The easiest (and cheaper) thing would be a $100 portable induction cooktop and an induction ready pressure cooker. Messing around with wiring a "temporary" 240 circuit and an expensive 240 radiant hob isn't for the faint of heart or the electrical novice. Even if you're capable of running the wire, the induction will run circles around the radiant. You just need the compatible pressure vessel.

Or just set up a big propane gumbo kettle type burner outside. Nothing will be as easy or as cheap as that solution to work with the canner that you already have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kuhn Rikon

There is no induction-capable pressure canner to my knowledge. A pressure cooker a pressure canner does not necessarily make.

A canner has to meet certain requirements: it must hold at least 4 quart jars and be capable of 3 distinct pressure settings: 5, 10 and 15 pounds. And all the canners are aluminum. (Fagor sells something it calls a pressure canner - in stainless, but it doesn't meet at least the pressure requirements - and it's too small.)

I also have no desire to can outside in the middle of the heat of summer, nor in the middle of the cold of winter.

So ... I'd much rather not spend the money on a pro-style gas range rated for residential. A commercial gas range is out simply because I don't want to burn the house down.

That would leave a commercial electric range, but that would require wiring and would still probably be unacceptable to the insurance company.

Hence my idea for a hotplate. There are some 120v models that some people say work with canners, but on further questioning it takes too long or they don't have large canners or there is some other problem with it.

Jim

For a smaller pressure canner like the one you are talking about (holding only 4 quart jars), you might want to check out the 1500 watt, single-coil-burner 120v hotplate units. I've seen one by Broilking in Chef's Catalog and I believe Cadco makes one, too. If memory serves, they ran around $100. A lot of the single burner hotplates are only 600-700 watts, which would make them slow and problemmatic for canning.

There are some 240v units but, IIRC, they run in the price range of $400. Try webstaurant.com.

If I had a spare 240v outlet, I would think about making my own portable unit with used coil-burner cooktop mounted on a well-ventilated wood box (easy to make), and just haul it out when I needed it. If you could find a used two-burner cooktop unit, so much the better.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Jun 7, 13 at 14:30

I've been thinking about a small cooktop in a box, and that may be exactly what I do. A 4 burner would need at least 30 amps, so I might be able to use the dryer plug in the kitchen - without adding any wiring.

In general, I think I'd rather have something smaller that I wouldn't have to make myself.

As for those small canners -- I have a small 12 quart that I rarely use. I normally wind up running at least 2 rounds of 2 21 quart canners. That takes up the regular stove and the induction burner gets the stockpot with whatever I'm product I'm putting up.

Jim