crackers, but forget about liquids. Much safer.
I've owned this set and several others for more than 5 years, and I've never had a problem with cracking or loss of seal. That said, I do recommend 1) never washing tops or bottoms in the dishwasher; 2) do not use them in microwave to heat or reheat food; 3) limit use of these products in the freezer because cold is the enemy of all plastics not specifically designed for freezing conditions; and, 4) seal/vacuum as recommended by the manufacturer. It may seem like I'm suggesting a narrower use of these containers than most may desire, but that's exactly what I'd suggest in order to get maximum effectiveness and longevity from them as storage containers. Though the product may be advertised as highly versatile, I recommend using it almost exclusively for food storage because it might be that the extra wear and tear from non-storage use causes problems.I have several types of FoodSaver storage containers, and they all work very well so I would highly recommend them, especially for food that you'd normally be using any time beyond the recommended storage time.
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