# Lids popping up and down repeatedly



## SouthCentralUS (Nov 11, 2012)

I had 6 jars chicken and 8 jars of broth that I canned together for 75 minutes. Some of the lids on the jars of broth are popping up and down for a couple dozen times. Are these now contaminated or are they good?


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

If your jars of broth did this during the cooling period, and then finally sealed, I would guess that it's okay. We've been having trouble with some of our lids not sealing at all, and found out that we had purchased some off brand by mistake.


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## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

Qts or Pints?

I've never seen lids pop up and down before. If they stay down, I'd say your good, but make sure you store them without the rings.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I've had it happen before, as long as they seal after they cool, dont worry about it.

It happened to me mostly with jars of "broth" or "stock", if you watch the jars you may see a big bubble form at the bottom of the jar and when it rises the lid will ping.


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## SouthCentralUS (Nov 11, 2012)

OK, thanks. That spooked me.


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## PurpleHeartJarhead (Mar 23, 2014)

SouthCentralUS said:


> I had 6 jars chicken and 8 jars of broth that I canned together for 75 minutes. Some of the lids on the jars of broth are popping up and down for a couple dozen times. Are these now contaminated or are they good?


Do you have lime, iron or other sediment in your water? We never had that happen before we moved to our current home. But our water (private well) has some lime in it. I have to clean my water heater annually because of it. Anyway, when you wash your jars you can have little flecks of sediment on the lips that when canning, are causing the lids to not seal, correctly or immediately. This could also be true of the lids if you are boiling them (sterilizing) prior to using them. The pressure from the steam causing them to pop repeated as the seal fails and then re-seals.

I would pay a little more attention to wiping down the jars with a dry towel before filling and after to ensure there are no contaminants on the jars. Ensure you are not touching the seal on the lids. If you haven't had water quality issues in the past, you may to check in to it if you notice that it is still occurring after taking those measures.

My mother-in-law cans everything, and a lot of it. She's been at it for 50+ years. She is my wife and my human canning resource. She's the one who told us to look at our jars for evidence of lime. Anyway she also suggested that maybe those jars were slightly over-filled. Since meats and some broths tend be "gritty" (floating stuff suspended in the liquids), if they are over-filled just even a little, that could also get in the way of the seal.

So the other question is, did you have more jars of the broth and chicken that didn't have this issue that you canned at the same time? That could help to narrow down the problem.

In any case, if the lid is fully seated when cool, your canned goods are just fine. But as one poster already said, make sure they are stored with out rings.

Good luck and good canning.


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## myrtle55 (Apr 1, 2014)

Last week I had the same problem, I am on public water, jars had just came out of dishwasher and lids are Kerr brand. They quit in a min and sealed quite nicely, but it was a first for me..and was chicken and broth also


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