Weck Jars Reviews: Our Editorial Verdict

The short version

If you want the verdict before the detail, here's where the Weck 743 lands after reading a few hundred owner comments. It's a gorgeous, genuinely buy-it-for-life jar with a sealing system that rewards practice and punishes impatience.

What's good:

• All-glass lid and reusable rubber ring, so nothing rusts and you never buy another flat.
• Near-indestructible glass that owners drop and keep, with jars staying in service for decades.
• Tapered mold shape stacks neatly full or empty and pours clean for jam, pickles, and ferments.
• Safe for water-bath canning, and pretty enough that people gift and display them.

What's not:

• The rubber ring and steel clips take practice; early seal failures are common until the placement clicks.
• Pricier than Ball and often hard to find in US stores, so you usually end up ordering online.
• Rings and clips are an ongoing cost and easy to lose or misplace between batches.
• No pop-up button to read, you check the gasket tab, and there is no USDA-tested pressure-canning guidance.

Who it's for

Weck fits one kind of preserver beautifully and frustrates another. Sort yourself before you buy.

Buy it for:

• Ferments, fridge pickles, and pantry storage where the glass lid and the looks matter more than raw jar count.
• Water-bath canning of jams, pickles, and high-acid foods you want to keep at home for years.
• Buyers who hate rusty bands and disposable lids and will pay up front to stop rebuying them.

Skip it if:

• You can in volume or gift most of what you make; a flat of Ball Wide Mouth Mason Jars costs a fraction and you will not mourn one that never comes home.
• You mainly pressure can; there are no US-tested pressure recipes for Weck, so mason jars are the safer default for that.
• You want jars on the shelf today; Weck availability is spotty, and a smaller Weck 742 Mold Jar order online is the usual workaround.

The specs that matter

The Weck system is only three parts, but each one changes how you work. Here's what they actually buy you at the counter.

The mold shape and glass lid: the taper lets empty and full jars nest and stack, and the flat glass lid sits in a groove so jars stack on each other too. You can see straight down into the jar, and there is no coated metal disc between your food and the seal.

The rubber ring plus two or three clips: the red gasket does the sealing and the clips only hold the lid during processing. Two clips for water bath, three for pressure, then the clips come off so you can read the seal. Rings are reusable while supple; clips are the part people lose.

All glass and rubber, nothing to rust: because there is no metal band or flat, there is nothing to corrode, pit, or bond to acidic food. The only wear items are cheap gaskets, which is the whole economic case for buying in the first place.

How well it preserves

Sealing is where Weck earns or loses your trust, and the owner reports split cleanly by method. For water-bath canning, people who have put in the reps get near-perfect results. Two clips, the orange ring, and the glass lid hold as well as a mason jar once your ring placement is dialed in.

Beautiful jars. I love using them and have yet to have a seal fail when canning. The red rings are reusable, so the whole system seems more economical to me than using disposable lids. The only slight annoyance is that processing times in US canning books are for sizes that match Ball jars, so if the Weck jar is even slightly bigger than the Ball equivalent you have to follow processing times for the next size up. ETA: I never ever share my Weck jars so if I intend to share something I default to Ball. I guard my Wecks like a dragon protecting it's hoard. Can't risk not getting one of those expensive beauties back.

The routine that gets there is simple but specific: clip the lid down, process, then pull the clips and check that the gasket tab points down and the lid holds when you lift the jar by it. Owners who trust that process report failure rates as low as any jar they own.

I really like them, and I definitely like how they stack. I can’t fit as many of them into my canners, but it’s usually not a big problem. Our Aldi sells boxes of three different sizes once a year (including the juice jars that I don’t can with but do use for things like vanilla essence and cherry seed bourbon) so they’re probably the most accessible jars in these parts. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve never had a failure with them. I do use three clips as recommended for pressure canning.

The seal is also robust against real-world handling, and the fact that these jars move through commercial German supply chains reassures owners that the glass and lid are up to genuine processing, not just gentle home use.

That’s right, Weck jars haven’t been tested by the USDA, and as far as I can tell, Weck doesn’t provide any information about using them for pressure canning. That said, foods in Weck jars are commonly for sale in German supermarkets. So the jars themselves are apparently sturdy enough to handle commercial processing, shipping, sales, and the glass deposit return process. They’re just stacked up like all of the other “regular” food in jars. No lid clips.

Pressure canning is the honest caveat. There are no USDA-tested pressure recipes for Weck, and the ring can push outward under the harder pressure swings, so results get less consistent the moment you leave water-bath territory.

I love mine for water bath canning, can’t make them consistently work for pressure canning. Always have about 1 in 4 gaskets blow out and I’m just not willing to work with that failure rate. Crate and Barrel carries them in store if you want to buy a few to try out. Check the lids for chips first in case people have been fiddling with the clips.

New canners feel the learning curve most, and it is fair to call it a real barrier rather than a quirk. More than a few owners bought a stack, fought the seals, and lost patience before the technique clicked.

I have 3 dozen small and 3 dozen large and I am not a fan. I've had so many not seal for me. I think it takes some practice and I don't have the patience for trial and error when I'm hot, sweaty, and have a lot left to can.

Built to last

If sealing is the contested axis, durability is the one almost nobody argues about. The glass is thick and genuinely tough, the lid is glass rather than coated metal, and the only parts that wear are the rubber ring and the steel clips, both cheap to replace. Owners routinely describe jars that outlast everything else in the kitchen.

I grew up only a 30 minute walk to their factory. My grandma used them all her life and my mom still uses the ones we inherited from her. Had to replace the rings and some of the clamp thingies, but other than that they are awesome. We do almost everything in those glasses. From tomato sauce, soups, canned veg and fruit to pickling and fermenting (we obviously don't put them into the canning pot and leave out the rubber rings for fermenting) and making liqueurs or canning juice. The only thing we don't use them for is jam/jellies. For that we just reuse jars with twist-off lids from storebought stuff. So, yes, you will have to replace the rings every now and then as they will get brittle with age and when the clamps get too rusty after years and years of age you might want to replace them too, but the glasses are near indestructible and you will get years of use out of the clamps.

The longevity numbers people throw around are not small. Decades of service on the same jars is a common claim, with only the gaskets needing occasional replacement.

My aunt is canning in them since 30 years and she didnt have to replace a single jar. Altough She's not pressure canning, its still impressive that the jars have a life expectancy of 30 years. You only have to buy new rubbers occasionally, which are very very cheap. They can be somewhat annoying with pressure canning, because the rubber can push out of the jar. To prevent this, use 4 clamps instead of 2 and let the pressure canner slowly naturally release its pressure! I pressure canned in them with a unsafe device and in an unsafe way. The device warned that jars would shatter immediately, because it cools the temperature at the end instantly down from 248F to 130-140F through cold water injection. It was stupid of me but except for siphoning, the jars were just fine!

The all-glass lid is the durability feature owners prize most, because it removes rust and the coated-metal question from the equation entirely.

The advantage is that the lids are glass. I have been using them for about 8 years now. Personally, I feel kind of concerned about whatever might be on the lining of the metal lids. I like glass and plain rubber. Plus you never have to buy more lids, just the rubber rings, and they can be re-used if they don't get stretched out. And they are indeed beautiful. However, the Deco style jar takes up extra room in the canner. Tulip is better.

That material-quality edge over a standard mason jar comes up again and again, both in how the glass survives handling and in how the system sidesteps the rust that plagues metal bands.

I friggin love my Weck jars. The quality of the glass is superior to those of mason jars, and I find it so much more fun to pull on the tab to open the lid, rather than peeling the flat up with my fingers. The only downside I've run into with them is that the local store doesn't seem to give two hoots if I want to order them in bulk, or not, so I'll just pop onto Amazon for that.

Living with it

Day to day is where Weck asks more of you than a mason jar, and this is the axis to go in clear-eyed about. The ring-and-clip system is fiddly. Seating the rubber gasket in exactly the right spot under the glass lid, then holding it there with clips, is a small dexterity task you repeat on every single jar, and not everyone enjoys it.

Yeah, they’re really visually striking. I bought individual jars in two different sizes for making (non-canned) salad dressings and quickly gave them away. Fiddling with those damned clips was maddening. I can’t imagine having to futz with them in a water bath canning process.

The anxiety about ring placement keeps some owners from canning in Weck at all, even when they love the jars for everything else in the kitchen.

I don't use them for canning because I don't trust my ability to put the ring in exactly the right place, but I love Weck jars in general. I keep my sourdough starter in one, use a few for dry storage, and have occasionally used some small ones for service.

It is not all friction. Once the technique clicks, plenty of owners find the seal more consistent than a two-piece lid and the ritual worth it, and treating the ring as single-use removes a lot of second-guessing.

I only use the rubber rings once. I prefer them to the lids and rings. I get a more consistent seal. The Weck jars are far superior in my experience

Storage and fermenting are where Weck is easiest to love with none of the canning stress, since you skip the ring entirely and just enjoy the glass lids and the shapes. A lot of owners quietly settle here and use mason jars for the heavy canning.

I have some Weck tulip jars. I love the visual design and size. I’ve canned in them once but there are no tested recipes for pressure canning with them in the US (which is what I mostly do). So I mostly use them for storage of other things or pickling. They are beautiful and I love the glass lids. The rubber gaskets lasts a good while (I’ve had mine a couple years) but I haven’t really canned in them repeatedly to give advice on that aspect. I wish Weck would invest in testing pressure canning recipes for them. I could be convinced to move away from Ball jars if they did simply because of the ✨aesthetic✨.

How it compares

Weck rarely gets bought in a vacuum, so here is how it stacks up against the jars people actually cross-shop.

Versus Ball Wide Mouth Mason Jars: the mason jar is cheaper, sold everywhere, and the default for every US-tested recipe including pressure canning. The tradeoff is disposable flats you rebuild every year and metal bands that rust. For volume canning and for gifting, Ball wins on pure economics.

I like weck jars both because they are pretty and because they are reusable. I have reused the rubber gaskets multiple times as long as they are in good condition. As others have said, the only down side to their use here in the states is their higher cost compared to Ball or similar canning jars.

Versus other European clamp jars (Le Parfait, Fido, Bormioli): those share the reuse-forever appeal but use a hinged bail or a thicker gasket. Weck's draw is the standardized lids and gaskets across every shape and size, plus the tab-down seal you can read at a glance.

They are well known across Europe. Weck is to Germans what Ball is to US Americans, Le Parfait to the French, and Bormioli to the Italians. These companies developed their own jars and lids during the same time that Ball were developing and patenting their own jars. Yes, these are the perfect reduce, reuse, or rather buy it for life jars. No way would I throw these into a recycling bin. Every now and then you may need to buy new gaskets if you use them for canning, but those are cheap. What I also love about them is that they come in so so many shapes and sizes, but the lids and gaskets are all standardized.

The pattern most experienced owners land on is not Weck versus mason at all, but Weck and mason, each for the job it suits.

I have and use weck jars. love them. Worth every penny as i just need to buy new gaskets so less waste overall. Yes, i have increased my stash to rotate over the years as they are not cheap. But they are a cheap way of saving food from my garden, which makes the food cheaper overall. I use them for pressure canning as well as water bath. I use regular mason jars as my 'gifting' stash. So if i am making a jam i can an amount in mason or kerr to give to friends and family. It makes me less anxious to get my weck back. I can afford to let those go as gifts. Weck stay at home.

Using it well

Get the most out of Weck with a few habits. Seat the wet gasket in the lid groove first, then set the lid on the jar and add the clips, two opposite each other for water-bath canning. Process, then remove the clips to check the seal: the gasket tab should point down, and the lid should hold when you lift the jar by it gently. Reuse rings only while they stay supple and uncracked, and keep a few spares so a tired gasket never stalls a batch. Save the big Deco shapes for pantry display and reach for the tulip when canner space is tight.

Because Weck's tested territory is water-bath canning, that is where to start if you are new to the system. Our guide to the best water bath canner for beginners walks through the pot, the rack, and the process so you can get your seal rate up before you invest in a full Weck collection.

And be honest about batch size before you commit, because the larger Weck shapes eat canner space fast and a big harvest goes quicker in plain mason jars.

I love Weck jars more than any reasonable person should. They’re beautiful and come in so many lovely shapes and sizes. They’re pricey yes, but their esthetic value makes up for it. The downside: the larger sizes take up more room in my canners. It’s not an efficient choose when I’m canning large quantities. So for large batches I generally use mason jars still.

The bottom line

Weck is a buy-it-for-life jar with a genuinely beautiful, all-glass sealing system, and for the right owner it is an easy recommendation. If you ferment, store, and water-bath can at home, and you would rather pay once than rebuy disposable lids forever, the durability and the looks carry the day. The glass outlasts everything, nothing rusts, and the reusable rings really do cut waste over the years.

What keeps this out of rave territory is the day-to-day. The ring-and-clip workflow has a real learning curve, seals fail early and in pressure canning specifically, and the jars cost more and are harder to find than Ball. Go in expecting to practice, buy a small batch or a smaller Weck 742 size to learn on, and keep cheap mason jars around for volume and for gifts you may never see again. Do that, and Weck earns its place on the shelf. Skip it if you want the cheapest, most available, most foolproof path to a sealed jar, because that is still a two-piece mason lid.