Wanting to get started in canning.
Need pressure cooker recommendations for an electric glass top stop.
Primarily canning tomatos, green beans, peppers - regular garden stuff.
Thanks in advance!

Hard to beat an All American canner. I have their 21Qt canner, and contrary to popular belief, they arent too heavy for my glass top electric stove. A quick call back in the day to GE confirmed the glass top would hold 71 pounds. Having said that, your stove may be different than mine. Im sure there are other good canners out there andd ill let others chime in on those.

I have been using a Presto on my glass top for a decade now. It does 7 quarts or 10 pints. Mine state not to be used with an open flame. I have a smaller pressure canner for my turkey fryer that does 4 quarts or 7 pints.

I have not ever done any meat. I do almost all tomato products, relishes and some pickles and saur kraut.

Bryce

The all american is the top of line money no object. But for the same money you can get three prestos and do continous canning while you're waiting for the one all american to get up to pressure and then cool down.

Assuming you have the space to fit three.

do you have to use rubber seals on the presto's or is it metal to metal ?

Rubber, readily available and they don't wear out. I might buy one once a decade just because I feel like it, never had one not hold pressure.

My prestos take rubber seal. Easy to find and I always keep a spare on hand. They lasts a long time if you pull it out when storing. If you leave gasket in with lid on when in storage it stays compressed and doesn’t keep its seal as long. I’m over 10 years on my current gaskets.

I’d love an All American but I’m with Warrior on this. I have 3 prestos, 2 here and one in Canada. I can with two at a time here and have less $ in all 3 of them than one all American would cost…….. maybe someday.

Keep an eye on the online local swaps and you can pick up prestos cheap occasionally an all american pops up.

Consider the fish fryer burner outside in summer. I've yet to meet the AC system that can out compete canning in our summers, lol.

Had an aunt that kept her old wood burner stove just for that reason. She moved it out to an old chicken house when she got a new gas stove.

My Presto has a rubber seal. It may need to be replaced some day but have not for the first 10 years. I probably use it 15-20 times per season. I also use the smaller one I mentioned and I do that in the garage.
The other one I have has a non metal seal as well. That one is only 7 years old and no failure with the seal as of yet.
Bryce

I have an all american that belonged to my Gramma. I bought a new gauge for it some years back. Replaced a couple of the screw down knobs. I dont know how old it is. She had it ever since I can remember. My Mom used it too. No telling how many thousands of jars its done. You get what you pay for.

The presto on the right must be 20 years old. Unlike the all American I cant can meat fish and potatoes at 18 pounds. Reduce drastically the chance of botulism

All American , Presto , and the Old National all take the same dial gauges and weight gauges.
Parts are easy to find at many hardware stores , or here, https://www.cookingandcanning.net/national.html

I use older canners , and find that the old National canners old Presto canners work just as well as the newer canners.
Save your money, you're going to need it.
Search auctions, garage sales, Face Book market place, and Ebay, for them.
I have an old AA 941, and learned that a propane turkey fryer , works great with them.
Do 95% of my canning on a turkey fryer burner.
I have no idea about the newer canners, and have no desire to try them.
I've bought all my canners for very low cost , rebuilt them with a dial gauge and a weight gauge , I take off the spigot , and replace it with a weight gauge.
That gives you three 3 safety valves. Just for those that are afraid of pressure canners.
That's one reason I don't care about the newer electric canners, the saying just set it and forget it, just doesn't sound safe to me.
If I can dig up pictures , I'll post my canners, AA 941 , and an old sterilizer that's almost the same as an AA 941.
Have an old National No. 14 that does 14 quarts at a time, and an old National C 18 that only does 5 quarts at a time, but doesn't need a gasket.

18 Pounds pressure?
I can everything with old National canners , under 15 pounds pressure.
If you have a gauge for 15 pounds , and a dial gauge to verify the pressure, you're all set.
I can everything with a 15 pound weight, and run pressure at 11-13 pounds , just a few hisses, and wobble a minute.
Once you get used to it, you're working on the next batch, while listening to the small hisses , every few seconds.

If the hissing gets more or stops something isn't right.
It's surprising just hoe low a flame needed once the heaver older canners get to pressure.
Almost all my canners are older than I am.

Whatever the canner, I'll 2nd or 3rd the notion of running it on a propane fish cooker burner.....and moving the heat outside. I'm running mine on a Bayou Classic with 60,000 btu banjo burner.

No wobbler. Has a safety valve. Starts seeping a little steam at 21-22 pounds. Not sure what it blows at. Turkey fryer would not work. Takes a very low flame to hold pressure. Unlike the wobbler type you have to keep an eye on it and make small adjustments to the burner. For that reason I think a wobbler would be best on an electric range. i dont think anyone makes them with just a safety valve anymore.

So you have to sit there and watch it the whole time?
I like my system a lot better.

A weight gauge, a dial gauge, and the safety plug are standard on my canners, because I make sure they all have them.
I'm trying to understand what you're reasoning is.
All I know is that I've worked at making a canner as safe as I can, and all new All American canners have the same system as mine.
All American came out with it in the late 1990's and I like that system.
A little work and some searching for a better system , is what I did.
Got very tired of watching a dial gauge for 90 minutes.
With a weight gauge, a dial gauge , and the safety plug ( should be standard on all pressure canners and have been on all that I've worked with)
Makes pressure canning so much easier.
Propane burners are not much different than any gas stove.
I dislike electric, stoves, because of the on and off cycle to maintain the set heat.
That's just me , you do as you please.

Pretty much. Check on it every 5-10 minutes. I'm happy you like your system better since that's the one your using.

18 pounds? I think 15 pounds is good up to 10000 ft above sea level. I could be wrong.