it's just lime from your water, add some vinegar to the water, it should help it. I add about 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar each time I can a batch. Shammie

Eagle, my water bath canner is about 30 years old, you ought to see the white residue on mine!

Like Shammie, I add a bit of vinegar periodically to the canner, it removes the residue enough that I can start on my next layer of minerals in the canner.

Annie

I have the same problem and we have some of the hardest water in the country.

Calcium and lime buildup. Just add a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar to the boiling water and the white crusty stuff goes away. I use it when canning all the time and never see any white buildup on the canner, racks, or the jars.

I would suggest adding vinegar to every batch if you have this problem. Probably the residue is solely from minerals in the water, but those could also be causing a bit of corrosion of the pot material itself. If you let that happen, then wash it away with vinegar, you could lose a tiny layer of your pot, and each successive round will continue to thin your pot until you rub a hole in it. In pipes with alternating fast & slow fluid flow this is called flow-assisted corrosion. A steam leak will do some amazing things to steel pipe. Of course an old BWB canner has a little less at stake. :-)

Melissa

I try to remember to add vinegar each time. I'm amazed the difference if I forget. The jars will come out with the white haze on them. Fortunately, since it hasn't been many times, the white film wipes off.

We have special a salt addititive to put in the dishwasher here to help keep the glasses from getting etched. It was a hassle adding that stuff to the resevoir so now I just take the easy route and buy the tabs with the salt built in. Over here, Calgon sells tabs for the clothes washer also. You add it with the regular detergent. I use those also. The regular powder didn't dissolve very well in my pesky european washer.