ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CONQUERING THE STUBBORN JARS
At some point, we've all faced the daunting challenge of a stubborn jar lid, even those with a Herculean grip. It's like the lid has a mind of its own, refusing to budge no matter how hard we try. The frustration is palpable when you're tantalizingly close to your favorite pickles, jams, or sauces, yet can't access them.
But fear not, understanding the science behind jar lids can empower you to overcome this culinary nemesis. Let's delve into the intricacies of jar design and arm you with the knowledge to triumph over even the most obstinate jars.
Cracking the Jar Code: Understanding the Design
Glass jars, with their threaded necks and rubber-sealed lids, have been preserving food for centuries. This design, akin to a nut and bolt, ensures an airtight seal, safeguarding your culinary delicacies from spoilage. While plastic containers may seem convenient, they are air permeable and no match for the longevity and freshness provided by glass.
However, this preservation prowess presents a challenge when it comes to opening jars. There are two primary resistances you'll encounter: the compressed rubber seal and the thread coupling. As if that weren't enough, residual food residue can further cement the lid in place, akin to a rusted bolt.
How the Existing Jar Openers Work:
To vanquish these stubborn lids, you'll need two things: mechanical advantage and a strong grip. For those with dexterity issues or weak grips, traditional jar openers may fall short. Let's explore some common types and their drawbacks:
The first is the ring type jar openers. While simple and provide mechanical advantage, due to the open-end structure, both arms have free moment and make them very hard to have a steady hold on the jar lid; also due to this inherently unstable structure, they can not be big and do not fit the regular large jars. Plus, it will need coordination on clamping force and twisting force, which is especially difficult for people lacking dexterity.
The second is the triangular type. While versatile and can accommodate larger lid sizes, sharp metal teeth are commonly needed to bite into the lid to create sufficient grip. One also must push the jar against the opener to generate clamping force when twisting. If it slips, it serrates the lid and creates sharp mars, and next time when you try to open the jar with bare hand, the sharp mars may cut your skin.
The third is the gear type. which utilizes a central gear to drive outer gears to generate twisting and clamping force on a pair of jaws. This type comes in two variations – electronic version and manual version. While smaller in size, due to the clamping and twisting forces are initiated from inside the lid circumference, it inherently lacks mechanical advantage, or in another word, the larger the jar, the higher of mechanical disadvantage. For this reason, it is common for the electronic ones to skid or seize when the tiny motor and the current of couple AA batteries are not sufficient to generate enough torque. For the manual variation, it’s very hard to get a stable hold on the lid, and it’s also common to skid and damage the lid when higher torque is needed.
Empowering Your Strengths
At Handyman Perspectives, our handyman founder experienced all these issues himself. Fueled by the frustration of his aging grip and no better solution, he set forth with a journey to invent a jar opener that embodies easy control, simple operation, safe, high leverage, and empowerment of natural physical strength. After almost two years of iterations and commercial implementations, this powerful tool is finally born.
Our jar opener functions like a pliers wrench that generates high torque and leverage. With its self-locking mechanism, you no longer need to coordinate clamping and twisting efforts. With 4 variable gaps, it accommodates lids and caps ranging from 1½ to 3⅝ inches (3.5cm-9.5cm), even those with non-circular shapes. Plus, the soft padding guarantees your lids and caps remain unscathed.
The design places special focus on utilizing your natural physical strength. This is because a person’s wrists have different directional strengths in holding down the jar and twisting the opener. For example, a right-hander will normally try to open the jar with his or her left hand holding down the jar, and the right hand exerting twisting force. This however may not be the best position to utilize his or her directional wrist strengths, because when higher torque is needed, the left wrist normally has weaker strength in holding down the jar to prevent it from turning counter-clockwise with the opener. Switching the use of hands, you may find that your right wrist is a lot stronger in dealing with the turn of the jar. All you need then becomes creating an appropriate clamping force, which is retained by the self-locking mechanism, then make sure the opener is level with the lid and the rubber ring is in good contact with the lid, then use the left hand to give it a pull, and voila, pops it opens! Thanks to its ergonomic design, you can also try different holding positions to discover your own way to better leverage your twisting strengths. This functionality is unachievable by any existing jar openers.
As a new product, we are launching it with a very competitive low price on Amazon. Once you have it, please do follow the best practice of our instructional video. And at the end, if you do find it is helpful for people with arthritis or weak grip, please help spread the word and let other people who may be benefit from it know!
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON:
US: ➡️
CANADA: ➡️
