So I purchased an all American off of eBay. I had it on my watch list for a while. I got notification that it was ending and I jumped on it. I didn’t realize that it had this style of pressure valve which all I can find calls it a toggle valve? I was wondering if anyone could give me more info on it like if I can use it for multiple pressure settings. Also if you are able to identify if mine is pre 2009 that would be very helpful. As you can see the top handle is broken and I need to order a replacement. I was curious if I should replace this pressure toggle switch for one of the weighted jiggers. Thank you for any information you can provide
The first 5 pics are from the eBay post. The last picture is one of the only other ones I’ve found with the toggle valve
https://imgur.com/a/SEp9xVj
by tlflack25
2 Comments
You can go to there website and there is a link to the store that sells replacement parts
The toggle is usually on the sterilizer models, meant for use in sterilizing lab media. You control the pressure by applying more or less heat. The nice thing about these is that it forms a vacuum when it cools down assuring everything inside has remained sterile. Totally not useful for canning, but I use mine to sterilize mushroom growing substrates so to me it is handy.
You can easily change it out for a jiggler weight. The over pressure plugs on the sterilizers are rated to a higher pressure, I’m not sure if you need to change it out for the lower pressure one found on the canner. I would suspect it will make no difference.
If this is truly a sterilizer it will have an inner “basket,” and a long flexible metal tube that connects to the bottom of the toggle. This is so the steam will travel up out of the water around the top of the inner pot to the bottom, and up the vent tube, ensuring that the entire sterilizer is full of steam before you throw the toggle and begin to raise the pressure.
you can totally use a sterilizer as a pressure canner as is, but you really don’t need the inner basket. It will reduce the number of jars that you are able to fit inside by quite a bit.