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Thanks. With sous-vide you don't have a heat source below the pot, so does that still apply?

From memory, the water bath was 161F. The pot most likely is not much hotter than that, if it's hotter at all.

From what I understand, in addition to the problem of the heat differential between the jar and pot, steam will form under the jar and cause them to bounce. The bouncing can cause the jars to break.

but in this case, the temperature doesn't go above boiling, so no steam, and I would presume no resulting bounce.

You get steam (or vapor) below the boiling point. Look for example here:

https://www.straightdope.com/21343295/how-can-water-turn-to-...

Sous vide also circulates. I have done infusions in a ball jar and it does end up bouncing around a bit. I like the idea of a small towel mentioned elsewhere in the thread.

Glass to glass heat conduction is faster than water to glass. any difference in how fast the jar is heating will produce uneven stresses and possibly crack the glass where those meet. That's my theory.

Ive had jars fail because they were touching each other on the sides; but that i put down to mechanical battering.

There's also the fact that Ball jars have gotten thinner in the past few decades; after they became almost the entire food packaging industry.

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