It’s Sunday afternoon and you are sitting in your man chair, in your man robe, reading your man newspaper. It’s your wife’s turn to cook today. (That’s right. You share in the cooking duties at your house. Manly men know how to cook. Especially meat.) To keep things simple, she’s whipping up some spaghetti and a nice side salad to go with it. And then you hear it: “Dear, I can’t get the lid to the spaghetti sauce jar to open. It’s stuck. Can you open it for me?”
Are you ready for moments like these? Here are five techniques to show off your man skills and open a stuck jar lid every time.
1. Brute force. This technique simply requires you to use your manly strength to twist open the jar lid. You get extra points if you do it without the assistance of a rag.
2. Wrap the lid in a dish towel or rubber glove. If brute force doesn’t work, give your self some extra traction by wrapping the lid in dish rag, or better yet, a rubber glove.
3. Break the vacuum seal. If the bottle is new and still vacuumed sealed, breaking the seal makes the lid easier to open. You can do this by using a bottle opener and pulling the lid away from the jar.
4. Run the lid under hot water. Running the lid under hot water for a minute will cause the metal to expand so the lid comes off more easily.
5. Tap the lid with a spoon. Sometimes food gets stuck in the lid which in turn causes the lid to get stuck. Give the lid a few quick taps on the side with a spoon in order to dislodge any food.
Image by How Can I Recycle This?
If you liked this article, please bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. I’d appreciate it.
Subscribe to Art of Manliness by RSS or email to get your FREE guide to being a gentleman in 2008.
Facebook
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Stumbled across your blog. Good reading. I use to bang the side of the lid on the counter, would work everytime, until I broke a tile….not so good.
Tip the jar upside down and whack the bottom of it with the palm of your hand. Do this two or three times. Then open the jar. Works like a charm every time.
Easiest way ever is to grab a knife, hit the lid with the blunt edge of the knife all the way around the jar. Opens like a charm.
If it’s a small enough lid, turn your right hand upside down before grabbing it. The thumb sides of your two hands should face each other. This method gives a better grip.
You can also use a small strap wrench if hot water and tapping the edge doesn’t loosen it up.
@KBK:
Thanks for the additional tips!
Just as xer said….the easiest way to break the seal and get the jar open is a couple of good whacks on the bottom of the jar. I don’t know how many times my wife has struggled with getting something open….I’d take it….smack it on the bottom a few times…and then open it up with very little resistance….of course my wife always tells me:
“I loosened it for you….”
The manliest way to unscrew a jar is to set it on the bench, stare at it in a very manly way until it unscrews itself and runs off.
I have a couple of other ways to open a jar, although there are both variations of the same principle: break the seal.
1. Bang the edge of the jar lid on the edge of the counter top several times. Great way to relieve stress.
2. If you are going to be using the contents of the jar at once (like spaghetti sauce), then take a knife and stab the jar lid. The hole created will break the seal. Although, for some reason, the men in my life don’t like it when I employ that method. Something about me stabbing something with a knife…
I once used the hot water trick on a jam jar for my mother after all other options had failed. All the while I explained to her the science behind it and when it did work, I swear she’s never looked at me with as much pride since.
Hot water to open a stuck jar lid is WRONG. Use cold water. Have you never felt a ring get loose when the hand is in cold water? The CHALLENGER ring slipped in cold air.
Think about it; the cold makes the metal retract into itself, thus making the interior whole wider.
Gabriel, you are wrong the TCE is higher for a metal than glass, hence when you heat up the lid with hot water it expands more than the glass (and quicker too, because metal absorbs heat much faster than glass). This effectively increases the radius of the lid, making a little bigger and hence looser for the person who will now easily open the jar. Make sure to wipe it off first.
If all else fails… try sticking a knife under the lid and prying it open. Or you could just skip all the other steps and do that to begin with. It works for me.
Use the rubber/foamy underside of a mouse pad. At least it justifies your geekiness with some real-life practicality.
The best way to open a jar is to use a wide rubber band, like the kind that come wrapped around bunches of broccoli. Simply place the rubber band around the lid, and it will provide all the traction you need. If your lid has a small diameter, wrap the band a few times.
I tried everything written here to open a jam jar that had been closed for at least half a year.It was extra sticky cuz my husband made it at home so more sticky stuff under the lid from whe he poured it into the jars…But anyway, nothing worked until I tried the rubber band around the lid thing as Christina mentioned and boy does that work! It was so effortless and worked like a charm! I think that’s what I’m sticking to from now on…
What’s important about the brute force method is to make sure you use the proper technique: instinctively grabbing and twisting at the wrist is going to offer you very little leverage for opening that jar. A much more effective technique is to use a firm grip, keep the wrist locked straight, and turn from the elbow. If this doesn’t work, blame the first person who tried for getting it all greasy, then proceed to employ a craftier method.
Mark, Thanks for the Chuck Norris version!
Haven’t met a jar yet that didn’t yield to the “pry the lid, release the seal” method. The only problem is that a bottle opener rarely fits the lids, so take that spoon you are wacking the lid with and use one end or the other to pry it a bit.
There are some small strap wrenches (mainly used for plumbing jobs) that are good for opening jars. Keep one in the junk drawer of your kitchen, it can be used for opening jars or pulling the “P” trap when the sink is clogged.
I was aware of the tapping/pounding, hot water and traction techniques. While none of those worked, I tried the pry the lid to break the seal technique just now… POP! it’s open!
I wasn’t aware lids were so easy to pry open to break the seal. I used a pointy butter knfe because it was a DULL blade and a bit thicker than a regular dinner knife. The strength of the steel and the point really helped.
Now I am embarrassed that I used the brute force with help techniques all these years, when I should have employed a tiny bit of my professional science background… we live and learn.
Thanks all for the suggestions!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
They helped even a woman;).
Always open jars BEFORE placing them in the refrigerator. Makes them easier to open later.
I recently got very angry with a jar I was trying to open for my girlfriend. Nothing seemed to work, and I lost my manly calm and bashed the side of the lid hard on the worktop. I gave it another pull and to my surprise it just slipped off. Next time, I’ll give it a manly bash and hope the glass doesn’t break.
Brute force works for me, every time. I do not understand why men have any difficulty opening jars with anything other than their bare hands. But then again, I’ve been a touch typist since I was thirteen, and I’m 46 now, and I’ve developed muscles on each of my knuckles from typing away at 140 wpm…
The science behind the hot-water trick is only partially right. Yes, you are expanding the metal on the lid when you run it under cold water. You are also expanding what little air remains in the jar’s “vacuum” (there is always some) and that, too, alleviates the vacuum seal. And finally the water lubricates the glass thread — all of which works together for men who need this trick to open jars.
One of the things we all do when trying to get a lid off is hold our breath. Next time as you are trying to turn the lid exhale. You will be surpised what happens next.
The easiest way is number 3; break the vacuum seal and not by banging it or tapping it or anything like that but simply what it says there…i just get a normal cuttlery knife, slide it between the rim of the lid and the jar and push the bottom of the knife in. The lid simply makes a POP and it comes open.
Dude, this is a gold mine of sound advice. It’s very cool and refreshing to find a real MEN’s website. Thanks.
The hot water trick was the best tip but if the jar is really stuck with
sugery jam etc. this is the BEST method. Microwave an inch of water
in a cereal bowl till boiling. Put jar in water upside down. Let soak for
a couple of minutes then give jar to a four year old to open. The back
of a knife whack on the lid is a brutal and barbaric act, don’t do that.