I found a treasure trove of my grandmother’s canning recipes and am eager to use them. They use some interesting techniques, such as canning in the oven and flipping the hot, filled jars instead of using a water bath canner. Are there reasons why I shouldn’t use these canning recipes? 

When it comes to safe methods for canning foods, this is one instance in which modern advice is better than old-time techniques. The best way to be sure your home-canned foods are safe is to use only recipes that you know have been tested and verified safe by food scientists, who have learned a lot about food preservation over the years.

Two top publications are the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture publication, So Easy to Preserve (fifth edition), which includes 184 tested recipes along with complete details for safe home canning, and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Another excellent source is Fresh Preserving, a website hosted by the Ball Corp., which manufactures jars and lids for home canning. This website includes more than 200 tested canning recipes.

Safe home canning depends on applying the proper amount of heat to kill microbes, and the amount of heat required depends in part on how the food is prepared, including what sizes the vegetables or fruits are cut into. Tested recipes have been monitored to confirm how much time (and for non-acid foods, how much pressure) is required for the heat to fully penetrate the pieces of food in whatever size jar is being used. Older hand-me-down recipes may not have ever been tested — there’s just no way to know. Precise acidity and salt/sugar levels are also important factors, which is further reason to always use recipes that have been tested by food scientists.

Older canning recipes sometimes call for unorthodox practices, such as flipping filled hot jars upside down to allow them to seal, or canning by setting the jars in an oven or out in the sun. Those methods aren’t acceptable for several reasons, says food scientist Karen Blakeslee of Kansas State University. While alternative methods may cause the jar to seal, Blakeslee says, they do not guarantee that the food inside has reached the proper temperature for storage.

You can change some things in tested canning recipes, though. “You can typically change spicing, or change the variety of peppers in salsas as long as you use the same amount,” Blakeslee says.

When canning fruits, you can reduce or eliminate sugar and can the fruit in water or fruit juice. Artificial sweeteners are not appropriate, however, Blakeslee says — they’re not heat-stable and will sometimes make your food bitter. Although the risks are probably low if you were to use your grandmother’s recipes, chances are you can find similar tested recipes from the previously mentioned sources.

— Robin Mather, Senior Associate Editor 

Photo by Tim Nauman Photography 

Should I warm up my car on cold mornings? Does doing so help or hurt my car? Does doing so waste gas? 

Although you might think warming up your car is best on a cold morning, doing so is a bad idea, and not just because it wastes gas.

Cold engines typically want a rich (more fuel) mixture to run well. More than likely, your car uses electronic fuel injection. If your car’s engine is cold, sensors relay that information to a computer, which signals the fuel injectors to stay open longer, allowing more fuel into the engine to help it run while cold. As the engine warms up, the computer signals the injectors to let in less fuel and everything returns to normal, so to speak. Importantly, the faster your engine warms up, the quicker it assumes its most efficient level of operation.

The problem is, letting your car sit and idle is the slowest way to bring it up to operating temperature because it’s generally sitting in your drive at just above idle speed. And this method of warming up also invites other problems. Modern cars are equipped with a multitude of devices to help them run clean and efficiently, including a catalytic converter (sometimes three of them), a device in the exhaust system that works to oxidize unburned hydrocarbons and reduce carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide levels in the exhaust stream. A cold engine emits a far higher percentage of unburned hydrocarbons and much higher carbon monoxide levels than a warm engine.

Unfortunately, the average catalytic converter can’t process 100 percent of unburned hydrocarbons even in the best of times. The catalytic converter needs high exhaust temperatures — generally a minimum of 400 to 600 degrees Fahrenheit — just to start functioning. Because of the catalytic reaction, the higher the pollutant input, the higher the operating temperature of the catalytic converter after it starts working, typically about 1,200 to 1,600 degrees. Because a cold engine emits high levels of unburned hydrocarbons, it can cause the converter to run hotter than desired. If this occurs too often, these high temperatures can cause the converter to physically collapse internally, or plug. This doesn’t happen at once, but over time, yet the end effect is the same: poor mileage and significantly dirtier exhaust.

There are a lot of myths concerning the risk of damage if you don’t thoroughly warm up a cold engine, but most of them are just that — myths. Modern engines are built to a much higher standard than engines of 25 years ago, and you can’t compare a 2012 Prius — or even a 2002 Camry — to a 1987 Toyota Tercel. The best bet? Even if it’s just 10 degrees outside, start your car, let it run for 30 to 60 seconds to get all the fluids moving, then drive off gently. Don’t race the engine or accelerate suddenly. Compared to idling in your driveway — where you get zero miles to the gallon — your engine will warm up faster, your exhaust system will get up to temperature faster so the catalytic converter can do its thing, and you’ll use less fuel. Which is what you wanted all along anyhow, right?

Certainly, ambient conditions will rule. If it’s extremely icy or foggy, you might have to let your car warm up a bit more to clear the windshield. And drivers in extremely cold climates will want to give their engines a little more time to warm up, if only because moving off too quickly if it’s, say, 20 degrees below zero outside, can actually damage your engine. If it's below zero, try to limit your warm up to no more than five minutes before you drive off into the frozen wilderness.

— Richard Backus,
Editor-in-Chief, Gas Engine Classics and Motorcycle Classics magazines 

Photo by Fotolia/Imageegami 

I’ve heard that hybrid car batteries must be replaced every few years, costing thousands of dollars. Is this true? If so, why would anybody buy a hybrid? 

Urban legend holds that buying a hybrid car will eventually subject the owner to the expensive nightmare of replacing the hybrid car battery pack, but urban legend in this case is wrong.

While there are exceptions, hybrid car batteries rarely need replacing. Hybrids now have a 12-year history in the United States, and most of the cars on the road are still on their original packs — even many of the 300,000-mile Ford Escape Hybrids used as taxis in New York and San Francisco. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority says only two of its 182 hybrid taxis have needed new batteries.

Toyota officials report that of the 1.1 million Prii sold in the United States over the past 10 years, only about 500 batteries have been replaced (0.05 percent). The batteries were originally built to last 150,000 miles, but they have exceeded expectations, with many Prii logging more than 250,000 miles on the original battery packs.

Further, the cost of buying replacement packs has fallen, and inexpensive “remanufactured” used batteries are widely available.

Felix Kramer, founder of the plug-in car advocacy group CalCars, owns a Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid but he says he doesn’t spend any time worrying about battery replacement. By the time his Volt’s warranty expires, he says, replacement batteries will cost a fraction of the original price.

But concern about hybrid battery packs going bad is understandable, given that new replacement units cost $3,000 or more. The nickel-metal-hydride pack in the current Prius, for instance, provides 273 volts, has 168 cells and weighs 118 pounds. It lives a busy life supplementing the car’s gasoline engine. Most hybrid packs are warranted for eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. In California and the 15 states that follow its emissions laws, the warranty is for 10 years or 150,000 miles. 

In 2008, Toyota dropped the price on its replacement packs for the second-generation (2004 to 2009 model years) Prius by $686, to $2,229. Rebuilt packs (Toyota cautions it “can be hard to gauge the quality of work done on a refurbished battery”) run about $1,200, and used packs on eBay can be had for $500. David Taylor, president of Re-Involt Technologies, says it has sold more than 800 rebuilt Prius packs since 2008 and claims a less than 1 percent failure rate. Re-Involt offers an 18-month, unlimited-mileage warranty. 

In 2011, Consumer Reports tested the battery pack of a 2002 Prius with 206,000 miles and found “little difference in performance [versus the original 2002 look at the vehicle] when we tested fuel economy and acceleration.” In 2011, Consumer Reports studied data on 36,000 Prii and concluded that the Prius has “outstanding reliability and low ownership costs.”

Some of the worry about hybrid battery replacement stems from confusion between hybrid batteries and starter batteries. The small 12-volt starter battery in cars such as the Civic Hybrid does what the name implies — it starts the car, while the bigger pack assists the gas engine. The Honda starter battery does have a relatively short life — about two to five years. Replacing the starter battery costs about $100, while the 158-volt hybrid pack costs about $2,000 to replace.

Sometimes malfunctioning hybrid batteries are replaced when a less expensive repair would have been recommended by a trained technician. Hybrid cars are mechanically different enough that dealers send their mechanics to school for certification in working on specific hybrids. Owners should ask for these certified mechanics as much as possible.

— Jim Motavalli, Author of High Voltage: The Fast Track to Plug In the Auto Industry 

Photos courtesy Honda (top) and Toyota (bottom)

Where I live, we have bitterly cold winters. I’ve been told that electric cars don’t handle cold weather well. Is that true? Do some models do better than others?  

Electric car battery range is better in warmer climes, because in cold weather, chemical reactions happen more slowly. A drop of just 10 degrees Fahrenheit can sap 20 to 50 percent of a battery’s charge, depending on the system. According to Sherif Markaby, who directs Ford’s electrification program, batteries “are similar to people, as they both achieve maximum performance working under moderate, unchanged temperatures.” A warm battery can better accept charging from the regenerative braking system. Ford (for the Focus Electric) and GM (for the Volt) address this problem with a liquid temperature management system, which warms the battery pack as the car is charging. 

I drove the Volt during a chilly week in the cold winter of 2011, and traveled 28 miles before the gas engine kicked on to recharge the batteries. The Volt’s standard range is estimated to be 35 miles before it switches to gas power. 

Tony Williams, a San Diego-based Nissan Leaf owner, has created a range chart (see it at My Nissan Leaf) that is proving quite useful to other drivers of the all-electric car. According to Williams, at 70 degrees Fahrenheit, a Nissan Leaf with a full charge traveling at 55 mph will have 89 miles of range. But — and this is just one person’s experience — Williams’ calculations show that the car will lose 1 percent of range for every 2 degrees the temperature drops. For many drivers, that would translate into only 65 miles of real range available during a cold winter. 

Electric car battery range and performance isn’t the only issue in cold weather: Electric cars don’t have alternators to generate electricity. That means that the heater is a direct drain on the batteries — almost as dramatic as the drive motor itself. According to Williams, the Leaf’s heater can draw 1.5 to 3 kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity in an hour of use, and that’s a big dent when the battery stores only 24 kwh. 

Nissan estimates that at 14 degrees with the heater running, the Leaf’s range is 62 miles. 

Automakers are working on these problems. Their approach looks like a stopgap until a more efficient cabin heater is developed. Nissan introduced a standard cold-weather package for the 2012 Leaf that aims to reduce use of the climate control system with heated seats, a duct to direct warmth to the back seat, temperature management for the battery, and heated steering wheel and mirrors. Volt and Leaf owners can help their range by pre-warming the battery and the cabin while the car is plugged in . 

Patrick Wang, a Volt owner in the San Francisco area, saw his 40 miles of range drop to 34 miles when the temperature hit 40 degrees in northern California. His cold-weather driving tips include reducing cabin temperature to 68 and running the gas engine to warm up the cabin, then reverting to electric mode with the heater set to low. 

— Jim Motavalli, Author of High Voltage: The Fast Track to Plug In the Auto Industry

Photo courtesy Tesla Motors 

I’m thinking about buying a diesel truck and I’ve heard stories about how long the engines last. Can they really go several hundred thousand miles? 

While no engine will last forever, diesel engines have a distinct advantage in longevity over their gasoline counterparts. Mechanical parts wear out over time due to the friction caused by parts rubbing together. Diesel engines, however, are engineered and built to be more robust due to the higher compression ratio in the combustion chamber and the high torque output they produce. Diesel engines also operate at lower speeds (rpm) than gasoline engines, which means the bearings, piston rings, cylinder walls, valve train, etc., don’t rub together as often. Engine speeds are often half that of a gasoline engine.

These durable diesels are more expensive to purchase than a gasoline vehicle. But much of that investment can be returned when you trade or sell the diesel because they hold their resale value much better than gasoline cars and trucks. The transition to a diesel is easy — the only real difference is you pump diesel fuel rather than gasoline.

With proper lubrication and routine, basic maintenance, a diesel engine can last far more miles than a gas engine. Consider the example of retired Ford employee Gary Mueller (see photo). After his career at Ford, Mueller wanted to see the country and found a way to do so via taking a job delivering recreational vehicles by towing them on large, heavy trailers.

In 2002, Mueller purchased a Ford F-350 Super Duty pickup powered by a 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel engine. The miles added up quickly. People started suggesting he trade the diesel pickup for a new one when it hit 300,000 miles. In 2011, the truck topped 1 million miles, and the original diesel engine is still running strong.

—  Todd Kaho, Editor and Publisher, FrugalDriver.com 

Photo by Todd Kaho 

Why does everyone talk about 40 mpg like it’s some kind of miracle? My beloved Geo Metro got that easily, and that was decades ago. 

Simply put, comparing today’s high-mpg cars with the high-mpg cars of a few decades ago is neither accurate nor fair. Modern cars are much heavier than their predecessors because of federally mandated safety and emissions equipment and consumer-demanded amenities. All of this makes it much more difficult to reach 40 mpg.

If we look back at the first-generation Honda Civic from the mid-1970s, for example, it didn’t have air bags, a catalytic converter or anti-lock brakes. It only weighed 1,500 pounds and could achieve 40 mpg. The smallest car Honda offers in the United States today is the Fit. At 2,496 pounds, the 2012 Fit is 1,000 pounds heavier than the 1973 Civic. The Honda Fit also has a lot of safety equipment that wasn’t around in the 1970s. The body is considerably stronger, and there are six air bags, active head restraints, anti-lock brakes, and a vehicle stability system with traction control.

Automakers are trying to control this weight gain with lighter-weight materials and smarter engineering, but every ounce adds up. Lighter-weight materials are also generally more expensive to produce, so they often don’t fit the budget constraints of a small economical car.

The other factor is that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) changed its fuel economy test in 2008 to reflect “real-world” mileage. The testing became more aggressive, with three additional test cycles that included running the air conditioning, harder acceleration and an 80-mph blast. As an example, the 2007 Toyota Prius had a rating of 51 mpg on the highway, 60 mpg in the city and a combined rating of 55 mpg. Under the 2008 test procedures, the same car’s numbers dropped to 45 mpg on the highway, 48 mpg in the city and 46 mpg combined.

The old EPA test procedure needed to be updated, but some think the 2008 change dumbed it down too much and lowers consumer expectations about gas mileage. With a fuel-efficient driving style, I find it easy to regularly exceed the official fuel economy estimates in most new cars. In some, I can beat them by a lot. For example, in a Volkswagen Passat TDI, which uses clean diesel technology and has a highway fuel economy rating of 40 mpg, I averaged 48-plus mpg on an 800-mile round trip. The route was mostly highway driving, much of which was through mountains.

— Todd Kaho, Editor and Publisher, FrugalDriver.com 

Photo courtesy Honda 

W hen I see E85 gas prices at gas stations, it is way cheaper than regular gas. Why? 

Ethanol, an alcohol biofuel produced mostly by fermenting corn, is used in a variety of blends. As E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline), it is available largely in the Midwest and the estimated 9 million “flex-fuel” vehicles already on the road from Ford, Chrysler and General Motors can use it. As E10, ethanol is commonly blended into regular gasoline. That’s done to reduce both carbon monoxide and greenhouse gas emissions — it burns cleaner than petroleum gasoline.

It’s true that E85 gas prices have generally been cheaper than regular unleaded gasoline. For example, in early March, the national average for E85 was $3.21; the national average for regular gas was $3.72, according to E85 Prices. In the Midwest, E85 generally costs 30 cents less per gallon than gasoline. One reason for this has to do with politics. Corn farmers have long been subsidized to produce ethanol with a 45-cents-per-gallon tax credit. As USA Today reported, when Congress voted against renewing the ethanol subsidy in June 2011, this raised gasoline prices more than 4 cents a gallon because of the fuel’s E10 content.

According to Ron Lamberty, a senior vice president at the American Coalition for Ethanol, supply and demand play a big part in E85’s relatively low price.

“We have more ethanol than we can use because we can’t put more than 10 percent in gasoline yet,” he says, adding that domestic oversupply led to significant amounts of ethanol exports in the latter months of 2011. Approval of E15 will lead to a 50 percent domestic demand increase. Currently there are only 2,500 public E85 fuel stations, compared with more than 120,000 gas stations.

The rapid proliferation of ethanol production facilities also has caused spikes in the demand for, and thus the price of, corn, which can lead to so-called “food versus fuel” issues. Learn more about this subject from the Earth Policy Institute.

— Jim Motavalli, author of High Voltage: The Fast Track to Plug In the Auto Industry

Photo by Getty Images/Bloomberg