I learned the hard way that you should make sure the plug can reach the outlet before you fill it with 20 quarts of water. Ball has a list of almost 200 canning recipes on their site which is pretty awesome reference to have. The electric canner also has a steamer rack and supposedly makes a very good steamer, so I'm going to try that out sometime this week. It was nearly impossible to buy this...I had been looking since February and everywhere online and local was sold out, but I luckily found one (and it was the last one) at an Amish hardware store when I wasn't even looking for it.
That's a lot of water to lug around even in a regular stock pot. How much does that weigh? I imagine the base has a thick iron layer bondedbto it to hold the heating element.
I've been visiting them for years! While I was in college I eventually found a good enough job to afford a small apartment with a kitchen. The first weekend after I moved there I made their blueberry syrup for celebration ice cream :-)
I got to use my new toy for the water bath canning. It was 4 hours between the two pictures with not a lot of downtime.