# Pressure Canner Gauge Check. Part 1.

It is recommended that pressure canner gauges be checked at least once per year. Normally one would just take the gauges to the local Agricultural Extension Office and have them checked.  In my area, I had been the only one using this service for the past few years and the office decided to discontinue the service and devote their resources to more popular programs.

I was left with sending the gauges to the manufacturer or doing it myself.  This idea I have shown here might be useful to those who, for some reason, are unable to get their pressure canner gauges checked.

These are some notes that I made on a tablet of the “green engineering sketch paper”.  Hopefully they make sense.  This is only an idea that I have.  I’ve not yet tried it in “the real world”….but I think it’s simple enough to work.

A U-tube manometer is considered a “primary standard” for measuring pressure.  In operation a primary standard device depends solely upon the basic units of the measurement system (mass, time, distance, and so on) to make a measurement.  In other words, the instrument is perfect and any errors found in a measured value are ONLY due to not enough care being taken in making the required measurements.

A U-tube manometer depends only upon distance, mass and time (time is needed to measure gravity) to make a pressure measurement.  In reality, even though gravity on earth varies slightly based on where it is measured, the worst case error is less than 0.3% from the assumed value.  Since the measurements need to be within 3% (1/2 PSI at 15 PSI), using the assumed value for gravity is OK.

Here is a picture of a U-tube manometer.  This manometer measures the difference between the left and right legs of the device.  Since the right hand leg is open to normal atmosphere, it, like the pressure canner gauge, measures pressure relative to atmospheric pressure.

In this image, the shaded area represents a liquid (distilled water in my case) and the un-shaded areas within the “tube” represent air.  The small black square is a cork or stopper or some other device used to seal that leg of the manometer.  The small L shaped “thing” atop the “stopper” is a small tube going through the “stopper” to which a small hose can be connected.  The other end of this hose gets connected to the pressure canner and an air pump.

This manometer has an equal pressure on both legs and there is zero difference in the levels of the liquid in the two legs.

In this image, the pressure is higher in the left leg than on the right leg.  The liquid moves by an amount that can be used to find the pressure.  The vertical distance between the two liquid levels, B and A, is what is measured.  From there it is just looking up the density of distilled water in the proper units, and performing a calculation to determine pressure.

The manometer being able to accurately measure pressure does not depend on anything EXCEPT the density of the fluid, gravity and the distance between B and A.  The tube can be round, square or some other shape, large, small, vary in size and shape, flop in the wind (this will make it inconvenient to make measurement though), have square corners, round corners, widely spaced or  closely spaced legs, legs straight up and down or not (being straight up and down makes it easier to measure the distance) or anything else and the measurement accuracy is not changed.  One can even have a bunch of tubing laying on the ground with only some of both ends of the tubing held up in the air and it won’t hurt the measurement accuracy.

The only problem is that to measure 15 PSI, the manometer legs in a water manometer must be 35 or more feet tall.   I do not have a ladder, tree or pole that tall.  I could take everything to the local high school football bleachers, but I might be viewed with suspicion.

To get around this “tallness” problem, multiple manometers can be connected together.  Like this.

Again, the darkened area represents water and the empty area represents air.   With the pressure on both sides of the manometer being equal, A is level with B.  C is level with D.  E is level with F.  And, G is level with H.  It has no effect on accuracy if one section of the manometer is more full than another. So even though A is level with B and so on, A and B do not need to be level with C and D or any other section of the manometer.   This will likely happen as each section of the manometer is filled independently and it will be difficult to get *exactly* the same amount of fluid in each section.  So, this is one more thing that does not matter when making a measurement.

What happens with this four section manometer is that for a given pressure, A and B move only one fourth the distance the same points would move in a single section manometer.

Conveniently, the vertical distance between A and B is always the same as the vertical distance between C and D, E and F and G and H.  This is the case even if B, D, F and H and A, C, E and G, themselves are at different levels.  So, one only needs to measure the vertical distance between A and B, multiply by four and put the resultant value into the manometer equation.

If the distance between the Us at the top and the Us at the bottom are 10 feet (I have a ladder tall enough for this), a four stage distilled water manometer can measure about 19 PSI.  If 19 PSI, is exceeded, the water at H will spill out onto the ground and relieve the pressure within the canner.  So there is even a built in safety system.

The formula for a U-tube manometer is

$P = \rho g h\$

P is the pressure that you calculate.

h is easy.  Measure it with a tape measure and convert the value to inches and decimal inches…ie 32-1/4 inches is 32.25 inches., 32-1/2 inches is 32.5 inches and 32-3/4 inches is 32.75 inches.

g is gravity.  Use 32.15 for this number.  You might be able to find a better value for this, but probably not.  It is feet per second per second, not that this matters to the manometer.

$\rho \$ (it’s the Greek letter rho, not a small P) is the density of distilled water.  Distilled water is the same, regardless of how it’s made or purchased.  However, distilled water’s density varies slightly with temperature.  Unlike gravity, it changes enough that it’s worthwhile to take this variance into account.  Since the distilled water needs to be a liquid, this means the manometer must be used between just above freezing (32F) and just below boiling (212F).  Even though the manometer will work up to 212F degrees, I don’t want to work above 120F degrees, so I won’t bother with density values above 120F degrees.

One doesn’t need to be exacting with the temperature, a reading within the following zones is good enough.

Between 32F and 75F $\rho \$ is 0.001122
Between 75F and 90F $\rho \$ is 0.001118
Between 90F and 100F $\rho \$ is 0.001116
Between 100F and 110F $\rho \$ is 0.001114
Between 110F and 120F $\rho \$ is 0.001111

So, measure the temperature, find the correct $\rho \$ value for water, measure the distance between A and B (in inches) and multiply these two values together.  Then multiply by 4 and then multiply by 32.15.  This will give you the pressure the gauge should be reading.

An example.  The distance between A and B is 34-3/4 inches and the temperature is 80F degrees.

$0.001118 \times 34.75 \times 4 \times 32.15 = 5.0 PSI \$

For what it’s worth, if you mess up and measure 35 inches instead of 34-3/4 inches, you’ll only be off by a little more than .03 PSI.  This is an indication as to how accurate and precise a manometer can be.

Tomorrow I’m going to be helping a friend fix a car, so I won’t be able to take all this theory and turn it into a workable thing until early next week.

Again, I think this will work, but I will have to wait a few days to see how many “devils are in the details”. 🙂

# Turkey Broth and Canner Gauges

I’m trying to use the food that has been in the freezer for awhile and earlier this week I baked a turkey.

Now I’m making turkey broth.  After simmering the carcass for about 30 hours, the broth is cooling on the counter.  Once it cools enough, I’ll put it in the refrigerator so the fat will harden enough that I can scrape most of it off.

Once that is done, I’ll rewarm it, set up the pressure canner and can the stock.  Depending on where you live this might be called jarring or bottling.

I’m fortunate that one one of my canners has a jiggle weight so it doesn’t need to have the gauge checked.  My other canners have gauges that need a yearly check. Unfortunately, for the last several years I was the only person using the local extension service’s gauge check service and they have since discontinued the gauge checks.

So, I will either have to send off the gauges to the manufacturer and wait, or check them myself.

One possibility is to assume the jiggle weight is correct (jiggle weights don’t need calibration) connect the two canners together and compare the gauge reading with what the weight does.

And I have another more geeky idea; a U-tube manometer.  Or actually, so the thing isn’t so tall, multiple U-tube manometers connected together.

A U-tube manometer is considered a primary standard.  This means it needs no calibration to work correctly and its accuracy is limited only by the care the user takes when making measurements.

Some quick estimates of mine indicate if I get a thermometer that tells me the temperature at least within 10 degrees of actual value and I can measure a distance to within 1/2cm (3/16 inch) I can measure pressures to within 0.2% of the actual value.

# Not Much Happening

Since I’ve been retired, I’ve been slowly (no sense hurrying this) cleaning up the house.  I’m about 3/4 done with a *VERY* thorough cleaning.   Most of the problem is dust.  I’ll get the dust cleaned up in an area and, two days later, it needs to be dusted again.  I’m hoping it’s a case of cleaning new areas of the house is stirring up the dust and allowing it to settle on the already cleaned areas….but I doubt I’ll be so lucky.

Over the summer, I cooked a turkey and I froze the bones.  This week I simmered the bones to make more turkey broth and I just finished pressure canning it.  I have 14  twelve ounce jars cooling on the kitchen counter.  So far 12 of the 14 lids have “plinked”.  I’m hoping the other 2 will soon do the same.

For what it’s worth, I think I fixed my problem of liquid leaving the jars as I process them…I think I had the screw bands too tight.  I did not tighten them so much this time and the broth level in the jars is right where it should be.

I also made some sourdough bread.  Our daughter was home when I took the loaves from the oven and she took one back to her apartment.    She and her roommates are hoping I will let them know when I’m again making bread. 🙂

Lights….ET (“Evil” Twin) called and asked if I could fix the ceiling lights in her kitchen, She said that every time she turned on the lights, the circuit breaker would trip.

The heat from the light bulb was high enough to destroy the insulation on the wires within the ceiling light fixture.   It was actually fortunate that the failure resulted in a short circuit that tripped the circuit breaker.  Had this not happened, the dangerous overheating problem likely would have remained “lurking”.   And, no, she did not put too large of a light bulb in the fixture.  She was using 60 watt ones. The fixture’s sticker said any light bulbs less than 150 watts was OK to use.

# Turkey Broth

I’m sitting outside in the Arizona desert’s nice winter weather, wearing a short sleeved shirt and listening to the pressure canner weight jiggle.  It’s 8pm and 20C/70F degrees, which is perfect for canning in comfort.

I do this once or twice a year and you can see my setup  HERE

If all goes well, I’ll have 11 pint jars of turkey broth to put up on the shelf.  This combined with two other batches of broth should last us until at least Thanksgiving.

I love prickly pear jelly, but it’s not quite so much fun to make. The prickly pear fruit is ready in August and standing over a steaming pot of water when it’s 45C/115F degrees…well…I really like the jelly.

# Turkey broth

I had frozen the turkey stock that I had made last week.  Today I pulled out the four half gallon mason jars from the freezer, thawed the stock, brought it to a boil and ladled it into pint jars.  The pressure canner is now sealed up, boiling lightly away and slowly building up to the required 15psig pressure.  When it gets there, the weight will start to rock and I’ll get that “hissss——–hissss……” a couple of times a minute…it just made the first hiss, and then another.  Twenty more minutes and I can turn the heat off.

When I installed the new microwave oven above the stove, there was no longer enough clearance for the tall canners.  So, I had to come up with an alternative heating arrangement and that took the form of a Butterfly 2698 kerosene stove.  I bought mine from http://www.stpaulmercantile.com

With the new stove, came the requirement to buy a new canner.  The Presto canner does not have a pressure weight to keep the pressure correct. Instead it relies on precise adjustment of the stove temperature to keep the pressure correct and I have never acquired the skill to adjust this stove precisely enough.  With the All American 921 canner, all that happens when the temperature is too high is the weight jiggles a bit more often…and as long as the heat level isn’t grossly high, it’s OK.

For what it’s worth, I prefer the Presto canner as it is much lighter and easier to handle.

I tried the stove outside for awhile before using it inside.  I found if I use real 1-K kerosene (possibly different than K1 kerosene) the kerosene stink is pretty much non existent when the stove is at operating temperature.  So, I have the door open and a fan sucking air outside when I’m lighting and extinguishing the stove.  Otherwise the outside door is closed.   i can get away with this when it’s 65F degrees outside.  If it were colder, I’d set things up in the garage and not worry about the kerosene smell.

I chose the kerosene stove because the available propane burners had too much or too little output for what I needed.

Oh, what you don’t see is the 15 pound CO2 fire extinguisher beside me and the CO detector on the floor behind the stove.  While the likelihood of a problem is low, there is no point in being stupid.

# Lots of stuff

Cabinets.

I finished repairing cabinets.  When the kitchen sink is filled with ice water, condensate would form on underside of the sink and then drip onto the cabinet bottom.  The cabinet bottom is absolutely non-waterproof and the floor warped.  I’m putting in nice plywood coated with several layers of spar varnish, so this won’t be a problem again.

Turkey stock

When I filled the 1/2 gallon canning jars with the turkey stock, I let them set for awhile and then further cooled them in the refrigerator.  I just scraped the fat off the stock and am reheating it. I’ll can the stock in a mixture of 12 and 16 ounce jars.  This is a job for a pressure canner.  I have Presto and an All American brand canners that I bought at garage sales.  The local agricultural extension folks checked the gauge calibration–the gauges read within 1/2 PSI of actual pressure, so I’m good to go.  This stuff must be processed in a pressure canner.  Any other room temperature storage solution will not work.

I’ve been restoring a Hallicrafters SX-101 Mark III receiver.  This is a 1950s ham radio receiver.  I finished it up tonight while the stock was heating up.  I’m amazed at how well it works.  When it was given to me, it had been stored in what I call dry outside storage.  Basically it was stored outside but under a roof.  It had not been damaged by water or humidity (live in a desert), but it did have about 1/2 inch of dust and dirt in the radio.

Next on the bench will be a home shortwave radio–a Bosch radio from the mid to late 1930s.  This radio also doubles as living room furniture with a beautifully styled wood cabinet.

The grocery store where I shop was running a “special”–buy one turkey, get a smaller one for free.

So, I ended up with two turkeys and cooked one yesterday.

I carved it up and have bagged up the meat, 1/2 pound per bag, and it’s back in the freezer where it will be ready for quick meals.

The last couple of years that my father was alive, his medical condition required a strict limitation of the amount of sodium that he consumed.  He loved soup, but all the soups, even the low sodium ones, had too much salt for him.

This started my tradition of simmering the turkey carcass to make turkey stock (or broth, take your pick for the name) and canning it so my mom could make soup.

My dad died, but the tradition, now 12 years old, lives on.  The turkey carcass has been slowly simmering, covered in water, for about 15 hours in a covered pot.  The meat is completely off of the bones and the segmented bones have come apart.  This means the stock will be like Jello when it cools.

Turkey flavored Jello sounds weird, but add a bit of water, some seasoning (no salt), some noodles and vegetables, call it soup and the weirdness goes away.

All that’s left is to let it cool so I can spoon off the fat, put it into pint jars and process it through the pressure canner…and the tradition goes on.