My pressure cooker is an old (from the 70's I believe) Mirro 22-quart aluminum one with the heavy metal weight that jiggles when the pressure is right. I like it because you don't have to visually monitor the canner -- you can tell it is right if you are anywhere within earshot. Also, a weight never needs repair -- it is a hunk of metal. Low maintenance canner and I replace the gasket every couple of years. I love this canner.
Having said that, I have been shopping around on the net for a second pressure cooker because I do so much canning that 7 qts. at a time takes its toll and slows me down, so I need 2 units running at the same time.
Here are the 3 units that I have narrowed down to:
Mirro 22-Quart Polished Aluminum Pressure Cooker/Canner I like this model a lot, but it only handles 5 qt. jars at a time because it is designed in a smaller footprint to better match element size on stoves. I have a ceramic cooktop and my old Mirro is quite a bit wider than the size of my elements. For someone that doesn't do a great deal of canning, I think it would be a great choice and the price is very good. It has a jiggler, but a newer design.
Presto 1781 23-Quart Aluminum Pressure Cooker/Canner I like this one too, but it has a gauge instead of the jiggler, so that is a strike against it for me, but it is still a nice canner at a really good price.
Hawkins Bigboy Aluminum Pressure Cooker/Canners I would choose this one in the 22 litre size. This is a very nice looking canner! It only has 1 reviewer, so I have to do a little more research and find some more reviews. It is priced a little higher, but not so much that I would take it out of the running.
That is my $0.02 on the canner question. Sorry for the long length. :)
I am so glad to hear that your son will be visiting and helping out. Hopefully you will get some quality time together.
Your needs are always in my prayers. Take care!
For those who are interested and can watch a 3 minute video, I'm attaching a You Tube that was partly filmed around here. About the 2 minute part are scenes from the annual Cedarburg 4th of July parade. Every little town around here has a parade on the 4th and several other days throughout the year too. But the 4th is the most popular -- so much that they have to get together to see who gets which day. My town (Mequon) always has their parade the week before the 4th so they don't conflict. The farming neighborhood where I live (Freistadt) has the 4th at noon reserved. It's a little parade. Cedarburg (adjoining my rear property line, but not where I live -- just close) always has 10 AM on the 4th. Grafton, 3 miles up the road, marches on the Sat., or Sun., nearest to the 4th.
The parades are a real slice of Americana and fit well with Toby Keith's lyrics in this song. I don't know who the farmer and his wife are. They could be from some other part of the country, but the parade scenes are from right here.
It's too bad they didn't film the Golden Retrievers. They always feature one unit in the parade composed just of Goldens -- about 100 of them in every shade you can imagine.
I think that it is a shame that other places in the US don't even have 4th of July parades any more. My grandkids come all the way from Virginia to see ours. Virginia, the cradle of our nation!
I’ve been reading through the customer comments on the canners you linked. What a hoot! The manufacturers should take them seriously because it sounds like all of the companies need to provide better instructions — or a customer hot line. Entertaining reading, however!