Impossible to open products

OK, I'm glad that manufacturers are watching out for the consumer in wake of the Tylenol poisoning 60 or 70 years ago. It's gone too far, Houdini couldn't open 95% of anything that comes packaged, scissors don't work anymore, how in the name of #@$%###*&^%$ do you get these things open???

Yes! Thank you for this topic. For me, the following are nigh impossible to open:

Laundry products in plastic jugs...God help folks with arthritis;

Toilet cleaning products with squeeze open lids...I can hardly believe somebody hasn't squirted this stuff in their eyes...you have to hold on tight to the body of the container while you're turning and squeezing the lid...which is angled toward your face;

The tough plastic bags inside cereal and cracker boxes...if you don't have scissors handy, you're out of luck;

Vacuum packed dry roasted peanuts...works best with a church-key, which then dents the lid.

I'll think of others; I just got started...let me wander around the house.

On the other hand, kudos to Folger's coffee which sells ground coffee in great reusable plastic containers with an easy to open seal.

CD's and DVD's

Depending on what's inside the package, I've had fairly good luck with fire. Seriously. Melt the top and side edges off (the ones that are so hard you couldn't cut them with a diamond-edged blade), then you can cut the rest of it with scissors. Usually.

Yesterday I had snacks in the car, since I was driving over a thousand miles and didn't want to take time to stop for meals. I tried to open a package of trail mix, but had to wait until my next rest stop so I could saw at it with my work knife, and even then the plastic wouldn't give and ended up an unholy mess.

Clamshell packaging is the worst.

http://www.clamshell-packaging.com/

Oscar Mayer bologna in its peel apart packaging. At times I don't think I'll be able to pull it apart; must be impossible for someone with arthritis.

Anything that's packed in a blister pack. You have to litterally cut it with a serrated knife. Scissors do nt work.
Mike

My eyesight is so bad, I have a hard time lining up the arrow on any med bottle.
I have to get my cheaters out if I want to take a friggin aspirin.

quote:

Originally posted by felix4067

Depending on what's inside the package, I've had fairly good luck with fire. Seriously. Melt the top and side edges off (the ones that are so hard you couldn't cut them with a diamond-edged blade), then you can cut the rest of it with scissors. Usually.

Yesterday I had snacks in the car, since I was driving over a thousand miles and didn't want to take time to stop for meals. I tried to open a package of trail mix, but had to wait until my next rest stop so I could saw at it with my work knife, and even then the plastic wouldn't give and ended up an unholy mess.

Open flames and plastic sound like a combination destined for disaster to me.

John

quote:

Originally posted by Doatsie82

CD's and DVD's

Someone invented a little glide type razor that fits perfectly over the jewel cases. One swipe and Walla it's opened.
I keep mine where I stack my cds. Chow Jim

quote:

Originally posted by John A

Open flames and plastic sound like a combination destined for disaster to me.

John

It ain't that bad. You just have to watch what you're doing, and I don't recommend doing it while drinking.

The plastic film over Country Crock mac and cheese. It's not something I buy regularly, just occassionally because I don't like eating a lot of mac and cheese, but my wife likes it as a compfort food. So, instead of making a batch just for her, I get the Coutry Crock. She likes it and it satisfies her craving. But, damn, getting the plastic off that is sealed beneath the lid is friggin impossible. You can cut it open, but the plastice never lets its grip go from the rim.

Roosey said:

"My eyesight is so bad, I have a hard time lining up the arrow on any med bottle. I have to get my cheaters out if I want to take a friggin aspirin."

Boy am I ever with you on this one...what's doubly infuriating is when they put arthritis medicine in a bottle that your arthritic fingers can't get the cap off of. And ditto to the people who commented on the blister packs and the packs where you're supposed to pull the plastic apart. Those products need to come with a stick of dynamite. But then again, you probably couldn't get it out of the package to light it.

Medicines in those damn blister packs. I have a capsule that comes in those and I end up using a knife to open them because I have murdered the capsule inside the blister pack before.

As for prescriptions - I always ask for NON CHILD PROOF LIDS, easy to open. I got my mother asking for them too. With her arthritis it makes things so much easier for her to open.

Blister packaging -

I use the following four items as a "toolkit" to open packages or products. I've used the first three items for thirty years without injury, and added the JarKey about 10 years ago.

1. Wiss compound action aviation snips. They are produced today by Cooper Industries and sold under the Wiss Metalmaster brand. These are essential for opening blister packs and clamshells. Cooper thankfully has kept the price down on these, and you can get one for about $20.

2. Stanley "Classic 99" retractible utility knife AKA box cutter. Stanley makes a variety of retractible utility knives today. Useful for cutting plastic film.

3. A Wing Corkscrew wine bottle opener. I still use this to open jars under vacuum if the JarKey (below) does not fit. I bring the wings all the way up to the top next to the handle on the corkscrew, then ram the corkscrew into the metal lid of the jar. It releases the vacuum and allows unscrewing the cap.

4. Brix Design's JarKey. This device lifts an edge of a lid on a jar under vacuum, making it easy to remove the lid after breaking the vacuum. Brix Designs makes a variety of gadgets to open "impossible to open products":
http://www.brixdesign.dk/international/brix.htm

As for as medications in blister packs, I'd buy them in a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist to transfer the contents to a bottle without a childproof cap.

quote:

Originally posted by David_NYC

I use the following four items as a "toolkit" to open packages or products. I've used the first three items for thirty years without injury, and added the JarKey about 10 years ago.

1. Wiss compound action aviation snips. They are produced today by Cooper Industries and sold under the Wiss Metalmaster brand. These are essential for opening blister packs and clamshells. Cooper thankfully has kept the price down on these, and you can get one for about $20.

2. Stanley "Classic 99" retractible utility knife AKA box cutter. Stanley makes a variety of retractible utility knives today. Useful for cutting plastic film.

3. A Wing Corkscrew wine bottle opener. I still use this to open jars under vacuum if the JarKey (below) does not fit. I bring the wings all the way up to the top next to the handle on the corkscrew, then ram the corkscrew into the metal lid of the jar. It releases the vacuum and allows unscrewing the cap.

4. Brix Design's JarKey. This device lifts an edge of a lid on a jar under vacuum, making it easy to remove the lid after breaking the vacuum. Brix Designs makes a variety of gadgets to open "impossible to open products":
http://www.brixdesign.dk/international/brix.htm

As for as medications in blister packs, I'd buy them in a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist to transfer the contents to a bottle without a childproof cap.

David -

I am impressed with the thoroughness of your research, and grateful for the link to brixdesign, as well as your suggestion about blister pack meds. Thank you!

Since I have absolutely no hand strength whatsoever, everything is hard for me to open, even sugar packets...
What bugs me is that this is supposed 'theft deterrent' packaging. I think we should start cutting off hands of thieves, posting photos in stores and generally cracking down on theft.
Sorry I'm cranky, BUT...

Although not something you open,this is along the same line of impossible missions: the last box of checks I got will not tear off without ripping the check. I have to keep a utility knife next to the checkbook.

I also have difficulty opening the packages. I keep a knife and a scissor handy. This most of the time works. The hard plastic stuff I get with razors and other things are the most difficult. I am glad that I have a heavy duty scissors to get the job done.

Paul E. Smith
knoxville, TN

I've been dressing some small sutures for my Wife for the past week and realized that bandage packaging has gotten worse. Used to be you'd pull off the folded tab and there was a fine string only a child's hand could grasp, then you'd pull that down and half the time it pulled out instead of tearing the envelope along the side. But at least the glassine packaging tore.

Then they switched to the tear-apart envenlope with the top tab unsealed, ready to go. The name brand ones we've encountered frequently won't separate and you have to tear the package down the side.

Even worse, the Walgreens brand we have doesn't even have an unsealed end. You need to grasp the envelope in one hand and try to rip it with the other, but it's sealed to the bandage, so you always end up ripping part of it.

There is a small keychain razor knife that should be useful. Hand strenth loss is not one of my problems...enought other problems are...but this would seem to somewhat of a problem solver. They usually are displayed as an inpulse item at hardware and big box stores.

this cuts open anything:
http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=10973#

a handy dandy tool that I keep in the kitchen, instead of the tool room.

My daughter's toys. They will come in a box with 25 metal screw ties that are pushed through to the back. Then the ends are taped down. When she gets something new it will take us a half hour just to unpack the crazy things.